It’s one of the most highly anticipated launches in SpaceX’s career.

Mostly because if all goes to plan, it’ll be the first private spacecraft to carry humans

to low-Earth orbit.

Back in 2014, SpaceX was chosen and given $2.6 billion as part of NASA’s Commercial

Crew contract.

A deal that would help NASA garner its independence from Russia and re-establish the United States

as a contender in crewed spaceflight.

But there’s been some delays, financially and technically, that have prevented the SpaceX

team in getting the Crew Dragon capsule ready for launch.

They did have a successful unmanned demonstration mission, Demo-1, in March 2019 showing off

their capsules capabilities to go to the ISS and back.

But they notoriously lost that first Crew Dragon

in a following static fire test in April.

As it turns out, rocket science is hard, but the team has been steadfast in a multitude

of tests to improve the capsule since.

Now, we’re just around the corner from viewing the company’s final milestone before a crewed

demo, the in-flight abort test.

It will be the determining factor in how soon SpaceX can get astronauts off the ground,

and into space.

Most of these final tests are extra safety demonstrations SpaceX wants to take

to showcase the functionality of the spacecraft during abort ascent, ensuring the security

of the astronauts onboard.

Meaning the parachutes, back-up engines, and detachment controls are all in working order.

Now in past months, NASA did express concern over parachute systems based on previous tests

where the spacecraft hit the ground harder than it should have and sustained damage.

And dang, did SpaceX take that note seriously.

At the end of October through November, the company completed an unprecedented 12 consecutive

and successful parachute drop tests, in a single week.

Starting with one-chute test with their new Mk 3 design, and then moving on to a multi-chute

one.

This drop particular drop test used 3 parachutes instead of the standard 4 to see how the capsule

would fair just in case one blew out.

Working with supplier, Airborne Systems, SpaceX improved these “Mark-3” parachutes by

integrating Zylon, a high performance polymer material that's lightweight and known for

its strength.

Elon Musk even suggests that the parachutes are possibly 10 times safer that the Mk2 versions.

The team is continuing to improve the quality of their design, but they earned their spot

to the next stage; the static fire test.

To start, the Crew Capsule is equipped with two distinct propulsion systems, one composed

of 16 Draco thrusters for on-orbit maneuvering, basically in space, and eight back-up SuperDraco

thrusters for use only in the event of a launch escape.

A static fire test, is when the rocket engine is strapped to the ground, and ignited.

Engineers can then observe how these thrusters would work during flight as well as showcase

that they operate smoothly.

This is where things went not so smooth in April.

A faulty valve let a liquid oxidizer leak into high-pressure tubes, and milliseconds

into the SuperDraco thrusters’ ignition, an explosive chain reaction occurred, completely

destroying the Crew Dragon.

This was a heavy loss for the team since that particular capsule had just successfully flown,

uncrewed, to the ISS and back.

But, although they’re starting from scratch, the company and NASA considers the anomaly

good testing; it was in a controlled setting, no one was hurt, and they could improve these

back-up thrusters.

The newest version has implemented burst disks that prevent a leakage from happening again.

The latest test that happened in November 2019 and it was a success, bringing us to

the highly anticipated in-flight abort test.

Now what should we expect when it happens?

Since the in-flight abort is a simulation of “the worst case scenario”, it’ll

look a little like this.

The Crew Dragon will sit atop a Falcon 9 rocket and launch into the air for almost a minute

just like in a typical launch.

Then after surpassing the speed of sound, the merlin engines will turn off, a feature

pre-programed before launch.

The computer onboard the Crew Dragon should detect the loss of thrust and trigger the

escape system (a.k.a the abort system), and this is where the previous parachute and static

fire evaluations will come into play.

The SuperDraco thrusters ignite, pushing the Crew Dragon half a mile away in just 7.5 seconds,

reaching a peak of 436 mph, then deploying its parachutes for a safe touchdown.

With every test, SpaceX comes one step closer to bringing crews onboard its capsule.

If the inflight-abort test goes well, the team can plan to have its first manned mission

in early 2020.

And this is a big deal not only for commercial spaceflight, but for everyone.

It opens the door to the endless possibilities that we can achieve.

Engineering that can get us outside Earth’s atmosphere, to the moon, to Mars, and maybe

even beyond.

If you liked this episode, make sure to subscribe and check out

our Countdown to Launch playlist where you can catch up on all your

rocket launch news.

Are there any other rocket launches you like us to cover?

Let us know down in the comments below. Thanks for watching