Thursday, November 14, 2019

SpaceX Completes Static Fire Testing For Crew Dragon

Hawthorne-based SpaceX appears to be back on track to launching astronauts into space, after successful completion of a static firing test of the Crew Dragon on Wednesday. According to NASA, the static fire engine testing come in advance of an in-flight launch escape demonstration, known as an In-Flight Abort Test, which is one of the requirements of using the Crew Dragon for NASA astronauts. The successful completion of the static fire is a welcome change for SpaceX, which destroyed its last Crew Dragon during static fire testing in April. That "anomaly" led to an explosion and destruction of the previously launched Crew Dragon. According to NASA, both SpaceX and the agency will review data from the test, perform detailed hardware inspections, before setting a target launch dat for the in-flight launch escape demonstration.