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SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

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Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#81

Post by leesec »

bobl wrote: post #80
samcday wrote: post #18

I'm sitting on my couch, just idly watching live footage of some people doing stuff 200 miles above me. Above the place I will spend the entirety of my life. Watching them do complicated things that, if we're lucky and don't destroy ourselves first, will ensure our species becomes multi-planetary. Maybe even space faring someday. Life is weird.

As far as I understand there is still some time before humanity becomes interplanetary in any meaningful way, maybe even many generations. And what is going on so far these days is mostly about not regressing.

Making rockets re-usable is a massive step forward and not about 'not regressing'.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#82

Post by Klathmon »

grecy wrote: post #79
Klathmon wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still need to do an in-flight abort test, which i'm super excited for. They are going to send the whole thing up a second time (I believe they will be using this EXACT Crew Dragon capsule after it comes back down), but this time they will abort the launch mid-flight around max Q which will trigger the capsule to eject safely away from the explosion behind it. It's going to be quite the sight, and if everything g…

Everyone on /r/spacex keeps flip-flopping on this, but there have been indications SpaceX will try to recover the first stage after the abort. Should be interesting either way!

Last I heard they weren't even going to have the landing hardware on the booster, but you are right that there are rumblings about how exactly the abort test will happen.

IIRC we know stage 2 is going to be mostly a mass simulator, but not much else.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#83

Post by legohead »

Klathmon wrote: post #65
buboard wrote: post #64

Nice that it went flawlessly, the first stage landed back well, and they reached the ISS a bit ahead of time. They even did some intentional back and forth maneuvers to test the dragon. Do they need more tests before the manned flight?

They still need to do an in-flight abort test, which i'm super excited for. They are going to send the whole thing up a second time (I believe they will be using this EXACT Crew Dragon capsule after it comes back down), but this time they will abort the launch mid-flight around max Q which will trigger the capsule to eject safely away from the explosion behind it. It's going to be quite the sight, and if everything g…

For anyone that hasn't seen the ground abort test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FXVjf46T8

It's pretty rocking.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#84

Post by jacobreg »

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…

I thought the going rate for falcon 9 reusable launches was $60 million a flight. With 7 astronauts shouldn't that work out to $8.5 million per astronaut? That's not accounting for the cost of the crew dragon, but I'd be surprised if that increases the cost by an order of magnitude

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#85

Post by grecy »

Klathmon wrote: post #82
grecy wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone on /r/spacex keeps flip-flopping on this, but there have been indications SpaceX will try to recover the first stage after the abort. Should be interesting either way!

Last I heard they weren't even going to have the landing hardware on the booster, but you are right that there are rumblings about how exactly the abort test will happen. IIRC we know stage 2 is going to be mostly a mass simulator, but not much else.

I read a tweet from Elon that said Stage Two is flight hardware, with the exception of the vaccum Merlin engine that is a mass simulator.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#87

Post by Klathmon »

jacobreg wrote: post #84
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…

I thought the going rate for falcon 9 reusable launches was $60 million a flight. With 7 astronauts shouldn't that work out to $8.5 million per astronaut? That's not accounting for the cost of the crew dragon, but I'd be surprised if that increases the cost by an order of magnitude

Well they had to do quite a lot to be able to get to the point where NASA approves of them launching humans, and those costs have to be gained back. Just look at this mission and the upcoming abort test and the years of work that has gone into getting that approval, it's not cheap!

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#88

Post by srcmap »

Klathmon wrote: post #4

Congratulations to the team at SpaceX! They are opening the hatch right now on the stream if anyone here wants to watch along https://youtu.be/21X5lGlDOfg

Here's the recording of the space station astronauts / cosmonaut entering the "Crew Dragon".

https://youtu.be/tfrBm3ZR99M?t=306

Very nice!

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#90

Post by isostatic »

ncallaway wrote: post #44
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?

The commercial crew missions by both Boeing and SpaceX are new and interesting for a number of reasons: - This will be one of the first vehicles developed by a private entity to launch people into space, rather than a nation. That represents a huge step "down" the ladder of who has access to space. First, it's only nations. Later, it's large companies and entities. Down the line a little bit medium-sized companies wi…

It's a step, but not a first step - it's the second step along the nations/large/medium/small/people road

Nor have they actually put anyone in space.

The first stage landing is great, but again it's not new -- SpaceX have been doing this for a few years now. Last year's Falcon Heavy, especially the two rockets landing simultaneously on live tv, felt very futuristic. This isn't anywhere near as impressive as that from a "wow" perspective . The MaxQ abort test probably will be, especially if live-streamed.

Scientifically, in the last 10 years we've landed on comets, brought bits of asteroids back to earth, driven a rover on an asteroid, landed on the far side of the moon, explored rocks billions of miles away.

Any 'new commercial space age' started at least 7 years ago when spacex started being paid for these types of launches - a commercially developed rocket being used for commercial purposes, but companies have had access to space for decades - everytime I point a BGAN at the sky to get communications in the desert I'm using a private company's infrastructure.

If you're just talking about a new crewed space exploration age, SpaceX has immense promise, but that's all it is - promise. Once it is delivering people to orbit, which a 50 year old technology currently does, and hopefully progresses further, then that's great. But this is just another minor step on the road.

If America was still launching people to the ISS on Apollo, and a Chinese company did a test flight to the ISS using SpaceX technology, I very much doubt there would be as much excitement as there is for this launch.

If dearMoon puts private people round the moon, the first people to leave LEO for 50 years, I'll be ecstatic. But I'm also cautious -- SpaceX announced a crewed lunar flyby for launch in 2018.

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