It's not always fun thinking about the worst-case scenario, but when it comes to human space travel, envisioning the terrible pitfalls that could happen during a mission is a necessity. It's the only way to figure out how to rescue a situation that would otherwise evolve into terrible tragedy.

Tomorrow, SpaceX will be thinking about all the dreadful happenings that could befall their latest creation, the Crew Dragon, as they test out the vehicle's abort system on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The test will demonstrate how the Dragon would rapidly escape from the pad during liftoff, in case a rocket malfunction threatened the spacecraft and its inhabitants. For example, in the unlikely event that a booster fell off the primary rocket during takeoff, wreaking havoc on the launch pad, this backup launch system could jettison the crew module to safety before anyone got hurt.