SpaceX Tests Epic Escape Slide in Case of Exploding Rocket

"Even though it’s meant to be used for emergencies, it looks like a lot of fun!"

Emergency Slide

SpaceX has tested the emergency chutes that could save astronauts' lives during a launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A new video shared by the company on X-formerly-Twitter shows a person dressed in a black and white SpaceX spacesuit zipping down from the tower's crew pad inside a tube of red and white fabric, an equally exhilarating and terrifying ordeal — especially considering the threat of an exploding rocket right behind you.

"Even though it’s meant to be used for emergencies, it looks like a lot of fun!" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk commented in a tweet.

Keep Your Hands Inside

SpaceX is working on opening a second launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. Up until now, SpaceX has relied on the historic Launch Pad 39A — from which NASA launched several of its Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s — to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station on board its Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Now, the company is working on getting Pad 40 up and running to give it and NASA more flexibility when it comes to upcoming crew missions.

As part of the tests, the space company deployed new emergency chutes along wires stretching from the crew platform to the ground, which could allow astronauts to escape before liftoff in case of a serious anomaly.

It's a major departure from the emergency chutes at Launch Complex 39A, where hanging baskets slide along similar wires to get astronauts to safety.

Earlier this year, NASA installed emergency escape baskets, roomy platforms that glide along wires like a gondola lift, at Launch Pad 39B in preparation for the agency's crewed mission around the Moon.

They're strikingly similar to those used during the Apollo missions as well, which could save up to nine personnel from a malfunctioning Saturn V rocket in the 1960s.

But before astronauts can take off from pad 40, SpaceX is trying it out with an uncrewed flight first.

The inaugural SpaceX launch from the pad will be the company's 30th cargo mission to the ISS, which is set to launch later this week.

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