Watch Elon Musk blow up a multimillion-dollar rocket just to check it works

The last big hurdle for SpaceX's Dragon capsule programme was making sure the abort sequence could get astronauts out of a dangerous situation safely

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket engine self-destructs after jettisoning the Crew Dragon astronaut capsule during an in-flight abort test, a key milestone before flying humans in 2020 under NASA's commercial crew program, after lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. January 19, 2020. REUTERS/Joe Rimkus JrShow less

SpaceX completed the last big test of its crew capsule before launching astronauts in the next few months, mimicking an emergency escape shortly after lift-off on Sunday.

No one was aboard for the wild ride in the skies above Cape Canaveral, just two mannequins.

The nine-minute flight ended with the Dragon crew capsule parachuting safely into the Atlantic, after separating and speeding away from the exploding rocket.

“I’m super fired up,” Elon Musk, the company’s founder and chief executive, told reporters. “It’s just going to be wonderful to get astronauts back into orbit from American soil after almost a decade of not being able to do so. That’s just super exciting.”

Nasa and SpaceX completed a launch escape demonstration of the company's 'Crew Dragon' spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday. The test at Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida was designed to show how the spacecraft would separate safely from the rocket during an in-flight emergency. EPA

Nasa astronauts have not launched from the US since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. Musk and Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the next Crew Dragon could launch with a pair of Nasa astronauts in the second quarter of this year – as early as April.

The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off as normal, but just over a minute into its supersonic flight, the Dragon crew capsule catapulted off the top 20 kilometres above the Atlantic. Powerful thrusters on the capsule propelled it up and out of harm’s way, as the rocket engines deliberately shut down and the booster tumbled out of control and exploded in a giant fireball.

The capsule reached an altitude of about 44 kilometres before parachuting into the ocean just offshore to bring the test flight to a close. Everything appeared to go well despite the choppy seas and overcast skies. Within minutes, a recovery ship was alongside the capsule.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket engine self-destructs after jettisoning the Crew Dragon astronaut capsule during an in-flight abort test, a key milestone before flying humans in 2020 under NASA's commercial crew program, after lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. January 19, 2020. REUTERS/Joe Rimkus Jr

Recycled from three previous launches, the SpaceX rocket was destroyed as it burst apart in flight and slammed in pieces into the sea. SpaceX normally tries to recover its boosters to drive down launch costs, landing them upright on a floating platform or back at the launch site.

Nasa’s commercial crew program manager, Kathy Lueders, said the launch abort test was “our last open milestone” before allowing SpaceX to launch Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the International Space Station. Their launch date will depend, in part, on whether Nasa decides to keep them for months at the orbiting lab, versus just a week or two. A longer mission will require more training before flight.

A view of the International Space Station backdropped by Earth. The station has four large, maroon-coloured solar array wings, two on either side of the station, mounted to a central truss structure. Further along the truss are six large, white radiators, three next to each pair of arrays. In between the solar arrays and radiators is a cluster of pressurised modules arranged in an elongated T shape, also attached to the truss. A set of blue solar arrays are mounted to the module at the aft end of the cluster. Wikicommons

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, Expedition 20 flight engineer, inserts urine samples into the ISS Laboratory Freezer as part of the Nutritional Status Assessment study. Wikicommons

Nasa astronaut Anne McClain works inside the Japanese Kibo laboratory aboard the International Space Station in January 2019 in Earth Orbit. Alamy

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide exercises on the Cycle Ergometer in the Destiny laboratory on the International Space Station in June, 2008. Nasa / Reuters

Astronaut Gregory C. Johnson, STS-125 pilot, rests in his sleeping bag on the flight deck of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Atlantis in May 2009. Nasa / Reuters

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet shaves on board the station. ESA / AFP

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata performs the daily ambient flush of the potable water dispenser in the waste and hygiene compartment in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station in April 2009. Nasa TV / Reuters

A set of NanoRacks CubeSats is photographed by an Expedition 38 crew member after the deployment by the NanoRacks Launcher attached to the end of the Japanese robotic arm. Wikicommons

A portion of the International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour. Wikicommons

The astronauts monitored Sunday’s flight from the firing room. Mr Hurley said it was “pretty neat to see” the capsule aboard the recovery ship within two hours. By all early accounts, the test was successful.

“We’ll see what the data show and go from there,” Mr Hurley said. “But it certainly is a confidence builder from the standpoint if you ever got into that situation that Dragon can get us away from the booster quickly.”

The astronauts also will have access to speed before lift-off. During a launch dress rehearsal on Friday, Mr Hurley and Mr Behnken rode in a white Tesla Model X from Kennedy Space Centre’s crew quarters to the launch pad, their sleek white and black spacesuits matching the electric sports car with wing-like doors. Mr Musk, who also runs Tesla, used the cars to get around the space centre on Sunday.

Delayed a day by bad weather, Sunday’s launch from Kennedy brought together hundreds of SpaceX, Nasa and Air Force employees on land, at sea and in the air. Tourists and locals alike packed the adjoining visitor complex and nearby beaches to see the dramatic fiery spectacle of an out-of-control rocket. Mr Musk brought along his own family, including his brother.

Nasa hired SpaceX and Boeing a decade ago to transport astronauts to and from the space station for billions of dollars. Both companies struggled with technical problems, adding years of delay and forcing Nasa to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars extra for Russian rocket rides.

After multiple cargo deliveries for Nasa, SpaceX successfully flew an enhanced crew capsule to the space station last March without anyone on board, but it exploded a month later during ground testing. The emergency escape thrusters – the kind used in Sunday’s test — had to be retooled. In all, SpaceX has tested these powerful Super Draco thrusters some 700 times.

Last month, meanwhile, Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule ended up in the wrong orbit on its first test flight and had to skip the space station. The previous month, only two of the Starliner’s three parachutes deployed during a launch abort test.

Ms Lueders said it’s too soon to know whether Boeing will need to send another Starliner to the space station without a crew or go straight to launching astronauts later this year. An investigation team is still looking into why the Starliner’s automated timer was off by 11 hours during the December test flight.

The importance of launch escape was demonstrated in 2017 when two astronauts, an American and a Russian, were pulled to safety during a failed launch from Kazakhstan. They experienced up to seven times the force of gravity during the abort, but walked away from the accident.

This incredible image by Nasa's official photographer Bill Ingalls captures up close the moment the Soyuz-FG rockets fire, lifting it and the MS-15 spacecraft its carrying into the stars. Bill Ingalls / Nasa

The rocket leaves the Gagarin's Start launch pad at 5.57pm UAE time (6.57pm Kazakhstan time) propelling the Soyuz into the sky. Bill Ingalls / Nasa

The rocket leaves the Gagarin's Start launch pad at 5.57pm UAE time (6.57pm Kazakhstan time) propelling the Soyuz into the sky. Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

The Soyuz is seen in this long exposure photograph as it launches with Expedition 61 crew members Jessica Meir, Oleg Skripochka and Hazza Al Mansouri from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Bill Ingalls / Nasa

The rocket soars into the clouds moments after launch. Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

This image taken moments earlier shows how the launch pad functions, with the incredible heat from the boosters funnelled away from the rocket into a blast zone. Gagarin's Start has been used for Soyuz flights since 1961 but Wednesday's launch was its last, as it cannot accommodate Russia's new generation of 'Federation' space ships. Maxim Shipenkov / EPA

The Soyuz rocket is pictured in the early hours of Wednesday, before the launch. Soyuz MS-15 is the last space ship that will take-off from the Gagarin's Start launch pad at Baikonur. Bill Ingalls / Nasa

Hazza Al Mansouri appears calm and at ease as he walks to the rocket before take-off. Vyacheslav Oseledko / EPA

The SpaceX in-flight abort system, Mr Musk pointed out, should be gentler for the crew and is good from the launch pad all the way to orbit.

Mr Musk said the Dragon’s escape system should work – in principle – even if the capsule is still attached when the rocket erupts in a fireball. He said that could look like “something out of ‘Star Wars’” with the capsule flying right out of a fireball.

“Obviously we want to avoid doing that,” he quickly added, taking note of all the Nasa personnel around him.