SpaceX and NASA met April 16 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for a Flight Readiness Review ahead of SpaceX’s upcoming Dragon spacecraft's demonstration flight to the International Space Station.
The meeting, a standard part of the pre-launch process, confirmed the test flight is on-track for an April 30 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
SpaceX’s Dragon will be the first spacecraft operated by a commercial company to dock with and supply the ISS.
The Dragon spacecraft will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
"Everything looks good heading to the April 30 launch date," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations.
As well being the first privately-operated spacecraft to dock with the ISS, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will also be the first American crew-carrying spacecraft to use deployable solar arrays as its main power source.
Although unmanned on its first deployment, Dragon is intended to function as a crew transport vehicle and will be able to carry up to seven astronauts.
If the unmanned test flight is successful, manned flights are scheduled to begin within 3 years, according to Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX.
Artist’s impression of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launching the Dragon Spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX
After launching onboard SpaceX’s own launcher, Falcon 9, Dragon will conduct a series of checkout procedures designed to test and prove its systems before its rendezvous with the space station. The craft will perform a “fly-under” of the station at a distance of 1.5 miles (2.5 km) to check the operation of sensors and flight systems. Dragon will also have to demonstrate its ability to abort the rendezvous.
If all goes well, Dragon will approach the orbital laboratory and astronauts inside the station will grapple the vehicle with a robotic arm. The craft will then be docked with the station’s Harmony node (which serves as the ISS’s utility hub).
Artist’s impression of Dragon docked with the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX
At the end of the mission, the processes will be reversed and Dragon will return to Earth for recovery.
Thanks to its eight “SuperDraco” engines, Dragon is an exceptionally agile vehicle - able to manoeuver out of danger as well as land itself back on Earth (although early missions will splash down into the ocean).
The flight to the space station will be the third launch of the Falcon 9 rocket. After a successful debut launch in June 2010, the next Falcon 9 flew in December 2010 carrying a Dragon which made two orbits before splashing down as planned in the Pacific.
SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract from NASA under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to turn the delivery of astronaut crews and cargoes over to private enterprise. The contract is to send 12 missions to the ISS.