Really glad I got to drive out and watch this launch. It was fantastic seeing us send people back into space again.
[deleted]
NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]
41–50 of 104 posts
Re: NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Shuttle was built to bring down soviet spy satellites and spacecraft, so in that regard, it was the best design made.
Huh interesting. Do you have sources for that information?
It was not built to retrieve Soviet satellites, despite an uncited claim in Wikipedia to the contrary. In fact, it probably couldn't. If nothing else, it'd be hard to fit a satellite designed for a different launch fairing into the payload bay of the shuttle and secure it well enough to be able to land with it. The shuttle was designed to bring cargo back, but only satellites that were specifically designed for this purpose.
What the Shuttle was designed to do in a military context is launch into a polar orbit from the coast of California, release a stealthy spy satellite, and return to Earth immediately after during the very same orbit (so about 90min from launch to landing). It therefore needed the very large wings to be able to glide back to Edwards Air Force Base in southern California, which would have rotated up to 1,500km away from the path of the orbiter. And because of the Pacific ocean, there'd be other landing sites available. This cross-range capability impacted every aspect of the design.
The idea was that big rockets which launch satellites are very easy to track, so it was hard to get a bird up without the enemy knowing its orbital path, and if the enemy knew the orbit they could evade overhead passes. So do a surprise launch on the shuttle, do a little orbit maneuvering while you are up there to maximize the enemy's uncertainty over its orbital plane, then immediately let go and land the shuttle--because otherwise they'd know where it was from tracking the shuttle.
I'm not sure if it was ever used this way, and the requirement is now obsolete anyway. You really can't hide a satellite from modern instruments, which have full global coverage, and its critical that orbits are known to avoid collisions in the much more crowded space up there.
Re: NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]
#43Not yet, not until re-entry. It's arguably the most dangerous part of the missions since launching on Falcon 9 has happened many times before. Both Soyuz and the Space Shuttle had fatal accidents on re-entry.
After reentry the next most dangerous part of the entire launch/return process is likely landing at sea and being rescued by helicopters or ships.
So I will be holding my metaphoric breath until the astronauts are delivered from SpaceX responsibility to NASA responsibility, which should be on land somewhere in Florida (too lazy to look it up sorry not sorry)
Re: NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]
#44Business is owned by an African-American, too.
Re: NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]
#45Undocking stream ran earlier and can be found at https://youtu.be/13OkD0C_TWU, with the undocking procedure beginning 2 hours 14 minutes in. The actual separation is at 2 hours 19 minutes.
Currently there is a live stream of the autonomous “return coast” phase while the crew sleeps: https://youtu.be/zMsxviPT2Cw
The splashdown stream is at https://youtu.be/tSJIQftoxeU and starts at 4:25 AM PDT, with deorbiting expected around 10:55 AM PDT.
Re: NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh interesting. Do you have sources for that information?
It was not built to retrieve Soviet satellites, despite an uncited claim in Wikipedia to the contrary. In fact, it probably couldn't. If nothing else, it'd be hard to fit a satellite designed for a different launch fairing into the payload bay of the shuttle and secure it well enough to be able to land with it. The shuttle was designed to bring cargo back, but only satellites that were specifically designed for this…
Is the X-37b's orbit known? I dimly recall articles about observers catching glimpses of it places away from its predicted trajectory. Could it maybe be placing/observing/servicing satellites? Why's it a shuttle-style design?
I feel like it's not too outlandish to suspect that some military satellites might have a way to hide themselves from instruments, as well.
Re: NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]
#47What happens in the event of a parachute failure? Would they be in a position where they could fire up the Super Dracos for a propulsive landing?
I believe it to be no negative impact with one parachute failure and survivable with up to two parachutes of four failing. Down to just one parachute is probably bad news, and if they all fail then you die. Just like every other capsule.
Propulsive landing was not qualified, nor likely even finished, so I very much doubt it shipped. An untested propulsive mode is a significant liability.
Re: NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Shuttle was built to bring down soviet spy satellites and spacecraft, so in that regard, it was the best design made.
Huh interesting. Do you have sources for that information?
The idea that you could capture a satellite and return it was part of the mission requirements for the original shuttle design. If it was a 'friendly' or 'unfriendly' satellite was left unspecified.
It was also limited by the Shuttle's OMS in terms of delta-v so the orbits from which a satellite could be retrieved was constrained.
Re: NASA Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft [video]
#49I can't easily link to it because it's still live streaming but at 4:10 in they seem to be debugging a local internet/HTML error on their iPads. Next level debugging in production.
I just had to go find that for myself! Here's the link to 4:10:45 when they start talking about it - https://youtu.be/13OkD0C_TWU?t=15045