Elon Musk's SpaceX to destroy a rocket in a critical Crew Dragon test flight

In a bid to test a crucial emergency abort system, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will be intentionally destroying of its own rockets in its final test on Saturday. This will be SpaceX's last major hurdle before it can fly NASA astronauts from U.S. soil. The launch is scheduled to take off during a short 4-hour window.

The final hurdle

This final test will determine if SpaceX and their astronaut capsule will qualify to be able to ferry humans to the International Space Station. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) expects to be able to send humans into space as early as mid-2020.

The US's attempts to revive spaceflight has experienced many years of development and delays. Ever since NASA terminated its shuttle program in 2011, it has been using Russian spacecraft in order to send its astronauts into space and the International Space Station.

Back in 2014, NASA awarded Boeing and SpaceX $4.2 Billion and $2.5 billion respectively in order to develop capsule systems that could be used for ferrying astronauts to the space station.

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19 kilometres above the ocean Falcon 9 will experience an intentional booster shutdown in a mock failure and that will cause the Crew Dragon capsule's SuperDraco thrusters that are supposed to jet the capsule away at supersonic speeds of up to 2,400 kilometres per hour.

If everything goes according to plan, three parachutes will deploy to slow the capsules decent on water. The capsule will be carrying two crash test dummies along which will be covered in motion sensors which will provide invaluable data about the amount of G-force that the astronauts will have to face in the capsule.

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