Space Life Magazine

What is SpaceX’s Dragon

In 2005 NASA established a program referred to as COTS, (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services.) COTS purpose was to see if commercial industries could develop and implement a shuttle type program to supply the ISS, much as a delivery service would. From this competition rose Space Exploration Technologies, otherwise known as SpaceX. This company has become famous for the development of the Falcon series rockets, and the Dragon cargo and crew capsule.

Founded in 2002, SpaceX has developed the Falcon series rockets from the ground, up with the intent purpose of carrying the Dragon capsules into orbit. Using the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 heavy they will be able to achieve any earth orbit. SpaceX designed the booster rockets so that they be recovered and reused, a first for any company. The Falcon series rockets use Merlin engines developed by SpaceX, with the Falcon 9 heavy being able to heft 12,000 kilos to geostationary orbit using 2 extra Falcons as strap-on boosters. NASA has accepted and approved the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon 9 heavy for future ISS resupply missions.

The Dragon is a vehicle designed for the transportation of cargo and astronauts to and from the ISS and geostationary orbit. This was originally built to present a reusable solution to cargo and crew issues for the ISS, but the platform is considered an excellent vehicle for scientific testing and demonstration uses. The Dragon has on-board computers that allow for remotely controlled docking and flight, there is also a manual override for this, on-board the Dragon. The dragon has a payload capacity of 490 cubic feet in an unpressurized environment, and 245 cubic feet with a pressurized cabin.

Other design innovations have been included on the Dragon to allow it to be used as a multi-purpose vehicle. Things such as the cargo and crewed configurations are very similar to each other, making the transition from one to the other easily accomplished, and a parachute and water landing mechanism. These features make the Dragon very reusable. There is a docking hatch that will mate with the ISS, and solar panels for recharging on-board batteries and lab experiments. The Dragon has a 7 person capacity, and provides a little room to move around the cabin.

With the Falcon rockets being ready to launch, the one hurdle for SpaceX to jump is the test flights for the Dragon. COTS demands that the Dragon perform successfully on three separate missions to complete the first phase of the program. The three missions are: one 5 hour mission to demonstrate maneuverability, transmit data, reentry, and recovery; one 5 day mission that will have a 10 km fly-by of the ISS, the ISS crew will then send commands to the Dragon, then the capsule will fly away to perform tests and then reentry/recovery; the final flight will be an actual cargo mission with mating to the ISS. These mission are scheduled sometime in February, 2010, but exact mission dates are not available on their websites. One company spokesperson made the statement that the date could be later due to first launch woes.

With the above in mind, SpaceX and NASA have managed to collaborate to get a few training sessions in, recently. Tracy Dyson, Shannon Walker, and Douglas Wheelock are all scheduled to be present on the ISS, so received training concerning the cargo design of the Dragon. The training included controlling the vehicle, docking, unloading, etc. Their training was completed in October 2009, and SpaceX has a Falcon 9 launch sometime in December 2009, exact date for this has yet to be announced, also.

Tags: Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, Dragon, Dragon spacecraft, spacex, spacex dragon

Categories: Spacecraft