Crew Dragon C205 is aCrew Dragon capsule manufactured and built bySpaceX. It completed its only flight on January 19, 2020, with theCrew Dragon In-Flight Abort Test mission where the capsule detached from theFalcon 9B1046 booster atmax q using theSuperDraco abort thrusters. This was done to test the functionality of the abort thrusters in an operational rocket launch.
Dragon C205[1] was originally planned to be used on theDemo-2 mission and theCrew Dragon C204 capsule was intended to be used for the in flight abort test. However, the Dragon C204 capsule was destroyed during testing which causedSpaceX to change the Dragon C205 to this mission[2] andCrew DragonEndeavour completed the Demo-2 mission.[3][4]
The In-Flight Abort Test was completed as part of theCCDev byNASA to test theDragon 2'slaunch escape system with theSuperDraco thrusters, before aCrew Dragon capsule could carry astronauts onboard for theDemo-2 mission.[5] The flight path of the rocket was set to imitate a crewed launch in order to match stresses of a normal flight.[5] The launch escape test started with the rocket liftoff at 15:30 (UTC).[6] The launch abort was triggered 90 seconds after liftoff, with C205 splashing down in theAtlantic Ocean at 15:38 (UTC) after descending under parachutes.[6]
The SpaceX recovery shipGO Navigator recovered the capsule where C205 was taken back to Port Canaveral for inspection. While the trunk which separated from the capsule at the flight path apogee[4] of approximately 40 km was recovered by a second recovery shipGO Searcher, which returned to the port after the first ship carrying the capsule.[7]
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