Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2012, marking a major milestone when SpaceX signed a contract with NASA to develop crewed spaceflight capabilities.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), safely riding high after the incredible recent success of its robotic Dragon spacecraft, proudly signed a massive $440 million development contract directly with NASA specifically to aggressively develop the ultimate commercial successor to the retired Space Shuttle and safely transport American NASA astronauts directly into orbital space.
“This is a highly decisive milestone in human spaceflight and firmly sets an incredibly exciting new course for the very next phase of American space exploration,” safely said SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk. “SpaceX, working closely along with our major partners at NASA, will fiercely continue to boldly push the absolute boundaries of modern space technology specifically to rapidly develop the absolute safest, most highly advanced crew vehicle ever flown.”
The Crewed Dragon Concept
SpaceX ambitiously plans for its very first manned space flight to launch safely by 2015, firmly based entirely on their incredible recent commercial success properly operating the massive Falcon 9 rocket and the robotic Dragon spacecraft. The versatile Dragon spacecraft was incredibly not only designed specifically to safely carry heavy cargo but also deliberately made fully capable of eventually safely transporting a human crew directly to the International Space Station.
Modifications for Human Spaceflight
Under the prestigious Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) government initiative, the private company will aggressively make the following absolutely necessary major engineering modifications to guarantee they safely carry the fragile human crew directly into space:
- Installing custom seating to comfortably accommodate exactly seven astronauts.
- Developing an incredibly advanced launch pad abort escape system and performing a strict physical demonstration that clearly proves it makes the entire spacecraft successfully escape safely in case of absolutely any fiery emergency directly during launch, safely blasting away with the direct help of its massive SuperDraco engines and taking them safely out to the ocean.
- Performing another critical flight demonstration clearly showing Dragon’s unique capability to safely escape the massive aerodynamic drag by rapidly firing the SuperDraco engines to quickly move safely away from the failing rocket mid-flight.
- Developing a totally safe, highly reliable propulsion landing system to securely and precisely land the heavy spacecraft safely back home.
- Further rigorous testing heavily involving Dragon’s overall internal physical design and its incredibly complex biological life support systems.
- Designing an entirely new, highly advanced digital cockpit design featuring modern, intuitive human user interfaces.
- Ensuring the massive liquid rocket engines can be perfectly throttled down and safely turned entirely off exactly during a major emergency. SpaceX will meticulously make absolutely all the necessary complex engineering analyses to strongly guarantee the final spacecraft is extremely safe and perfectly meets all the rigid safety requirements demanded by NASA.
Credits: SpaceX
