Crew Dragon Capsule From SpaceX Capped Its Test Flight In Success

Space X’s Crew Dragon just completed its 6-day journey to the ISS and completed successfully its very first voyage by landing in the Atlantic Ocean on the 8th of March.

On board of the Crew Dragon in its Demo-1 mission is nothing but a dummy named Ripley along with an array of sensors SpaceX used to monitor and gather information on the trip. This success is hoped to pave the way for another journey with human astronauts to be launched this summer.

David Saint-Jacques, a Canadian astronaut expressed his gratitude to be one of the observers of this huge milestone in a conversation with Mike Pence, the US Vice President, and Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s Administrator. He also said that this Demo-1 opened a new era for space travel.

Demo-1’s Success

Since 2011, there has not been any launch for the US’s astronauts on a probe manufactured locally. So far, the Atlantis was the last spacecraft and its final mission also capped the NASA’s space shuttle program.

From then on, the US and other nations that have business on the ISS had been relying on the Soyuz spacecraft of Russia for a lift. The probe could carry with it 3 passengers, and each seat comes at a price of around $80 million.

However, the US did not intend to cooperate with Russia for long. This arrangement was a temporary plan until the US can make its own probe. In 2014, NASA worked with both SpaceX and Boeing to develop replacements for hitch-hiking the Soyuz. The final candidates are SpaceX with a $2.6 billion contract and Boeing with a $4.2 billion to work on the CST-100 Starliner.

NASA said that they expected to at least one of the two capsules to be ready to use before 2018. However, it is obvious that this initial plan did turn out nicely. Now, with the Demo-1’s success, it is obvious that SpaceX is outpacing its competitor.

In June, the Crew Dragon is scheduled to perform another test which is to show how the capsule will do in the case of an emergency. If things go according to plan, another launch carrying human called Demo-2 will take place in June.

However, Boeing has its chance to show off too with a similar schedule that occurs in April, May, and August.

Space Travel Goes Commercial

Crew Dragon and Starliner can do more than just restoring the US’s pride.

According to Jim Bridenstine, the probe coupled with a few revolutions will make space travel less costly therefore increasing the number of trips to low-Earth orbit and even farther.

He projected that these commercial probes like the Crew Dragon will be on the market for customers like NASA. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s CEO also shared this same vision when he said that these probes would take tourists in the near future.

With other private companies as subcontractors, now NASA can focus its resource and effort on getting astronauts to the Moon and Mars. Crew Dragon’s Demo-1 is a step in a grander plan but it is a breakthrough in the US’s space history.

Eric Stallmer of Commercial Spaceflight Federation confirmed this statement of Jim Bridenstine by saying that the success of Demo-1 would make a long-lasting impact on the industry forever. It heralded a wealth of opportunities in the future and we just had to wait for a few more months for that to happen.

The Doubt

The Crew Dragon’s Demo-1 is indeed a success but not everyone is optimistic about this.

John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, is one of those who were not so impressed by this achievement. He said he did not deny that what the Demo-1 achieved was “exciting” but flying to ISS and back was not something new. In fact, the US was able to do a similar thing half a decade ago.

He also expressed his doubt that the Crew Dragon, funded by NASA, could be a probe for commercial purpose. Logsdon thought that the widespread impression that Demo-1 made all came down to the fact that it was a creation of SpaceX, a company everyone associated with Elon Musk so while the success gave people hope, it did not actually create a new path to do business.