Amazing how the almost surreal novelty has already become ho-hum workaday commonplace. Just another rocket returning, no bigs.
To be fair, that happened like halfway through Apollot 14. And that's only because 13 made for such good teevee...
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Amazing how the almost surreal novelty has already become ho-hum workaday commonplace. Just another rocket returning, no bigs.
Intuitively I would think it would take less fuel to land retropulsively after parachutes are deployed and reduced capsule's speed and altitude. What am I missing? Super Dracos could be started and confirmed to be working perfectly before jettisoning parachutes. It shouldn't be impossible to have 3 shoots in reserve just in case something goes with Dracos before the landing.
I'd love to see retropulsive landings- the F9s look amazing, Dragon would be even more fun. But I can't see how SpaceX might have both technologies (retro AND parachutes) on Dragon at the same time. Wouldn't the fuel mass make it far too heavy to have "just in case"?
Sorry, I thought it was chutes OR rockets. I see you mean chutes for most of the descent then rockets to finish. Now it makes sense.
Ok, I'm happy now. Proceed, Elon.
Requires much less energy and space to simply carry heads. And then they just plug them into cyborg bodies on the space station.
It appears to have been moved forward from its position at the recovery site, to under the helipad. Probably smart, as from watching it on the “nest” in the rolling sea last week, I was imagining a future recovery in rougher seas where the capsule would tip over into the drink...Space.com said:About 100 people adorned the shoreline of Jetty Park as the first of SpaceX’s recovery fleet came down the channel. Off in the distance, the Dragon-toting ship GO Searcher was barely visible. Waves crashed against the pier and the constellation Ursa Major shone brightly overhead; excitement grew with each passing minute. Finally, the boat, which had been holding just outside the port, picked up speed and started her approach.
Ars said:Everything went nearly flawlessly during SpaceX's first demonstration mission of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, which splashed down on Friday, March 8. However, the mission almost didn't launch on time, as SpaceX engineers were dealing with a Falcon 9 first stage valve issues in the hours before launch.
Was not disclosed ... The valve was replaced, and SpaceX was able to determine that there should not be any more similar problems with the launch. The Falcon 9 was cleared before NASA's webcast began, and so the problem was not shared with viewers. In any case, there were no issues with the launch itself, or Dragon's performance.
Pics of Dragon begin taken off the ship. Yummy marshmallow!
SpaceXFleet Updates on Twitter
(It appears the angle of the previous pics threw me. The s’more was still on the back of the ship)
Wow, will be interesting to see if it'll look a little grayish-white after they clean it for the IFA. I'd love to have whatever cleaning sollution they use for some of my pots and pans...
SpaceX has decided that cleaning reused equipment, except what is absolutely necessary, is a waste of time and money. Their philosophy is to avoid cosmetic cleaning. So I'd expect this capsule will still look pretty toasty during the IFA test. For sure the booster will be toasty looking.
I could be wrong, but weren't the first couple boosters cleaned thoroughly to also make sure everything checked out? And then after they realized that cleaning wasn't needed, they stopped? Since Dragon 2 is a new vehicle, I would guess that they would go through that same process.