Who’s going to capture the flag?

[Updated] An American company just flew an American-built vehicle that will return Americans to space, launched from American soil for the first time since we retired the Space Shuttle fleet in 2011. This is a major accomplishment. We won’t have to pay exorbitant prices to the Russians for seats on their Soyuz anymore, perhaps starting as soon as this fall (and they aren’t very happy about that).

Two companies are racing to be the first to deploy a manned capsule that can support the ISS (and do other missions as well), Boeing with its Starliner, and SpaceX with its “Crew Dragon”, or “Dragon 2”. The first to the finish line will have the honor of “capturing the flag”, bringing home an American flag that was left hanging on the hatch of the Harmony node by the crew of STS-135, the last shuttle misson. As of this writing, it looks as though SpaceX is well in the lead.

In late 2014, Boeing received a $4.2 million contract from NASA to develop the CST-100 (now called “Starliner”) capsule, while SpaceX was only awarded $2.6 billion to develop a “space taxi”. Part of the reason for the discrepancy was that SpaceX, despite being a shy youngster beside the experienced old veteran Boeing (which built the first stage of the mighty Saturn V rocket), was seen to be more likely to come up with a solution quickly and for less money. Five years later, that appears to be the case. Dragon 2, carrying a crash dummy “Ripley” clothed in a SpaceX spacesuit, and a plushy toy used as a “weightlessness indicator”, automatically docked to the ISS last Sunday.

SpaceX has been delivering cargo to the ISS for some time now using their Dragon capsule, but building a human-rated version of the beast is much harder than essentially acting as a space version of a UPS truck. The most obvious difference is that it must have a life support system to provide air. But the hardest part of making it man-rated is to make it safe. Working closely with NASA requirements and certification processes, the journey has been expensive and time-consuming, but the result may be the safest vehicle we have ever produced.

So far, it’s working perfectly. It is currently docked to the space station. “Docked”, not “berthed”. Cargo Dragons are captured by approaching to a parking position near the ISS and waiting for a crew member inside the station to use the Canadian robotic arm to grab the capsule and draw it onto a port, where it is locked down. This is termed “berthing”. Crew Dragon, on the other hand, is completely automated and flies itself all the way to clamping down onto a port. It “docks”, on its own. In fact, though it is possible for astronauts to engage a manual mode in emergencies, every stage of a Dragon 2 mission from launch to splashdown is a pre-programmed, “hands-off” flight.

Dragon 2 differs from all other American vehicles in that the abort system consists of “SuperDraco” rockets, eight of them, that are built right into the capsule (these were originally designed to execute a landing on the ground rather than in the ocean, but NASA didn’t like the risk inherent in that method). Other capsules, including Boeing’s Starliner, use external tractor towers with rockets to pull the vehicle away from an exploding second stage — or even an explosion on the launch pad. These work fine, but they are disposed of during the flight. From Elon Musk’s perspective, this method suffers in two ways: first, getting rid of the tower during a normal flight is an event that can go wrong, and thus adds a risk factor. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly to Musk, the tower is thrown away. This costs money, a lot of it, and the driving philosophy of his company is reusability, reusability, and more reusability. NASA was skeptical (see the pattern here), but it worked fine when it was tested in 2015.

Crew Dragon comes home tomorrow. Let’s hope the heat shield works, the parachutes deploy, and the capsule splashes down right where it’s supposed to. Musk is worried that the different shape of the capsule’s backshell (caused by the mounting of the SuperDraco thrusters) may introduce a roll when it blasts down through the atmosphere, but it’s his job to worry. Without Elon’s constant anxiety, SpaceX wouldn’t be in the position it enjoys at the top of the space food chain.

Eric Berger of Ars Technica has a good in-depth article of what will be happening tomorrow. Perhaps I am simply an enthused fan, but I anticipate a completely successful conclusion to this mission.

UPDATE: And they did it! From Spaceflight Now:

SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon spacecraft wrapped up its five-day stay at the International Space Station at 2:31 a.m. EST (0731 GMT) Friday with a smooth undocking, then nailed an on-target splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida at 8:45 a.m. EST (1345 GMT).

Here’s a long video about the landing, for those who want to dig into the nitty-gritty detail. Splashdown occurs at 1:18:28 in the video. An aircraft was able to get video of Dragon 2 while it was burning through the atmosphere to slow down, starting at 1:10:10, and the stream of fire really gives one an appreciation for why these vehicles come back covered in soot.

Near the end of the video is coverage of the recovery ship approaching and lifting the capsule onto its deck, for a close up look at what Dragon 2 looks like at the end of a mission. Now, drag out a pressure washer, clean it up, repaint it, and let’s go do this again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlFmK1hSKZg