Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SpaceX) Dragon space capsule reached a top speed of 345 mph May 6 during its uncrewed pad abort test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., company founder and CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter.
SpaceX said in a May 4 press release it expected Dragon to accelerate from 0 to nearly 100 mph in one second. Musk said on Twitter Dragon went from zero to 100 mph in 1.2 seconds. He later said Dragon reached an apogee of 1,187 meters, landed 1,202 meters from the launch pad and had a velocity of 155 meters per second.
The company expected Dragon to reach an apogee of 1,500 meters and land about 2,200 meters, or 1.4 miles, downrange of the launch pad. SpaceX expected Dragon to travel over one mile in the first 20 seconds. The company wanted to obtain accurate trajectory data for both maximum altitude as well as distance downrange in addition to the impact of various internal and external factors to Dragon to help ensure safe conditions for crew transport.
SpaceX said the pad abort test is considered Dragon’s first critical flight test, with a goal of capturing as much data as possible. The company eventually wants to use Dragon to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017 as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).
Once Dragon appeared to reach apogee in a YouTube video provided by the company, it jettisoned its trunk and deployed drogues. Dragon then deployed three larger parachutes shortly later. It reached the Atlantic Ocean about 1 min, 31 seconds after liftoff.
Taylor said Dragon’s pad abort test, as SpaceX predicted May 4, was powered by eight SuperDraco engines, which were built into the walls of Dragon. The SuperDracos are capable of producing 12,000 pounds of axial thrust in under one second.
The pad abort test, which Taylor called successful, was a trial run for Dragon’s launch abort system, which is designed to quickly get a crew and spacecraft away from a rocket in the event of potential failure. SpaceX’s launch abort system is integrated directly into the spacecraft, meaning Dragon’s crew will have launch escape capability form the launch pad all the way to orbit. Previous launch abort systems have been powered by a rocket tower mounted on top of the spacecraft, which SpaceX said only worked well when the spacecraft was on the launch pad and a few minutes into ascent.
SpaceX on May 4 said it wanted to learn four important pieces of data from the May 6 pad abort test. The company wanted to demonstrate proper sequencing of the pad abort timeline because of several critical commands that need to be executed in very short periods of time. SpaceX also wanted to demonstrate the ability of the eight SuperDraco engines to respond in real time to incoming data to ensure Dragon stays on the appropriate course.
The company wanted to obtain accurate data from various internal and external factors during the pad abort test to help ensure safe conditions for crew transport. Taylor said SpaceX data for these categories is still coming in and being analyzed and that the company hopes to share more once analysis is complete.
Taylor said SpaceX expects to conduct an in-flight abort test from a live rocket later this year.