Photo from open sources
Manned flights for SpaceX are first and foremost elimination of US dependence on Russia, as American astronauts so far delivered to the ISS and back to Russian Soyuz ships.
Last Sunday, SpaceX took another step in this direction thanks to the successful test of separation of the capsule with astronauts “from the Falkon 9 rocket in the event of an accident (failure to fly – IFA). True, instead of astronauts, there were mannequins so far, but they, after after the flight was artificially interrupted, they allegedly launched engines retired from the soon exploding carrier to a safe distance, and then, nine minutes after the start, safely landed thirty kilometers from Florida.
The booster itself exploded (see the ball of fire calling for video), and her second step fell into the ocean forty kilometers from the coast.
A photo from open sources
That is, the test passed, as planned, successfully, and therefore, the question immediately arose for journalists when NASA will refuse from Russian services for the delivery of American astronauts to space station. That’s what the director of the American responded to Aerospace Agency Jim Brydenstein:
It’s too early to talk about it, even considering confidence that tomorrow we will be able to start manned flights, or rather, we can return to them.
Note that American fly into space from its territory astronauts ceased in 2011 when after completing the program Space Shuttle, Roscosmos began to deliver people to the ISS. But when a manned flight on a Dragon ship becomes a reality, not yet known.
At the beginning of March last year, Crew Dragon for the first time successfully docked to the ISS, but on board it, except for the cargo, was only dummy. Note that many past launches have demonstrated serious flaws in SpaceX that even cast doubt on the success of US manned flights in the near future. What gave the company well ended IFA, is still unknown. In Jim’s words Brydenstein highly optimistic journalists for some reason never heard …
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