Space X - Dragon Launch Today

[Eric Mc]

Caruso said:

Eric Mc said:

The fairly reliable Russian R7 has 32.

I'm sure Spacex can make it work reliably and economically. But surely 5 F1-X engines would be cheaper in the long run?

I don't know the costs involved in develooping and testing rocket engines so I couldn't really tell. But we are now in a competitive commercial world so different compaies will be designing and building their own solutions and trying to convince their customers that their solution is best and most economically viable.
The more "launch solutions" there are out there, the more choice customers will have.

I'd love to see the F1 back in action and recently Boeing announced that they would like to see the F1 on a developed version of the SLS. We shall see how things work out.

[TheHeretic]

Still pretty upset I haven't spotted Clint Howard in the control room.

[jmorgan]

Been working away through most of this, caught the launch though. Dongle is no good for the TV, but, I did not realise it was going to be recovered. Soon.

[Eric Mc]

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.

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 31st May 13:42

[Eric Mc]

De-orbit burn in 55 minutes.

[Eric Mc]

Re-entry under way. They hope to have live images of the splash down in the Pacific.

Just like the old Apollo days.

[Eric Mc]

And live mages now coming in..

(I feel like I'm talking to myself here).

[jmorgan]

Nah, I am watching it too.

[Eric Mc]

Picture quality not great but at least we are seeing it live. The Apollo images from the late 60s early 70s were a lot better but I suppose this is a operating on a much lower budget regarding available TV cameras and satellite bandwith etc.

[jmorgan]

I am guessing the mission control for Dragon have many viewers on site. Be nice to get a different angle in there.

Edit, notice the tables as well. Do the job though I suppose.

[Eric Mc]

In the water. Let's hope it doesn't do a Gus.

[jmorgan]

Splash down then.

[TheHeretic]

Eric Mc said:

In the water. Let's hope it doesn't do a Gus.

[qube_TA]

when will they know if it's OK?

[Eric Mc]

qube_TA said:

when will they know if it's OK?

When they can get some people into the water beside it I suppose. They have visual contact with the capsule in the water so it looks OK at the moment. But you can never be sure with splashdowns (hence my reference to Gus above).

[Eric Mc]

They have detached the parachutes. That's good as you don't want them dragging the capsule across the ocean or even worse, under the ocean.

[TheHeretic]

The media don't seem to be doing a great job of conveying what a big deal this is to the future of space flight. It just seems to be one of those 'and finally' type snippets.

[qube_TA]

Yup, I think this is absolutely huge but all the reporting is a bit 'meh' about the whole thing.

[Eric Mc]

It's because the media are essentially ignorant and do not understand these matters.

A "significant" event to a media person is finding out that their telephone has been hacked.

[jmorgan]

I got the feeling the only reason they started showing Shuttle stuff on TV again was when there was a chance of a mishap when humans were on board. Much like Apollo 13.