Elon Musk shares video of simulated Crew Dragon mission

San Francisco, Dec 31 (IANS) SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has shared a video simulation of what the company's Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS) could look like.The two-minute clip that Musk tweeted on Monday shows flight crew boarding the capsule-like spaceship Crew Dragon, countdown, take off and separation of the vehicle from the Falcon 9 rocket.In the simulation, the capsule is seen docking with the ISS and then detaching. NASA hopes the capsule could be ready for its first crewed "Demo-2" test flight to the ISS in the first quarter of 2020, Engadget reported.In November SpaceX completed a series of static fire engine tests of its new passenger spacecraft, Crew Dragon, paving the way for an in-flight launch escape demonstration.In April, during a similar set of engine tests, the spacecraft experienced an anomaly which led to an explosion and loss of the vehicle. In the following months, a team made up of SpaceX and NASA personnel determined that a slug of liquid propellant in the high-flow helium pressurisation system unexpectedly caused a titanium ignition event resulting in an explosion.
--IANS gb/bc