A private company that won the initial bid to bring cargo and crews back and forth to the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX has been waiting for the go ahead to finally launch its Dragon capsule on a test mission to see if it can make the round trip successfully. Elon Musk and his company will get the chance to prove to the world that it can be done on April 30th.
To refresh your memories, SpaceX won the contract to replace the Space Shuttle by promising NASA that it could build a relatively cheap and reusable launch vehicle that would be capable of making several trips from the Earth to the ISS. The decade old company has spent the last three years and close to $1 billion developing the Dragon capsule, the first commercial space vehicle that will be allowed to dock with the famous space station.
While there have been several test flights including putting the Dragon into space and recovering it upon landing, the Dragon has never been to the ISS, making the April 30th flight a historic one. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is urging the public to remember that the flight is a trial run that has a lot of unknown variables that could go wrong. Hence the reason why there are going to be many different stages to the flight to allow NASA or the crew of the ISS to call off the mission if anything looks less than optimal.
During the 24 day mission, the Dragon will make a series of passes at the ISS to test communications and maneuverability. Having created a 200 meter safe-zone, NASA will be working with the ISS crew and SpaceX ground control to make sure that the computer controlled capsule can be controlled successfully, preventing a deadly collision with the orbiting station.
This isn’t a simple matter of just driving a rocketship up to Space Dock like you see in Star Trek, not when the station itself is travelling at 17,500mph! As illustrated in the image above, the crew will issue hold and retreat commands to the Dragon to stress test the emergency abort systems, then finally bring it within 10 meters so the stations claw-arm can grapple the Dragon and bring it into its dock for the unloading process.
While there will indeed be cargo inside the capsule when it arrives as well as when it returns to Earth, nothing of value that cannot be replaced will be aboard. Both NASA and SpaceX want to ensure that the docking process is perfected before risking important materials.
The launch taking place on April 30th is an important event in the history of human space flight. With NASA years away from another manned mission being launched, it’s companies like SpaceX that are going to have to fill the research and exploration void that has been left by the retiring of the noble Space Shuttle fleet.
Like many of you, I am hopeful that my dream of one day being in orbit or visiting the moon can become a reality with advancements in commercial space travel. Who knows, perhaps in ten or twenty years you can buy a round trip ticket to see the dark side of the moon complete with the legendary Pink Floyd album playing in the background.