Development work for Space Exploration Technologies' first Dragon flight vehicle should be completed by the end of the year.
The vehicle will be used for SpaceX's first of three demonstration flights of its Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft launch system for NASA's commercial orbital transport services programme. The 5h flight will take place in 2009 and will be one of the first four launches for Falcon 9.
While Dragon is designed primarily as a human-rated vehicle that can carry cargo, the first flight model will not have its solar arrays, proximity operations capability or radiator panel as the demonstration flight does not require them.
The vehicle's Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablative (PICA) heatshield supporting structure has been completed and the thermal protection system segments are now a different shape and configuration to that seen in the picture of its engineering model's picture on SpaceX's website.
"We make our own PICA. The manufacturing process is owned by the US people," says SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk, speaking at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on 3 July. He added that Falcon 1 development had been delayed to focus on Falcon 9's engines.
Source: Flight International
