SpaceX and NASA on January 19 purposefully blew up a Falcon 9 rocket. The “in-flight abort” test was meant to assess the Crew Dragon escape system. The Crew Dragon is a spacecraft attached to the Falcon 9 that is designed to take human passengers to space. The planned explosion can be tied to the Apollo 1 accident in which three astronauts died during a preflight test. Some experts believe that the space race pressured NASA into cutting corners at the expense of safety while testing Apollo 1. This led to stricter regulations for space missions that still apply today.
SpaceX intentionally blows up Falcon 9 rocket to test capsule’s escape system
SpaceX blew up the Falcon 9 rocket intentionally Sunday morning to test the crew capsule’s escape system.
The Hawthorne-based company was finally able to launch its rocket following some weather delays.
The test capsule released from the rocket about a minute into the flight before landing safely in the ocean, paving the way for NASA astronauts to climb aboard it in the future.
The launch completed the last test of SpaceX’s crew capsule.
No one was aboard
