SpaceX has not had a very good week.
Initially things were looking good with the
successful launch of their Falcon Heavy, and
SpaceX even managed to land all three first-stage
boosters this time around.
However, a few days later the company announced
they had lost the center booster at sea after
a set of rough waves.
Then over the weekend Saturday (April 20),
A test version of SpaceX’s new astronaut
taxi, dubbed the Crew Dragon, suffered some
kind of an anomaly during an engine test at
the company’s facilities at Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station.
During a series of engine tests of SpaceX's
Dragon spacecraft, the vehicle experienced
what the company has characterized as an "anomaly."
The company was counting down toward a firing
of the Dragon's SuperDraco thrusters when
the vehicle exploded.
This is the same SpaceX Dragon spacecraft
that the company is developing and testing
to take astronauts into low Earth orbit.
It’s still unclear what caused the accident,
but almost certainly the repercussions are
going to push back plans to return human spaceflight
operations to American soil.
After the accident, large plumes of smoke
were seen emanating above "Landing Zone 1,"
where SpaceX conducted Saturday's engine tests,
indicating something had gone wrong.
Its look like, the orange plumes were the
result of between one and two tons of nitrogen
tetroxide—the oxidizer used by SpaceX Crew
Dragon's SuperDraco engines—burning at the
location.
In this video Engineering Today will discuss
this SpaceX Crew Dragon accident which may
dim NASA’s hope for a quick U.S. return
to launching its own astronauts into space
from US Soil.
What we know?
What we don't know? and where SpaceX goes
from here after this anomaly?
So, Let’s get into details.
On April 20, SpaceX conducted a routine launchpad
test of its Crew Dragon vehicle—specifically,
the same one that SpaceX successfully flew
for the first time in March.
During the uncrewed mission, the spacecraft
docked itself with the space station and then
returned to Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic
Ocean.
The spacecraft was being prepared for a launch
abort test this summer.
This crucial test will demonstrate that the
capsule is capable of keeping astronaut crews
safe should something go wrong during the
launch into orbit.
The system is similar to the emergency abort
system on the Soyuz rocket, which saved two
astronauts during a mishap last October.
During this test, the SpaceX Crew Dragon would
have launched from Florida on a Falcon 9 booster
and the spacecraft’s ability to fire its
newly designed SuperDraco engines to show
that the Dragon could pull itself safely away
from the rocket in case of a problem with
the booster before or during flight.
Now that SpaceX has lost this capsule, it
must find a substitute for this launch abort
test.
It is not clear whether it will fabricate
a boilerplate vehicle with a SuperDraco system
of eight thrusters, or re-purpose one of the
Dragons it has built for crewed flights to
the space station.
Either way, this is a significant materiel
loss for SpaceX.
According to eyewitness accounts, a huge wave
of smoke began billowing from the SpaceX Launchpad.
A video of the incident has now been taken
offline.
According to the leaked video, it showed the
company counting down towards the firing of
the Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco engines.
The anomaly occurred within the final 10 seconds
of the countdown, and it is not entirely clear
whether the SuperDraco engines had begun to
fire.
In its official statement released on Saturday,
SpaceX describes the accident as an “anomaly,”
and states: “Earlier today, SpaceX conducted
a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon
test vehicle on our test stand at Landing
Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The initial tests completed successfully but
the final test resulted in an anomaly on the
test stand.
Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety
standards and detecting anomalies like this
prior to flight are the main reasons why we
test.
Our teams are investigating and working closely
with our NASA partners.”
On NASA’s end, administrator Jim Bridenstine
said: “The NASA and SpaceX teams are assessing
the anomaly that occurred today during a part
of the Dragon SuperDraco Static Fire Test
at SpaceX Landing Zone 1 in Florida.
This is why we test.
We will learn, make the necessary adjustments
and safely move forward with our Commercial
Crew Program.”
It’s still not clear what exactly caused
the explosion and the extent of the damage
the SpaceX Crew Dragon received.
The company might have a lot of data about
the failure—this was a ground-based test,
so the vehicle was heavily instrumented—so
theoretically finding the root cause of the
accident should be more straightforward than
had a problem occurred during a real flight.
Though the destruction of the capsule is bad
news for the SpaceX’s plans to conduct its
summer launch abort test.
It will either need to use another Crew Dragon
vehicle for the test, or create some kind
of stripped-down substitute capsule capable
of demonstrating the SuperDraco thrusters.
During past accidents, SpaceX founder Elon
Musk has been fairly forthcoming about the
cause of the failures, and we hope for similar
transparency with this accident.
Since this vehicle will eventually carry humans
and is funded largely by NASA, transparency
is essential to ensuring public confidence
in the vehicle and company's processes.
Thankfully, there were no injuries caused
by the anomaly, which is now under control.
The last time we saw this dramatic of a ground-based
spacecraft failure was during the Apollo 1
fire in 1967, which cost three human lives.
Fortunately, no one was harmed during Saturday's
accident, which speaks well of SpaceX's safety
practices during such dynamic tests.
Had humans been injured or killed, it would
have undoubtedly complicated the already complex
road ahead for SpaceX.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is supposed
to be NASA’s answer to the cancellation
of the Space Shuttle program.
When the Shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA
lost its only way to transport humans into
space on American soil.
Since then, the agency has been relying on
Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts
to the ISS.
September was supposed to be the last time
American astronauts were to fly to the space
station from foreign soil.
NASA contracted SpaceX and Boeing to provide
an alternate way to send astronauts to space,
and both companies have spent the last few
years building and testing their own solutions.
In 2014, NASA awarded SpaceX $2.6 billion
and Boeing $4.2 billion to develop astronaut
capsules as part of the program to wean the
U.S. off its dependency on Russia to send
U.S. astronauts to space.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is currently in the
final stages of testing, preparing for a likely
first crewed launch later this year.
Before this accident, SpaceX and NASA had
been targeting early October for the first
crewed Dragon mission to the International
Space station.
This recent incident, however, might cause
a few delays and put NASA in a stressful situation:
Its options for carrying its astronauts into
space are once again grim.
If the first crewed Crew Dragon mission slips,
it might very well force NASA to procure even
more Soyuz mission seats, which last time
around cost $75 million apiece.
Earlier this year, NASA signed a deal with
Russia to purchase two additional Soyuz seats,
for one crew member each, which will ensure
a U.S. crew presence on the station through
September 2020.
The agency may well now be forced to return
to the Russians yet again to procure more
seats through the end of 2020.
space policy expert John Logsdon, who is a
professor emeritus at George Washington University’s
Elliott School of International Affairs and
a former member of the Columbia Accident Investigation
Board, said- “It’s still too early to
say how, exactly, the anomaly will affect
the program.
This is all early talk.
We do not know yet what actually happened,
so it is premature to speculate on the length
of delay for SpaceX or its severity,”.
He’s especially skeptical of reading into
what this accident might do for future Falcon
Heavy plans, saying it’s too early to postulate
until there’s more information.
“It’s hard to say that this is anything
but a negative,” he said.
“Test failures are part of the business.”
Logsdon points out that accidents are par
for the course when it comes to spaceflight.
Logsdon also stressed that such setbacks aren't
terribly surprising; they come with the territory
of developing a new crewed spacecraft.
"We've been down this road before," he said.
"You have to remind people that we had engines
blowing up during shuttle development, and,
clearly, we had the Apollo 1 fire."
That fire, which took place during a launch-rehearsal
test on Jan. 27, 1967, is one of NASA's biggest
tragedies.
It claimed the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom,
Ed White and Roger Chaffee.
The Apollo 1 fire, which delayed the program
with beneficial results, and also multiple
problems on the second Saturn V test launch,
which were quickly remedied.
During Space Shuttle development there were
multiple engine problems and problems with
the tiles, putting the program well behind
schedule.
So this incident has many precedents.”
Meanwhile, Boeing also is performing its tests
later than originally planned, moving the
first full test of its CST-100 Starliner capsule
to August instead of April.
The company plans to squeak its crewed test
into 2019 with a flight carrying astronauts
Chris Ferguson, Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann
in November.
“This incident should have no impact on
Boeing's schedule,” says Logsdon.
For now, we’ll have to wait and see what
the investigation behind the explosion tells
us, and whether SpaceX can mitigate the effects
this will have on its own—and NASA’s—human
exploration plans in the near future.
