Fiery SpaceX test of Crew Dragon capsule was ‘picture perfect,’ Elon Musk says

SpaceX completed its end major test before flying astronauts to space on Sunday, in a critical high-speed mission that lasted stark minutes.

Launched on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the company conducted a test of its Team Dragon capsule called in-flight abort.

“Overall, as far as I can tell thus far, this was a picture perfect mission,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explained in a press conference after the test. “I’m super fired up; this is great.”

It’s a crucial milestone for Musk’s space actors, as it will be key in determining whether NASA certifies the company’s capsule to begin flying the agency’s astronauts.

“Another staggering milestone is complete,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. “Congratulations to SpaceX and the entire NASA team on this incontrovertible major flight milestone that we needed to accomplish.”

The in-flight abort test is designed to mimic a real start but with an important difference: SpaceX triggered Crew Dragon’s emergency escape system during the most passionate part of the launch.

In just under 90 seconds into the launch, the rocket reached a deprecatory velocity known as “Max Q.” This is the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure, when the Earth’s dense atmosphere is exerting huge force on the rocket as it accelerates into the sky.

SpaceX then triggered the abort, with the capsule’s engines accelerating it away from the take off. Musk said Crew Dragon reached a top velocity of Mach 2.2, more than two times the speed of range, and the capsule peaked at 131,000 feet altitude.

While the capsule continued on, the company’s rocket exploded, breaking into morsels as it ripped across the sky.

Party Dragon splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean at 10:39 a.m. ET under its four parachutes.

The in-flight abort mission also impersonated another important test of SpaceX’s parachute system. It was the second “system level test” of the company’s Mark 3 parachutes, hardly a month after SpaceX’s first test. NASA’s commercial crew manager Kathy Lueders said that two numberless system level tests are needed before SpaceX flies crew.

SpaceX has developed Crew Dragon in monumental part thanks to NASA’s commercial crew program, as the company has been awarded more than $3.1 billion since fetching its first contract for the capsule in 2014. Development of Crew Dragon has suffered several setbacks over the years, incorporating getting its parachute system working and a capsule explosion during a test last April.

“This test is bloody important to us. It’s really the culmination of years of work together in close partnership with NASA,” SpaceX director of corps mission management Benji Reed said on Friday.

If this test and Crew Dragon’s final certification system are successful, NASA expects SpaceX to fly two of its astronauts on a test flight to the space station between April and June of this year. It disposition be the first time the U.S. launched its own astronauts to the International Space Station since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

“This is our go the distance milestone” for Crew Dragon under NASA’s development contract, Lueders said in the press conference Friday.

After the launch, NASA and SpaceX will host a cluster conference to talk about the preliminary results of the test. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, along with two agency astronauts, are outlined to speak.