CAPE CANAVERAL — SpaceX is just days away from shooting up a crew capsule to test a launch escape system designed to save astronauts’ lives. Buster, the dummy, is already strapped in for ...

SpaceX launched a major test today of the innovative rocket escape system for its manned Dragon spaceships, a critical system designed to save astronauts in a launch emergency. It was over in less ...

SpaceX is readying an unmanned Dragon capsule for a simulated launch pad abort Wednesday, a short, high-speed flight to demonstrate an innovative rocket-powered escape system designed to quickly ...

THIS ATTITUDE CONTROL MOTOR IN THE FOREGROUND IS THE LAST IMPORTANT PIECE OF THE LAUNCH ESCAPE SYSTEM, THERE IN THE BACKGROUND. IN A TEST OF THAT SYSTEM, NASA SHOWED IT CAN SEPARATE THE CREW ...

But what some astute viewers may have noticed during liftoff is that Crew Dragon did not have a traditional launch escape system (LES) tower on top of its nose cone. So, what is the emergency exit ...

The idea for a new kind of launch escape system was introduced by Boeing in 2010, but SpaceX was the first to bring that idea to fruition, with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Instead of ...

During Tuesday's test, the escape motor instantly pulled the ... to float on the surface while waiting for recovery. The launch abort system is designed to pull an Orion capsule and its crew ...

This was the ninth flight of this booster, which is one half of the launch system that also includes a capsule. The emergency escape system performed as intended, rapidly pulling the spacecraft ...

Booster 2 was retired in October 2016 after performing a successful test of the launch escape system on its fifth and final flight. Booster 3, which launched the NS-23 mission in September ...

Then the capsule’s launch escape system kicked in, blasting the capsule further skyward while the burned-out booster fell away. “Our crew capsule was able to escape successfully,” launch ...

The capsule, packed with scientific and technological payloads, managed to survive an apparent booster malfunction, with the launch escape system successfully working as designed. Update ...