WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX's Crew Dragon conducted an escape test on Sunday to demonstrate its ability in future missions to lift astronauts out of danger in event of an emergency on rocket ascent.
At 10:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (1530 GMT), a Falcon-9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon and two dummies, was launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, showed the NASA live broadcast.
About one and a half minutes after the liftoff, Falcon 9's first stage engines shut down and Crew Dragon's SuperDraco thrusters fired to trigger a launch escape, catapulting the vehicle away from the rocket which then broke up offshore over the Atlantic Ocean.
About two and a half minutes after the separation, SuperDraco engines shut down, allowing the spacecraft to coast to the highest point in its arc when the capsule jettisoned its trunk section for a reentry.
