Space X - Dragon Launch Today
Discussion
That's the whole point ofv the Dragon capsule. It will be the basis of a manned spacecraft which, of course, will have to be recoverable.
They recovered the Dragon capsule safely after its first test mission a year or so ago - so we know the heatshield does work.
It's now undocked and on its way to beginning the re-entry trajectory.
They recovered the Dragon capsule safely after its first test mission a year or so ago - so we know the heatshield does work.
It's now undocked and on its way to beginning the re-entry trajectory.
Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 31st May 13:42
Some decent video of the splashdown here
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/shuttle_station/index.h...
I hope the live coverage of these spashdowns improves.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/shuttle_station/index.h...
I hope the live coverage of these spashdowns improves.
TheHeretic said:
jmorgan said:
Me Mac don't want to play. What is wrong with it?
The dreaded flash? It was pretty crappy camera work. Never saw the splashdown, as he was zoomed in too much. I think the filming was a credible effort overall. The live feed was pretty poor however with far too much breakup and pixellation. That side definitely needs improving.
If you think back to the Apollo splashdown coverage, which was 40 odd years ago, the spacecraft was only picked up from a camera at sea level - sitting on the recovery carrier - which is a much more stable platform than a moving aircraft.
The earliest point of the re-entry they managed to get was the reefing of the three main parachutes - and they had years of practice. These guys managed to follow the capsule all the way from just before drogue release - which I thought was quite impressive.
TheHeretic said:
The live film at the time looked like it was done via a Nokia from the mid 90's. Weird how you can get crystal clear imagery from it in orbit, but such crappy pictures from its landing.
Not weird at all. The whole point of this project is that the budget is relatively small - much smaller than what it would be if NASA themselves were running it. In this case, whilst in orbit and attached to the ISS, they had access to the full communications and technical backup that goes with a full international, multi-government sponsored space project which includes access to the TDRS communication satellites and ground based links.
During the re-entry phase they were more or less runnning the show themselves. Notice that virtually all the shots showed the Spacex control room rather than Mission Control, Houston. The links were much more basic and pared back. The important thing to the Spacex controllers would have been telemetry data showing that all the various sequences needed for a successful recovery were carried out on time and correctly. Images were a low priority.
I'm sure the image side of things will improve over time.
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