Catching a Ride on the SpaceX Dragon

SpaceX is a company that has been making waves in the space industry ever since entrepreneur Elon Musk created it in 2002. Musk’s goal for the company has always been ambitious: to greatly reduce the cost of spaceflight and make possible the colonisation of Mars, allowing us to become a multi-planetary species.

Over the years, SpaceX has achieved some breath-taking milestones: launching the first private liquid-fuelled rocket into orbit (the Falcon 1 rocket in 2008), becoming the second company after Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin company to land and reuse a space-flown rocket, and the first to land and reuse a rocket that had delivered a spacecraft into orbit (the Falcon 9 rocket in 2015).

Since then, SpaceX has had its sights set on a new milestone – to become the first private company to launch humans into space. Specifically, to the International Space Station as part of a contract with NASA. If they are successful, SpaceX will become the company that made it possible to launch astronauts from US soil once again, something that ended with the retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle in 2011.

The SpaceX Dragon

To achieve these goals, SpaceX needs a spacecraft that can safely carry people. For this, they’ve looked to their tried-and-tested Dragon cargo capsule.

For over a decade, SpaceX has been developing and flying their Dragon capsule to launch and return cargo from space.

SpaceX’s main customer for the Dragon capsule is NASA. Since 2006, NASA has helped fund SpaceX for the development and use of this Dragon vessel through the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. This program was developed by NASA in order to find cheaper, commercial alternatives for resupplying the International Space Station and to reduce reliance on Russian rockets once the Space Shuttle retired.

SpaceX successfully completed the test flights of the Dragon capsule in 2012, making Dragon the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the ISS, and have since flown 15 successful resupply missions to the ISS in order to fulfil multi-billion dollar contracts. SpaceX continued to develop Dragon and in 2017 they launched a previously flown Dragon capsule for the first time, reducing the cost of cargo missions even further.

Ferrying Crew

In March 2019, SpaceX finally put the Crew Dragon through its paces by sending it up to dock with the ISS on its first test flight.

The capsule arrived at the ISS carrying 180kg of supplies for the astronauts already aboard the station as well many sensors to monitor the craft. Some of these sensors were put in a mannequin named Ripley (after the main character in the film Alien) to see how humans would be affected during flight.

After 5 days attached to the ISS, Crew Dragon re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. This successfully tested the procedures required for a flight with human crew, paving the way for Crew Dragon’s next trip to space.

After years in development, 2019 will be a big year for both SpaceX and Boeing. Both companies have promised to launch astronauts in their crew spacecraft within the year. And while space deadlines are often a moving target due to the sheer complexity of the missions, SpaceX is showing strong signs that it will meet its target.

SpaceX plans to launch NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley up to the ISS in the summer of 2019. After their recent success with the uncrewed test flight of Crew Dragon to the ISS, this is looking very achievable. During the first crewed flight, Behnken and Hurley will wear newly designed flight suits which SpaceX have already shown off on mannequins both during the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy and the Crew Dragon test flight.

Boeing are also hoping to test fly their CST-100 Starliner spacecraft this year, but the deadlines have recently slipped from spring to late summer 2019.

Space tourism

The future looks bright as private companies continue to push the boundaries of spaceflight.

In 2018, SpaceX announced the sale of their first tourist trip around the Moon to billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. As an art enthusiast, Maezawa plans to take several accomplished artists with him in the hopes of inspiring new art that will promote peace across the world. Originally, this trip was going to launch on the Falcon Heavy rocket, however SpaceX has since decided to keep Falcon Heavy has a heavy-lifter for big satellites and instead focus on human-safety development of their new super-heavy lift rocket system known as BFR. This will consist of a first and second stage rocket named ‘Super Heavy’ and ‘Starship’ respectively.

But SpaceX is not alone in its space tourism efforts. There are plans for a future ‘space hotel’ – a commercial space station built by Bigelow Aerospace. Bigelow has been developing inflatable living spaces for use in orbit and has had an experimental inflatable module called BEAM attached to the ISS since April 2016. The two companies announced an alliance in 2012 which could lead to some fruitful cooperation once Crew Dragon is ready for commercial use.

While SpaceX has collaborators, it’s also not without its competitors. Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin has already built its reusable, sub-orbital New Shepard rocket. The first crewed flight for New Shepard is planned for later this year and reservations are already open to buy tickets.

British entrepreneur Richard Branson is also making some headway in space tourism with his spaceflight company Virgin Galactic. In early 2019, the company recently completed two crewed test flights with its VSS Unity spacecraft. The sub-orbital flights brought the crews to the edge of space, and reached altitudes over 80 kilometres, enough for the pilots to be awarded astronaut wings by the US government.