SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station • Hacker News Board

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#31

Post by Klathmon » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:36 PM UTC

beamatronic wrote: post #27

bamboozled wrote: post #7

Does anyone else find the title confusing? What's a "Crew Dragon"?

Yes, but it’s better than something like Dragon Crew D1 C D 1 (looking at you XBox)

I have a feeling SpaceX intentionally names things kind of weirdly just because it's almost a running joke among fans.

The progression of Falcon 9 rockets is:

* Falcon 9

* Falcon 9 V1.1

* Falcon 9 Full Thrust (also called V1.2 for a small period of time)

* Falcon 9 Fuller Thrust (I think this one was renamed to Block 4 at some point, but I distinctly remember hearing it called "Fuller Thrust" at first)

* Falcon 9 Block 5 (the current version and one that launched this capsule)

And their Dragon capsule has gone through several names as well:

* Dragon (the first version)

* Dragon CRS (an extended version with additional space)

* DragonLab (never flown as far as I know)

* Dragon 2 (cargo only I believe)

* Crew Dragon (the current one that just flew up to ISS, also technically a "Dragon 2" but with a different internal configuration.)

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#32

Post by dEnigma » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:38 PM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #28

dEnigma wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know which mission it was exactly, but I think it was the first one where they tried to recover two booster stages (I hope that's what they are called). Watching the live stream of both of them landing simultaneously back on the pad gave me goosebumps and sent shivers down my spine, in a good way.

Not to diminish that feeling, but there was a kind of funny mistake made in the livestream for the Falcon Heavy launch (which was actually attempting to land 3 stages at around the same time, but one of them had an issue and suicided into the ocean as designed). Turns out, both of the video streams for the 2 side rockets were actually of the same rocket! You can go back and watch the corrected footage of both landing…

Haha, no worries, I was aware of that while watching. What impressed me was the footage from the ground based (or helicopter?) camera that showed them landing side by side.

Edit: I didn't know that three boosters were supposed to land. That probably would've blown my mind if it had succeeded ^^

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#33

Post by the_duke » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:39 PM UTC

dEnigma wrote: post #22

taneq wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've felt that about SpaceX ever since seeing the Grasshopper testing videos. Up until that point, if a rocket slowed down during takeoff something had gone horribly wrong. Then it just... hovered... and landed, and I realised this was the start of a new era of space travel. The Falcon Heavy launch is still the highlight for me but this one is probably more important, simply because it's so normal and routine now and…

I don't know which mission it was exactly, but I think it was the first one where they tried to recover two booster stages (I hope that's what they are called). Watching the live stream of both of them landing simultaneously back on the pad gave me goosebumps and sent shivers down my spine, in a good way.

That was the Falcon Heavy test launch that also brought a Tesla to orbit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#34

Post by dEnigma » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:40 PM UTC

the_duke wrote: post #33

dEnigma wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know which mission it was exactly, but I think it was the first one where they tried to recover two booster stages (I hope that's what they are called). Watching the live stream of both of them landing simultaneously back on the pad gave me goosebumps and sent shivers down my spine, in a good way.

That was the Falcon Heavy test launch that also brought a Tesla to orbit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c

Oh yeah, there was something else to that launch too. Thanks for reminding me of that! I'll have to rewatch it at some point.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#35

Post by Klathmon » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:43 PM UTC

dEnigma wrote: post #32

Klathmon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to diminish that feeling, but there was a kind of funny mistake made in the livestream for the Falcon Heavy launch (which was actually attempting to land 3 stages at around the same time, but one of them had an issue and suicided into the ocean as designed). Turns out, both of the video streams for the 2 side rockets were actually of the same rocket! You can go back and watch the corrected footage of both landing…

Haha, no worries, I was aware of that while watching. What impressed me was the footage from the ground based (or helicopter?) camera that showed them landing side by side. Edit: I didn't know that three boosters were supposed to land. That probably would've blown my mind if it had succeeded ^^

Yeah they were attempting to land all 3, but the center booster (which would have landed on a barge at sea) had issues relighting it's engines during the landing burn.

They setup the landings so that they are on a trajectory to hit the ocean, and only if everything goes right do they then adjust course to the landing pads. This gives them an additional failsafe which the center booster took advantage of here. Instead of crashing into an expensive barge in the ocean, it just splashed down into the ocean purposely missing the barge.

[1] is a diagram that kind of shows what this looks like for land based landings, but it's very similar for barge landings too.

And don't worry, they are going to be flying Falcon Heavy again soon-ish, so there's another chance to land all 3!

[1] http://i.imgur.com/D9BdO86.png

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#36

Post by rayiner » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:47 PM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #26

isostatic wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soyuz takes people to the space station every few months, has done for years. Why is this specific mission new?

It costs about $81 million USD per seat round-trip to go to ISS on Soyuz. SpaceX is doing the same for around $58 million per person (last I read). That alone is a HUGE deal. And that cost is expected to drop as SpaceX gets more comfortable with launching humans, whereas Soyuz has been raising prices. Not to mention that it's increasing the number of countries and rocket designs that can send people to and from the I…

A cost reduction of less than 50% for something that the Russians have been doing routinely with 1960s technology is akin to Magellan setting sail? I like SpaceX but man the spin is blinding.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#37

Post by ravenstine » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC

jordz wrote: post #30

CondensedBrain wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Enterprise theme started playing in my head.

Did you notice how they slightly jazzed it up after a couple of seasons?

The last 2 seasons are pretty great. It's too bad the show got sacked. Enterprise is my second favorite behind TNG.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#38

Post by ravenstine » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

CondensedBrain wrote: post #15

kakarot wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Navigating the open seas used to be tricky. Settling new land used to be tricky. Have faith. :)

The Enterprise theme started playing in my head.

One thing I never thought about with the intro is that, at the time it was produced, the ISS didn't look like how they represent it, but now it does look pretty close to it. They must have gotten some idea from NASA of how it would probably turn out to look.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#39

Post by Klathmon » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #36

Klathmon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs about $81 million USD per seat round-trip to go to ISS on Soyuz. SpaceX is doing the same for around $58 million per person (last I read). That alone is a HUGE deal. And that cost is expected to drop as SpaceX gets more comfortable with launching humans, whereas Soyuz has been raising prices. Not to mention that it's increasing the number of countries and rocket designs that can send people to and from the I…

A cost reduction of less than 50% for something that the Russians have been doing routinely with 1960s technology is akin to Magellan setting sail? I like SpaceX but man the spin is blinding.

I'm not saying it is, i'm just explaining what is new about this mission and why I'm excited for it.

I think people are making it larger than it is because doing something and commercializing something are completely different things.

The first flight in a plane was awesome, but not if we just stopped there. Currently SpaceX is somewhere along the line between the Wright Brothers and the Boeing 707. It may be "only price reductions", but once those price reductions hit a critical mass, it enables a whole world of possibilities. SpaceX is already talking about using their next rocket in a similar way to airlines now. Launching a bunch of people from one place into orbit, then landing in another place on the same planet for extremely fast flights across the world. They are talking about creating Moon and Mars bases. Those are things that won't ever happen if we keep spending hundreds of millions of dollars per launch, because the economics of it just won't ever work out.

They still aren't done, and it's no guarantee that they will be able to ever get prices down low enough, but at least they are trying, and making good headway toward it.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#40

Post by iguy » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #26

isostatic wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soyuz takes people to the space station every few months, has done for years. Why is this specific mission new?

It costs about $81 million USD per seat round-trip to go to ISS on Soyuz. SpaceX is doing the same for around $58 million per person (last I read). That alone is a HUGE deal. And that cost is expected to drop as SpaceX gets more comfortable with launching humans, whereas Soyuz has been raising prices. Not to mention that it's increasing the number of countries and rocket designs that can send people to and from the I…

Google thinks a shuttle launch cost at least $450 million, for comparison.