This is the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
It is designed to take crews to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Crew Program Contract
Crew Dragon has already completed an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station.
But before it can take astronauts to orbit, SpaceX has to demonstrate Dragon's ability
to escape a failure of the Falcon 9 booster during launch.
Let's take a step back.
In order to get to orbit, the Dragon spacecraft takes a ride on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster.
Falcon 9 has proven itself over many years of service carrying satellite payloads to orbit.
Falcon 9 has been approved for human spaceflight, but that doesn't mean that unforeseen failures
can't happen.
After all, it's literally rocket science.
Dragon is fitted with an abort system, consisting of these 4 thruster pods, each contains 2
Super Draco engines.
Their job is to fire and pull the capsule to safety should anything go wrong with the
Falcon 9 rocket beneath the Dragon.
This system has already been tested on the ground, but it's yet to be tested in flight
during a Falcon 9 launch.
This is the job of the upcoming in flight abort test.
Dragon will launch on top of a standard Falcon 9 booster that's been used on previous satellite
launch missions.
This Falcon 9 won't make its way to space and will be destroyed in flight so the only
modifications to it will be cost-saving ones, which will include removing of the landing
legs, grid fins and removing the second stage engine.
The Falcon 9 will be launching from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center and everything
will proceed just like a normal Dragon launch heading to the International Space Station.
But things will change shortly after launch when the rocket reaches Max Q. Max Q is the
rocketry term for the point where the largest forces from the air are being pushed against
the rocket.
Therefore, this makes Max-Q the ultimate stress test for Dragon's launch abort system.
To simulate a failure of the Falcon 9 booster, the Falcon 9 will shutdown all its engines.
If everything goes right, Dragon's automatic safety system will detect this and immediately
trigger an in-flight abort, firing up the Super Draco thrusters and separating from
the supposedly stricken Falcon 9.
Once the abort system has fired, the Falcon 9 no longer has that nice smooth aerodynamic
nose on top of it that the Dragon provided, and so aerodynamic forces will break apart
the Falcon 9.
With Super Draco thrusters pulling Dragon away, Dragon will be safe from all the carnage
left behind it.
Once the Super Draco thrusters stop firing, Dragon will continue to coast upwards, orient
itself for descent and eventually make a parachute landing in the ocean.
This launch abort capability is the ultimate line of defence for crews onboard future Dragon
flights.
In a real-world emergency, if the booster were to explode or break apart it would snap
an electrical connect running down the length of the rocket, once Dragon detected that this connection
was broken it trigger the abort system.
There's no doubt that the Dragon in-flight abort test will be super awesome to watch.
And assuming it's successful hopefully, it won't be too long until we see crews flying
on Dragon.
That's it for this video.
Consider supporting me on Patreon and I'll catch you in the next video.