It's finally here, the highly anticipated SpaceX in flight abort test is scheduled
for Saturday but what should we expect? we're talking about that coming up!
Hey guys, Tory here from Overlook Horizon. If you're new to the channel we fly high
altitude weather balloon flights to the edge of space and back and along the way
we talk about space, science and technology so if that's some you're
interested in, consider subscribing. We've been talking about this for over a year
now but it appears that SpaceX is finally ready for a major demonstration
this weekend. The in-flight abort test is a major demonstration for a few reasons
but mainly because this is the final step before SpaceX starts putting
astronauts onboard their crew Dragon capsule. They already performed their pad
abort test that was back in 2015 and they've also got a demonstration mission
to the International Space Station and back that was uncrewed in March of last
year. In addition to that they've run a boatload of parachute tests to
demonstrate the safety of their parachutes and now they're finally ready
to do that last step before they get crew on board. Now you may be aware that
SpaceX has been preparing for this in flight abort test since last spring
when in the lead-up to that test flight the crew Dragon capsule suffered an
anomaly while they were testing the Super Draco engines on the ground. The
Super Draco engines are the abort motors that will pull the crew capsule to
safely in the event of an anomaly and that's what's being demonstrated in this
in-flight abort test and so after a thorough investigation, a little change
to their fueling system designs and some more testing of their Super Draco
engines they're finally ready to put this thing on a Falcon 9 rocket and let
it fly. Now if you're not up to speed on those design changes that they made to
the Crew Dragon capsule you can check out my video that I did on that I'll put
it somewhere up here there's also a link in the description. Now aside from the
fact that this is a major step for SpaceX to get astronauts onboard their
capsule this flight in particular is also a rare and unique opportunity for
the general public to see SpaceX intentionally destroy one of their
rockets. So here's what's gonna happen this is an uncrewed test flight but the
preparations for liftoff will proceed as if there were crew on board. Although this is
uncrewed we may actually see the return of an anthropomorphic test dummy like
Ripley that was on board the DM-1 mission back in March or maybe we'll see
the return of that lovable earth plush which I call Space Kirby. Approximately
88 seconds after liftoff is when the magic happens.
When this baby hits 88
miles per hour you're gonna see some serious sh-
It's at this point that the
Falcon 9 rocket will reach the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure on the
vehicle known as Max Q. When the vehicle reaches max Q the Falcon 9 will command
its engines to shut down at that point the Crew Dragon capsule will initiate
its abort sequence pulling the capsule away from the Falcon 9 booster using
those Super Draco engines, turning around, dropping the trunk and then parachuting
safely into the ocean now once the Crew Dragon capsule separates from the Falcon 9
booster that booster is expected to become highly unstable because it no
longer has the aerodynamic protection from the Crew Dragon capsule and so the
Falcon 9 booster is expected to break up due to those aerodynamic forces on the
booster itself and will be gone forever. Now SpaceX is not expected to use their
flight termination system or AFTS so the chances of a huge fireball are
relatively low, but I don't think anybody really knows exactly what's gonna happen
when this whole event goes down. Personally I'm anticipating something
that looks a little bit closer to like the 2015 CRS-7 anomaly which saw the
breakup of the Falcon 9 rocket after a COPV failure or something like the 1965
Little Joe II flight which was an abort test but it was triggered early when the
Little Joe rocket started rolling uncontrollably causing an early abort
and breakup of the Little Joe vehicle. Either way there's no chance of recovery
for this Falcon 9 booster because SpaceX has taken off the grid fins and the
landing legs so it's not landing who knows maybe it just does a giant belly
flop into the ocean. The beautiful thing about all of this is that because it's
only 88 seconds after liftoff is that all of these events will happen
relatively close to shore and there are tons of photographers and videographers
that are heading to Cape Canaveral now to capture all of the excitement.
88 MILES PER HOUR!!!!!!!!!
This is not something you're gonna want to miss so join me live at about 7:15 a.m.
Eastern Time on Saturday the 18th assuming it doesn't get delayed
and hopefully we'll all see SpaceX take one step closer to the finish line
for launching American astronauts, on American Rockets, from American soil.
and I see you mouthing the words because I'm gonna keep saying it.
Thanks for watching hopefully I'll see you on Saturday morning. See ya!