BRENT: A Space Exploration Technologies’ passenger spaceship made a quick debut test flight on Wednesday, shooting itself off a Florida launch pad to demonstrate a key emergency escape system.
The 6 metre tall Dragon capsule, a modified version of the spacecraft that flies cargo to the International Space Station, fired up its eight, side-mounted thruster engines at 9am Washington timeto catapult itself nearly 1.6 km up and over the Atlantic Ocean.
The flight ended less than two minutes later with the capsule’s parachute splash-down about 2.6 km east of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch site.
The purpose of the test was to demonstrate an escape system to carry the capsule to safety in case of a fire or accident during launch. SpaceX plans to refly the capsule later this year aboard a Falcon 9 rocket to test an abort maneuover at supersonic speed and high altitude.
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