CARGO DRAGON –
The final Falcon launch will be done successfully in 2021. SpaceX succeeded in the CRS-24 mission on December 21, 2021, the last Falcon launch of the year. An advanced, flight-proven cargo Dragon spacecraft was attached atop the rocket from the Launch Complex 39A pad at Kennedy Space Center, and was also included.
In addition to being the last launch since then, this year was the 31st launch for SpaceX, the maximum launch record for SpaceX in less than a year. SpaceX launched booster B1069 for this 24th cargo resupply mission, SpaceX also achieved the milestone of landing the Falcon 9 booster for the 100th time.
Coincidentally, SpaceX marked its 100th landing of a Falcon booster on the same date that they marked their first Falcon 9 booster landing in 2015.
On 21 December 2015, SpaceX began a major Falcon 9 upgrade and also attempted to return the Falcon booster to the ground for the first time. It was booster B1019, which set SpaceX’s first landing milestone.
The Falcon 9 rocket was tasked with launching and deploying the Orbcom OG2 communications satellites into orbit. After booster separation, the B1019 successfully landed on the concrete landing pad, which suffered significant landing burn during the descent. This was the beginning of SpaceX’s making history.
Points-
- SpaceX’s Falcon 9 proved to be a staple in the space industry, with a huge potential to prove to be even more influential in times to come.
- It’s an outstanding performance for SpaceX as a private space company.
- While the landings of Falcon 9 boosters currently seem to be a regular occurrence, adding any number of new boosters, (as the B1069 booster has recently been inducted), certainly brings some tension.
Will it work as before or not?
The smooth ascent, separation, re-entry and landing of the new booster B1069 on the drone ship ‘Just Read the Instruction’ during SpaceX’s CRS-24 mission proves that the B1069’s maiden flight performed just as well as its predecessors. It is expected that the B1069 has a good capability to support ten or more flights.
SpaceX’s rockets have had good landing success rates, with almost as high a Falcon 9 launch success rate. According to some reports, SpaceX has completed about 57 launches in the last two years; And of those 57 launches, only four were missed. “Sarah Walker” Director of Dragon Mission Management at SpaceX, The milestone is, “One hundred and one big milestone.
What will be needed for the CRS-24 mission?
Also excited to see how many new boosters to produce over the years, and to develop our robust maintenance procedures across the fleet. In the CRS-24 mission, the uncrewed Dragon 2 capsule C209 carried approximately 3,000 kg of experiments and other cargo (such as biomedical and materials science investigations).
Are filled in the pressureless trunk of the dragon. It will be installed on the exterior of the space station. This is the second flight of the C209 capsule to the space station. Now SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is preparing for its upcoming Axiom-1 private astronaut mission in 2022. Our next update is based on Russian astronaut Anna Kikina who will be part of SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission in late 2022.
Is it planned to launch a Russian cosmonaut?
NASA’s Joel Montalbano, International Space Station program manager, said at the CRS-24 pre-launch briefing, that NASA plans to launch a Russian astronaut on SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission, which is scheduled to launch by September.
The announcement was first made by the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) on December 8 this year and on December 20, 2021, NASA officials confirmed that both NASA and Roscosmos are reaching an agreement.
SpaceX will then help launch the first Russian cosmonaut aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Since the advent of the Commercial Crew Program, both NASA and Roscosmos have been striving for such an agreement, which was finally settled on December 20.
Who will participate in SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission?
The Russian space agency said they have selected Anna Kikina (the only active female cosmonaut in Russia’s cosmonaut team). As an astronaut who will participate in SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission.
Montalbano said, “The plan is to fly an astronaut on a Crew-5 mission next year and then launch a NASA astronaut on an upcoming Soyuz mission.
” According to a report, Anna Kikina”will participate in the Crew-5 mission along with two NASA astronauts ‘Nicole Mann and Josh Kasada’ and a Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.
Subsequent crew set reports stated that both Mann and Cassada were previously assigned to launch on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on their first crewed mission. But an anomaly in the Starliner capsule’s valves caused a massive delay in flight tests without a crew, resulting in NASA reassigning the SpaceX Dragon capsule to Starliner astronauts.
Astronauts are now ready to launch on the SpaceX Crew-5 mission. Two years ago there was no crewed mission but was unable to reach the space station due to several software anomalies. In a recent second crewless test flight, several valves within the spacecraft’s propulsion system rusted and jammed.
How long will the capsule be prepared?
They found that the mixing of moisture with the SP caused the Acecraft’s fuel valves to close. So, engineers are working on those issues and expect the capsule to be ready by the middle of 2022.
This is based on a delay in the first SLS launch due to a discrepancy with the engine controller. On December 14, 2021, NASA publicized that Space Launch System engineers had decided to replace the controller of the fourth engine of the main stage of the SLS, as they were experiencing problems with the engine controller.