Russia has a manned space program. China has a manned space program. But for almost a decade, the United States has not had a manned space program. Early on Saturday morning, NASA took a major step toward changing that situation. In the pre-dawn hours, attention turned again to historic pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center—the site from which both Apollo and Shuttle missions were launched—as a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the first Crew Dragon capsule into orbit in a test of what could be the first system to restore America’s manned space program.
At 2:49 AM Eastern Time, the “Demo-1” flight of SpaceX Dragon capsule and man-rated Falcon 9 roared away from 39-A in an incredibly beautiful night launch. Despite a thunderstorm crackling in the distance, the stars were visible overhead and the Falcon 9 went up on scheduled and apparently without a hitch. The launch appeared to be successful on every point, as the rocket passed through main engine cut-off, second stage start, and deployment of Dragon to space. The capsule will dock with the International Space Station on Sunday.
The last space shuttle roared away from 39-A in the summer of 2011. Since then, no American rocket has carried a human into space. Every astronaut who has visited the International Space Station since that date, has done so on a Soyuz rocket, with a hefty per-seat cost going to Russia. Since the last shuttle flew, Russia has sent human beings into space 31 times. China has staged three manned missions and launched their own space station. But no manned rocket has left from any US facility.
America’s return to space is dependent on a program known as “Commercial Crew.” Under this program, NASA isn’t actually building the new human-carrying craft, but contracting with private companies, just as it has done in providing contracts to supply cargo flights to the ISS. At present, two companies—Boeing and SpaceX—have vehicles which have reached the almost ready to go stage. For Boeing, it’s the Starliner, which will fly on top of the Atlas V and eventually United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan booster. For SpaceX it’s Crew Dragon, which flies on top of SpaceX’s game-changing Falcon 9.
And that made Saturday’s flight hugely important and the results a tremendous relief for SpaceX, NASA, and everyone hoping that human spaceflight doesn’t just return to the United States, but expand in ways that haven’t been previously possible.
While in some ways, both Dragon and Starliner may seem like throwbacks—a generation after the space shuttle, both are capsules that splash down ala Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo—but unlike those previous craft, these capsules are designed to be reused again and again. As SpaceX has already demonstrated over three dozen times, it can also re-fly its Falcon 9 boosters. So while Crew Dragon may seem old, it demonstrates the primary goal of the Commercial Crew program; it doesn’t just go to space, it does so at a much lower cost than previous man-rated systems.
The purpose of the Commercial Crew program isn’t just to provide a taxi service to the ISS, but to genuinely move manned spaceflight out of the realm of something only governments can do, and into the space of something that can be done by companies, the same transition that’s already been made for launching unmanned satellites. In a question and answer session on Saturday, NASA director Jim Bridenstine emphasized that NASA isn’t the customer for Dragon. It’s one of the customers. They, and certainly SpaceX, are hopeful that other governments, companies, and individuals will be buying their own flights on the commercial crew vehicles, and that the success of these vehicles leads to more craft with a variety of sizes, capabilities, and designs.
Up next for Dragon is an in-flight abort test, in which the capsule will detach from the booster right at the most critical point of the flight — simulating exactly the kind of problem that recently saw an American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut get a short and all too thrilling ride on a Soyuz. That flight will be conducted with same booster that recently launched an Israeli lander to the Moon. The demands of that flight put the booster into a demanding, high-temperature return that left it trailing sparks of flaming metal as it landed in February, but even with that tough treatment, the Falcon 9 is apparently going to fly again. The abort test is expected to end with the loss of the booster … though SpaceX has hinted there might be a surprise in store.
The first manned flight of Dragon is currently targeted for July, and on Friday Bridenstine expressed confidence that NASA and SpaceX would be looking at a manned launch very close to that projected date. The astronauts who will fly on the “Demo-2” flight and the first operational flight of Dragon have already been selected, and were also on-hand Friday afternoon to express their excitement and talk about their view of the new program.
While the astronauts spoke, behind them was the familiar giant countdown clock that dominates the lawn across from NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building. And across a narrow stretch of water, Pad 39-A and the Dragon capsule loomed. The Falcon 9 might lack the hulking presence of a Saturn V, or the iconic shape of a shuttle, but it was absolutely compelling on Friday — like a signpost on a road that’s been slow to travel, but which might be getting smoother.