Early Friday morning, SpaceX is set to launch another one of its Dragon cargo capsules to orbit, loaded with supplies and science experiments for the International Space Station. It’s an otherwise routine launch for the company — the 17th one that SpaceX has launched for NASA since 2012. However, this mission comes two weeks after the passenger version of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule exploded during an engine test.
The exact cause of that accident has yet to be identified, but the cargo version of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule is a very different vehicle than the passenger version, known as Crew Dragon. Last week’s accident occurred during scheduled tests of the Crew Dragon’s eight SuperDraco engines, tiny thrusters embedded within the outer shell…
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