14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) announced that an independent panel would soon start to review the manned version of their Dragon spacecraft, in a bid to determine whether or not it complies with NASA regulations for human spaceflight.
At this point, Dragon is being developed under a $1.6 billion Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract between SpaceX and NASA. The document calls for the unmanned space capsule to carry out 12 resupply flights to the International Space Station (ISS).
But the company – which is headed by PayPal co-founder and Tesla Motors CEO, Elon Musk – announced from the get-go that it plans to develop Dragon in both manned and unmanned versions.
As such, the capsule was put together in agreement with the most stringent norms for manned spaceflight safety, as compiled by the American space agency. At this point, the company wants an independent panel of experts to confirm this for NASA.
The formation of the safety advisory panel was announced on March 29, Space reports. “When it comes to manned spaceflight, safety is our top priority,” Musk said in a statement he released recently.
“These experts will provide us with important insights as we prepare to carry astronauts on the next generation of American spacecraft,” he went on to say. Musk is also SpaceX's chief designer.
The company announced that the panel would continue to monitor the development of a manned version of the Dragon capsule even after the latter begins ferrying astronauts to low-Earth orbit (LEO).
In the meantime, the company is getting ready for an April 30 launch. This will be the second space flight for the unmanned Dragon, aboard the same Falcon 9 medium-lift delivery systems developed by SpaceX. This time, the capsule is heading for the ISS.
If everything goes according to plan, the company will become the world's first private organization to dock a spacecraft to the ISS. Dragon will carry tons of supplies for the crew, including food, water, propellant for the ISS thrusters, personal items and so on.