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Boeing also successfully completed a test of the emergency rescue system for its Starliner capsule. However, the November attempt was far less demanding and risky and was not carried out by an actual flying missile in the air.
The importance of the astronaut capsule rescue systems only became clear in October 2018. At that time, the Russian Soyuz mission MS-10 started with a two-man crew from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. After about two minutes of flight, the capsule’s rescue system was triggered at a height of roughly 50 kilometers because of a technical failure on the missile.
The separated capsule then flew to a height of 93 kilometers and landed on a parachute almost 20 minutes after takeoff. However, the physical strain on the crew was very high and reached six to seven times the acceleration due to gravity. So they were pressed into the seats with up to seven times their own body weight.
In the now successful test of the SpaceX capsule’s rescue system, the load should be a maximum of four times, it was said in advance. So a more comfortable rescue than the Russians.
Debris is pounding off the coast of Florida on the Atlantic
The explosion of the Falcon rocket resulted in a shower of rubble, which pounded roughly 20 kilometers off the coast of Florida on the Atlantic. Ships commissioned by SpaceX collected larger fragments. The second stage of the rocket plunged into the sea intact and there was another fireball.
Elon Musk, the founder of the SpaceX space company, said in a press conference after the mission confident about an early manned flight. “The hardware” would be available at the end of February. However, the many data from the rescue test would still have to be analyzed. Parachute tests are also pending. Therefore, the start is expected in the second quarter.
NASA boss Jim Bridenstine congratulated SpaceX on the test success. This would put the US on the threshold of launching Americans from US soil again with a US rocket. However, he avoided naming an exact start date. This also depends on how long the first US crew from a US capsule should stay in the space station. The NASA boss emphasized that he is betting on competition and competition for manned flights into space. The United States should never again happen to be dependent on just one launch system, like the space shuttle.
When asked a journalist whether the astronauts in a capsule could have been saved if they hadn’t blown off when the rocket exploded, he said Musk was optimistic. The rescue system is also designed for this scenario. “It would have blown out of the fireball,” he said.
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