SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
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SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
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Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
#2Is there any more technical data on performance during re-entry (was there any issue will roll?) and at splashdown (how did the parachutes perform?)
Those were the two big question marks from what I understand.
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
#3Is there any more technical data on performance during re-entry (was there any issue will roll?) and at splashdown (how did the parachutes perform?) Those were the two big question marks from what I understand.
There is a great 2h+ video, recorded live from earlier today, that soft-answers a couple of these questions. There was a panel discussion with NASA folks [2], where they talk about some successes of re-entry and parachutes deployment. You can watch the parachutes deployment yourself [3]. But, I think they will be sifting through this data for a few weeks before you have hard answers. Reddit is also a super active place for early news via https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex.
It is also incredible that we can watch all this real-time too. Just amazing!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aAe0GWIWGI
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
#4This is a better article on the recovery than the one I linked from TechCrunch.
I would like to reiterate the point made before which is that SpaceX is on the verge of being in a place that no company has ever been before with regard to space.
The are on the cusp of having a capsule that they can send into orbit for days and then return to Earth. They already have rockets capable of putting tons of material into every orbit level (Low, mid, and geo-stationary). SpaceX is also nearing completion of their own launch facility in Texas.
When all of those things are added together, SpaceX can do space 'tourism' like nobody else. They could offer a 'day trip' on a Dragon into orbit. By partnering with Bigelow Aerospace[1] they could launch a habitat into orbit where they could ferry their own paying customers to spend a week in space. With their own launch facility they are freed from the scheduling hassles of the dozens of other clients who compete for space on those launch pads.
That would definitely feel like living in the future to me.
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
#5And it's a wrap! A big congratulations for all those who made this possible, public and private entities. The United States has almost restored its ability to send manned crews to space, via re-usable, cheap, and privately funded/sustained spaceflight as a bonus.
To LEO, the Moon, Mars, and beyond!
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
#6Is there any more technical data on performance during re-entry (was there any issue will roll?) and at splashdown (how did the parachutes perform?) Those were the two big question marks from what I understand.
There is a great 2h+ video, recorded live from earlier today, that soft-answers a couple of these questions. There was a panel discussion with NASA folks [2], where they talk about some successes of re-entry and parachutes deployment. You can watch the parachutes deployment yourself [3]. But, I think they will be sifting through this data for a few weeks before you have hard answers. Reddit is also a super active pla…
I watched and and while to me it seemed like there was a whole lot of buffeting / oscillation it very well could have been much less or more than a Soyuz. Unsurprisingly I don't have the domain experience to judge it and would appreciate some perspective from those in the know.
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
#7This is a better article on the recovery than the one I linked from TechCrunch. I would like to reiterate the point made before which is that SpaceX is on the verge of being in a place that no company has ever been before with regard to space. The are on the cusp of having a capsule that they can send into orbit for days and then return to Earth. They already have rockets capable of putting tons of material into ever…
They are unlikely to do this at this point.
The big problem is that while the capsule will be reusable, since NASA killed the propulsive landing for Dragon 2, it now needs to splash down in saltwater and therefore is not considered safe for humans after the first use.
This makes Dragon 2:s too expensive for large-scale space tourism. Unless there is suddenly a huge market for this, I think SpaceX would prefer to sell interested space tourism customers flights on Starship instead.
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
#8This is a better article on the recovery than the one I linked from TechCrunch. I would like to reiterate the point made before which is that SpaceX is on the verge of being in a place that no company has ever been before with regard to space. The are on the cusp of having a capsule that they can send into orbit for days and then return to Earth. They already have rockets capable of putting tons of material into ever…
They are unlikely to do this at this point. The big problem is that while the capsule will be reusable, since NASA killed the propulsive landing for Dragon 2, it now needs to splash down in saltwater and therefore is not considered safe for humans after the first use. This makes Dragon 2:s too expensive for large-scale space tourism. Unless there is suddenly a huge market for this, I think SpaceX would prefer to sell…
That's interesting. I always assumed that most of the damage happened on re-entry and not the splashdown. Can you elaborate on why the splashdown kills re-use?
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
#9This is a better article on the recovery than the one I linked from TechCrunch. I would like to reiterate the point made before which is that SpaceX is on the verge of being in a place that no company has ever been before with regard to space. The are on the cusp of having a capsule that they can send into orbit for days and then return to Earth. They already have rockets capable of putting tons of material into ever…
They are unlikely to do this at this point. The big problem is that while the capsule will be reusable, since NASA killed the propulsive landing for Dragon 2, it now needs to splash down in saltwater and therefore is not considered safe for humans after the first use. This makes Dragon 2:s too expensive for large-scale space tourism. Unless there is suddenly a huge market for this, I think SpaceX would prefer to sell…
I'm not disagreeing with the idea that Musk would shoot for using Starship for tourism, but I also think that I wouldn't put it past SpaceX to continue toward qualifying a reusable Dragon 2.
They are already getting good experience (and can experiment with) Dragon Cargo capsule re-use to better understand the impact of salt water landings on their designs. And while it would be hard to find space for the landing struts to go back into D2, if that meant doing a parachute landing with a last minute landing burn similar to what Blue Origin has proposed in their sub-orbital offering and is currently used on Soyuz, I could see that working with a landing in Texas.
What amazes me that this seems like a "small" amount of engineering to go from where they are, to a capability that was previously considered impossible by many. I'm sure it is way more complex than I realize, but they have some so far from where they started.
Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are unlikely to do this at this point. The big problem is that while the capsule will be reusable, since NASA killed the propulsive landing for Dragon 2, it now needs to splash down in saltwater and therefore is not considered safe for humans after the first use. This makes Dragon 2:s too expensive for large-scale space tourism. Unless there is suddenly a huge market for this, I think SpaceX would prefer to sell…
That's interesting. I always assumed that most of the damage happened on re-entry and not the splashdown. Can you elaborate on why the splashdown kills re-use?
I'm guessing its the salt water that is the problem.