May Delay First Manned Flight To ISS From U.S. Soil

A test article of the SpaceX Crew Dragon which the company and NASA hope will begin manned missions to ISS from U.S. soil later this year was badly damaged during an engine test Saturday, and the incident may force a delay in that first manned flight.

Earlier today (Saturday), SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida," a company spokesperson said in a statement to Space.com. "The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand."

The anomaly involved at least one of the eight SuperDraco engines that make up the spacecraft's emergency escape system. The system was successfully tested in 2015.

"The NASA and SpaceX teams are assessing the anomaly that occurred today during a part of the Dragon SuperDraco Static Fire Test at SpaceX Landing Zone 1 in Florida," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said Saturday night on Twitter. "This is why we test. We will learn, make the necessary adjustments and safely move forward with our Commercial Crew Program."

SpaceX launched the same Crew Dragon capsule to ISS in March, and successfully recovered the spacecraft a week later after it splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. While SpaceX had planned to reuse the capsule on future manned missions, that may no longer be possible if the damage it too extensive, the company said.

The spokesperson said that additional review will be required to determine the probable cause of the accident, but has not reported details concerning how badly the spacecraft was damaged or any possible explanation for the explosion.

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report
Source report