SpaceX’s primary Crew Dragon recovery vessel GO Searcher is undergoing a number of modifications in preparation for inaugural demonstrations flights of the company’s first human-rated spacecraft.
Most notably, GO Searcher is being fitted with a helipad that will be used to rapidly transfer astronauts from Crew Dragon to Cape Canaveral, where they will go through a number of medical evaluations and debriefings after a six-month stay in orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
GO Searcher’s new helipad has been rapidly constructed over the last two months. (Tom Cross – 08/12/18)
A construction worker helps provide a sense of scale for the new pad. (Tom Cross – 08/12/18)
Over the last year or so, the long-time member of SpaceX’s East Coast rocket recovery fleet has been gradually receiving upgrades and conducting sea trials and mockup Dragon recovery tests, performed in concert with the US Air Force and NASA. Once Commercial Crew missions start launching in earnest, GO Searcher will be SpaceX’s sole Crew Dragon spacecraft and astronaut recovery vessel, a new mission that required a number of visible modifications.
Three of those upgrades are especially obvious. First, a large helipad (pictured above) is being constructed on GO Searcher’s deck. That helipad is a critical addition that will enable the rapid transport of astronauts, recovery experts, technicians, doctors, and more (perhaps even press) to or from the ship, which will be at most a few hundred kilometers east of the Florida Coast during Dragon recovery operations, and likely closer to a few tens of kilometers.
The next most obvious change to GO Searcher is a massive dome, likely dedicated to radar, Crew Dragon communications, or both. That dome and communications/radar array were installed over a several-week maintenance period spent at an East Coast drydocks facility, wrapping up with an early-July return to SpaceX’s Port Canaveral dock space.
Last but not least is the large metal structure at GO Searcher’s rear, a custom-built hydraulic lift designed specifically to lift Crew Dragon onto the recovery vessel’s deck. SpaceX has been extensively testing Dragon recovery operations with that particular rig throughout 2018, working with Commerical Crew astronauts, US Air Force representatives, and NASA officials to ensure that the orchestration of those Dragon and crew recovery operations are down to reflex by the time technicians are called upon to perform the same tasks with real humans and hardware.
SpaceX has rolled its completed Crew Dragon Access Arm into position and is just days away from installing the sleek arm. 08/16/18 (Tom Cross)
The first truly crewed Crew Dragon is in the late stages of assembly in SpaceX’s Hawthorne factory, August 13. (Pauline Acalin)
<img data-attachment-id="80339" data-orig-file="https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DM-1-Crew-Dragon-in-Florida-July-2018-SpaceX.jpg" data-orig-size="3000,3000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"8","credit":"SpaceX","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that will be used for the companyu2019s uncrewed flight test, known as Demonstration Mission 1, arrived to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. The spacecraft recently underwent thermal vacuum and acoustic testing at NASAu2019s Plum Brook Station in Ohio. The Demonstration Mission 1 flight test is part of NASAu2019s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract with the goal of returning human spaceflight launch capabilities to the United States.","created_timestamp":"1531236156","copyright":"Here is our public domain dedication. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/","focal_length":"17","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.033333333333333","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="DM-1 Crew Dragon in Florida July 2018 (SpaceX)" data-image-description="
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that will be used for the company’s uncrewed flight test, known as Demonstration Mission 1, arrived to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. The spacecraft recently underwent thermal vacuum and acoustic testing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio. The Demonstration Mission 1 flight test is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract with the goal of returning human spaceflight launch capabilities to the United States.
» data-medium-file=»https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DM-1-Crew-Dragon-in-Florida-July-2018-SpaceX-300×300.jpg» data-large-file=»https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DM-1-Crew-Dragon-in-Florida-July-2018-SpaceX-1024×1024.jpg» src=»https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DM-1-Crew-Dragon-in-Florida-July-2018-SpaceX-245×245.jpg» width=»245″ height=»245″ align=»left» title=»DM-1 Crew Dragon in Florida July 2018 (SpaceX)»>
The first spaceworthy Crew Dragon capsule is already in Florida, preparing for its November 2018 launch debut. The same capsule will be refurbished and reflown as few as three months after recovery. (SpaceX)
On February 28, SpaceX completed a demonstration of their ability to recover the crew and capsule after a nominal water splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Florida. (SpaceX)
<img data-attachment-id="70269" data-orig-file="https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Crew-Dragon-recovery-testing-1-SpaceX.jpg" data-orig-size="1177,839" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"SpaceX","camera":"","caption":"On February 28, SpaceX completed a demonstration of their ability to recover the crew and capsule after a nominal water splashdown. This marks an important recovery milestone and joint test. The timeline requirement from splashdown to crew egress onboard the ship is one hour, and the recovery team demonstrated that they can accomplish this operation under worst-case conditions in under 45 minutes. Further improvements are planned to shorten the recovery time even more as the team works to build a process that is safe, repeatable, and efficient.","created_timestamp":"1519776000","copyright":"Here is our public domain dedication. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"SpaceX Recovery Training","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="SpaceX Recovery Training" data-image-description="
On February 28, SpaceX completed a demonstration of their ability to recover the crew and capsule after a nominal water splashdown. This marks an important recovery milestone and joint test. The timeline requirement from splashdown to crew egress onboard the ship is one hour, and the recovery team demonstrated that they can accomplish this operation under worst-case conditions in under 45 minutes. Further improvements are planned to shorten the recovery time even more as the team works to build a process that is safe, repeatable, and efficient.
» data-medium-file=»https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Crew-Dragon-recovery-testing-1-SpaceX-300×214.jpg» data-large-file=»https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Crew-Dragon-recovery-testing-1-SpaceX-1024×730.jpg» src=»https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Crew-Dragon-recovery-testing-1-SpaceX-443×316.jpg» width=»443″ height=»316″ align=»left» title=»SpaceX Recovery Training»>
Dragon recovery technicians wrap up a busy day of demonstrations aboard GO Searcher, March 2018. (SpaceX)
SpaceX’s first uncrewed demonstration launch of Crew Dragon is scheduled for no earlier than November 2018, a date President and COO Gwynne Shotwell expressed considerable confidence in earlier this month. That spacecraft may end up landing on a giant inflatable cushion in order to ease refurbishment, as the same capsule will be reflown just a few months later for SpaceX’s in-flight abort test, designed to ensure that astronauts can be safely pulled away from a failing rocket at all points during launch.
Pending a successful uncrewed demo and in-flight abort test, SpaceX could become the first private company in history to launch humans into Earth orbit as early as April 2019.
For prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet check out our brand new LaunchPad and LandingZone newsletters!
