NASA and SpaceX have decided to replace the heat shield of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will be involved in the Crew-5 mission. This happened after one of its components failed acceptance tests due to a manufacturing defect.
Crew Dragon is equipped with a four-meter heat shield made of composite materials. It has a detachable design. This allows it to “flip” shields between different spacecraft.
It is reported that the defect was detected during a test that simulated the loads experienced by the shield component during the flooding. After that, NASA and SpaceX decided to replace it with another screen, which is already in production.
It is worth noting that the message about the replacement of the shield was made by NASA as part of a response to the claims of the Space Explored website about a fuel leak and dangerous wear of the Axiom-1 mission heat shield. The Aerospace Administration has stated that these rumors are not true.
At the moment, it is unknown whether the replacement of the screen will affect the launch date of the Crew-5 mission. So far, this flight is scheduled for September 2022. The purpose of the mission is to deliver four participants of the 68th long-term expedition to the ISS.
Recall that ten years have recently passed since the first flight of the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS.
According to https://spaceflightnow.com
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