SpaceX Preparations
SpaceX has been very busy lately, beginning training for their first spacewalk, and testing a repaired Super Heavy booster.
The crew of SpaceX’s future Polaris Dawn launch - scheduled for November of this year at the earliest - are ready to begin training for the mission, which will include the first ever commercial spacewalk.
A crew of four SpaceX civilian astronauts will launch into an elliptical Low Earth Orbit - flying between 190 kilometers and 1400 kilometers. The previous altitude record for orbital crewed spacecraft was the Gemini 11 mission in 1966, at thirteen-hundred and seventy-two kilometers.
Once in orbit, they’ll spend five days conducting several experiments on human health - in orbit and on Earth - and will be testing Starlink laser-based communications in space for the first time. They will, of course, also be testing SpaceX’s new EVA suit with a spacewalk.
The new suit - reportedly very similar in appearance to the Intra-Vehicular Activity suits already used by SpaceX crews - will have better material to protect from potential debris strikes, an upgraded visor, new seals, and joints everywhere to aid in movement. A fully pressurised suit requires a lot of exertion to move, which is why NASA EVA suits - and the new SpaceX ones - have mechanical joints to help reduce the load on the astronaut. And all of this is supported by a tether that provides consumables, power and communications to the wearer.
The training for this mission will reportedly include deep-sea diving tests for all the crewmembers, as well as simulation time in the Dragon capsule simulator.
The two spacewalkers, Commander Jared Isaacman, Scott Poteet and their two other crewmembers Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon, have all either supported or flown in Dragon missions previously. For Isaacman, this will be his second time commanding a commercial mission, after successfully commanding Inspiration-4.
Back at Starbase, Superheavy Booster 7 has completed its second and third rounds of cryo proofing after receiving repairs from the structural damage it sustained during its first round of cryo testing.
Instead of taking things slow with their repaired booster, SpaceX remembered they had lots of other boosters for testing, and dove into not one but two full cryo tests. The SpaceX facilities are designed to handle this using a series of insulated storage tanks connected with plumbing; allowing them to avoid the standard method of semi trucks needing to refuel the rockets.
Which is why they were able to test on May 9th, and then again two days later on May 11th. And then, to add more to this lightning pace of testing, SpaceX immediately filled the booster’s liquid oxygen tank, and remotely retracted and reconnected the launch mount’s Super Heavy umbilical.
This test is meant to simulate a post-ignition abort sequence, wherein a vehicle launch may have to be aborted after being filled with fuel. If the “quick disconnect” were to fail in this scenario, a catastrophic explosion would be a near certainty.
However, not only were all of these tests successful - and on a repaired booster no less - they were done at a staggering pace. This is great news for SpaceX and for Booster 7, which could very well be moved back to the production facility to be fitted with new Raptor engines, heat shield and grid fins for other tests.