CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – On Monday, April 30, 2012, Space
Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) conducted a static fire test of the
Falcon 9 rocket’s nine powerful Merlin engines in preparation for the
company’s upcoming launch. The static fire test fired the engines for two seconds at full power as scheduled.
The nine engine test took place at the company’s
Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
as part of a full launch dress rehearsal leading up to the second
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)
launch. During the rehearsal, SpaceX engineers ran through all
countdown processes as though it were launch day.
SpaceX will now conduct a thorough
review of all data as engineers make final preparations for the upcoming
launch, currently targeted for May 7. SpaceX plans to launch its
Dragon spacecraft into low-Earth orbit atop a Falcon
9 rocket. During the mission, Dragon’s sensors and flight systems will
be subject to a series of tests to determine if the vehicle is ready to
berth with the space station. If NASA decides Dragon is ready, the
vehicle will attach to the station and astronauts
will open Dragon’s hatch and unload the cargo on-board.
This will be the first attempt by a commercial
company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, a feat
previously performed by only a few governments. "Success is not
guaranteed," said Spacex spokesperson Kirstin Brost Grantham in an email. "If any aspect of the mission is not successful,
SpaceX will learn from the experience and try again."
It is also the second demonstration flight under
NASA’s program to develop commercial supply services to the
International Space Station. The first SpaceX COTS flight, in December
2010, made SpaceX the first commercial company in history
to send a spacecraft to orbit and return it safely to Earth. Once
SpaceX demonstrates the ability to carry cargo to the space station, it
will begin to fulfill its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract
for NASA for at least 12 missions to carry cargo
to and from the space station. The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon
spacecraft were designed to one day carry astronauts; both the COTS and
CRS missions will yield valuable flight experience toward this goal.
