SpaceX is conducting a lot of tests recently, for example, about a week ago it tried the floating barge landing test for its reusable Falcon 9 rocket but didn’t manage to achieve the results it wanted to yet again. However the hover test for the Dragon capsule that’s going to ferry astronauts up to space was a success, and it turns out that the parachute test passed with flying colors as well. These parachutes will help safely bring back astronauts to Earth.
SpaceX is yet to launch a crewed mission to space even though it has been running supply missions for NASA since 2012, it’s even delivering satellites for other clients. NASA has awarded SpaceX with a crewed mission and the company hopes to make that run in the next few years. It’s now involved in the tedious testing of its Dragon spacecraft that will be used for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station.
Instead of using an actual Dragon capsule in this test the company tied a huge weight with its parachutes and then had it dropped for several thousand feet up in the air from a C-130 aircraft. All four parachutes properly deployed and made this test a success.
When the first crewed mission is run and astronauts are brought back to the Earth safely via the Dragon crew capsule initially the plan is to bring down the capsule in the ocean, making it the first astronaut landing in the ocean since the late 1970s. SpaceX is expected to go ahead with its crewed mission either late next year or early 2018.
Filed in . Read more about NASA, Space and Spacex. Source: blogs.nasa.gov