Posted by Courtney E. HowardHAWTHORNE, Calif., 22 Oct. 2011.Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed the preliminary design review of its launch abort system designed for manned missions using the Dragon spacecraft. Company officials consider it a major step toward delivering an American-made successor to the Space Shuttle.
“Each milestone we complete brings the United States one step closer to once again having domestic human spaceflight capability,” says former astronaut Garrett Reisman, one of the two program leads of SpaceX’s DragonRider, which is adding capabilities to the Dragon spacecraft for astronaut carriage. Now that the Space Shuttle program has ended, the United States relies on the. By comparison, Dragon is designed to carry seven astronauts at a time for an unparalleled $20 million per seat; whereas using the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for astronaut transport costs as much as $62 million a seat.
SpaceX can now start building the hardware of its launch abort system. The SpaceX design incorporates the escape engines into the side walls of Dragon. The integrated abort system returns with the spacecraft, allowing for reuse and reductions in cost. The escape thrusters also provide Dragon with the ability to land with pinpoint accuracy on Earth or another planet.
NASA’s approval of the latest design review marks the fourth completed milestone under the agency’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. It also, according to a company representative, demonstrates the innovation that’s possible when NASA partners with the private sector.
