Fun (and Not-So-Fun) Facts About Crew Dragon Launch
Demo-2 mission, toy dinosaur, toilets in spacecrafts, and others
Today at 3:22 p.m. EDT two astronauts will leave Earth and head off to the International Space Station. What makes this flight special is that it’s the first crewed flight for SpaceX, a private company founded by Elon Musk.
Demo-2 mission, the astronauts’ breakfast, a toilet in the spacecraft — the article covers these and 7 other curious things about the flight.
Demo-2 Mission
The primary goal of the mission is to validate SpaceX’s readiness for crew transportation: infrastructure, processes and technologies (Falcon 9 rocket and new Crew Dragon spacecraft).
NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will fly to the International Space Station and then stay there for up to 110 days.
Initially, SpaceX scheduled the launch to May 27th but delayed it due to bad weather. Today’s is a second attempt at 3:22 p.m. EDT. Official Broadcast.
Crew Dragon spacecraft
Crew Dragon is a new version of SpaceX’s spacecraft Cargo Dragon which could carry up to 7 astronauts onboard. This amazing piece of technology has the following features:
- It’s a reusable spacecraft. It’s launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket and then returns to Earth by landing in the ocean. Also, this is a first reusable spacecraft with people inside.
- Falcon 9, the rocket which launches spacecraft, is also reusable. Its landing looks absolutely amazing.
- It’s fully automatic but also can be controlled manually if needed.
- It has nearly completely touchscreen controls, which is very unusual for spacecrafts. Typically, manual controls are used.
- It has a toilet inside. With a privacy curtain, to be clear. The ship will take about 19 hours to reach the International Space Station, so the toilet would be pretty useful.
- It can autonomously dock itself to the ISS. To remind: the International Space Station travels at the speed of 17 100 mph (27 600 km/h).
Demo-2? And what was Demo-1?
It was a mission happened in March 2019. That time Crew Dragon flew without a crew, fully automatically. It approached and docked with ISS, then un-docked and returned to Earth. It splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 miles off Florida’s east coast.
Though nobody was onboard, life support systems were enabled and monitored throughout the flight to ensure readiness for subsequent crewed flights.
Can’t they bring COVID-19 to the ISS?
NASA does all its best to ensure the safety of both current crew and the astronauts already aboard the International Space Station. The measures include:
- Astronauts are quarantined since May 16. Even before that, they were almost isolated.
- Before that, NASA switched a lot of trainings to be virtual.
- People who contact astronauts wear masks and gloves.
- NASA even re-arranged the layout of control rooms at the launch site to maintain safe distances between workers.
To the launchpad in a Tesla, with an AC/DC track for the mood
During the first Demo-2 attempt, the astronauts rode to the launchpad in a Tesla Model X labeled with NASA’s logo. As an elegant nod to their destination, the license plate read “ISSBND” — ISS-bound.
They even had a playlist for the ride; it started with AC/DC’s song “Back in Black”.
A toy dinosaur joins the flight
A toy dinosaur rested in one of the free seats of the spacecraft. Besides being fun (imagine, a dinosaur in space), it’s a useful practice. When the spacecraft reaches space, effects of zero gravity occur (a flying dinosaur in space!).
What they have for breakfast
Douglas Hurley twitted that the morning before initially scheduled lift-off he had a steak and eggs.
And some facts about food in space:
- Regular bread is banned: crumbles appear and could affect the machinery.
- Back in the 1960s, there was freeze-dried food and astronauts had to rehydrate it using a water gun.
- Later on, NASA started to give them prepared food in cans which could be heated.
- This is a menu of the Apollo program (1961–1972). It had about 30 options.
- On ISS people live for extended periods, so they need a rather broad variety of meals. The current menu offers about 200 food and beverage options, including coffee, eggs, cereals, mac & cheese, and soups.
A toilet in the spacecraft
It was announced that Crew Dragon has a toilet inside. However, SpaceX hasn’t revealed the details yet.
History of space toilets started with “relief tubes” and plastic bags; the bags were taken back to Earth for experiments. Then there were first Waste Collection Systems (which, by the way, let liquid waste out into space).
A new spacesuit
New spacesuits are sleek, just take a look at them!
However, it’s not a surprise that they look so cool: Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez designed them. He created costumes for a variety of movies, such as “Men in Black,” “Batman vs. Superman” and “Wolverine”.
What astronauts do on ISS
- They stay fit. In zero-gravity muscles don’t work as they should do, and serious health issues might occur. To prevent that, astronauts exercise two hours each day.
- They spacewalk. Occasionally they had to perform maintenance activities in open space. It’s difficult and dangerous, but necessary.
- They conduct science experiments. A lot of physical and biological processes perform differently in zero-gravity. Learning more about the world around us is interesting and potentially beneficial. That’s why astronauts set fire on ISS, observed an ants colony and grew Christmas trees.
- They clean, maintain and repair the station’s equipment.
Astronauts risk their lives
I remember the evening when I first heard David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. Major Tom successfully departs from Earth in a spacecraft, but then something goes wrong; his last transmission is “Tell my wife I love her very much”. I cried that evening.
NASA estimated there’s a 1-in-276 chance that today’s flight could be fatal. The astronauts accept this risk to push mankind forward. They fight the vast infinity of space to take us closer to the stars.
This is what bravery is.
