NASA Aims For First Manned SpaceX Mission in First-Quarter 2020 (reuters.com) 31
SpaceX's new Crew Dragon astronaut capsule will be ready for its first manned flight into orbit in the first quarter of next year provided "everything goes according to plan" in upcoming tests, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said on Thursday. From a report: The pronouncement of a revised time frame signaled NASA believes SpaceX is getting the Crew Dragon project back on track following an explosion during a ground test in April and technical challenges with its re-entry parachute system. Bridenstine said successful development of the capsule was key to achieving NASA's top priority -- the resumed "launching of American astronauts on American rockets from American soil" for the first time since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. The NASA administrator spoke to reporters at the end of a visit to the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, just outside Los Angeles, where chief executive Elon Musk led him on a tour of the sprawling manufacturing plant. Their joint appearance by a giant glass-enclosed "clean room" where engineers were working on a Crew Dragon marked a show of unity following a rare public spat over delays in the project.
Re:Exciting times we live in (Score:4, Insightful)
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it would be nice if we were completely beyond capsule based designs in general
Why? I mean, sure, in the sense that it would be great if this were Star Trek and you could just hop into a shuttlecraft and take off from anywhere without blowing everything away with a gigantic thruster (or cluster thereof)... but in terms of our current understanding of physics, decoupling the passenger compartment and final approach from the ascent to orbit is perfectly logical.
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In addition, Crew Dragon is designed to be reusable, and all of the Apollo gear was one-time use
FWIW, I think that reusability is a BIG deal, and also a pretty big challenge to build
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Should be noted that although it's designed to be reusable, the contract requires a new Crew Dragon capsule for each manned launch
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It should also be noted that since the Crew Dragon splashes down in salt water, it basically screws up human-rating anyway. SpaceX will down-grade the rating and reuse the capsules for unmanned cargo missions.
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Are people really this fucking stupid.
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Concluding that reusability can't work based on the shuttle is the wrong lesson.
Why was the shuttle so expensive? Here are five issues: First, the shuttle had two solid rocket boosters which were partially reusable, but fell into the water. This meant that they came down pretty hard, still pretty hot, and then soaked in salt water. So the casings weren't in great shape. Since they were solids there wasn't much reusable even without that. Second, the shuttle also had a very difficult tile system for reent
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First, the shuttle had two solid rocket boosters which were partially reusable, but fell into the water. This meant that they came down pretty hard, still pretty hot, and then soaked in salt water. So the casings weren't in great shape. Since they were solids there wasn't much reusable even without that.
The booster sections were also damaged during liftoff. The hold-down bolts for the Shuttle stack attach at the booster skirts so during the launch before the hold down bolts are released, considerable torque is applied to the boosters which bends things and forces them out of round. The bending and angular momentum accumulated during this time also had the effect of allowing parts of the shuttle stack to hit the tower after release further breaking things. Eventually NASA changed the launch timing to red
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This is not innovation. You've had decades of research and experience to build on and all we can fucking do is outsource and old capsule design to some dilettante.
Fucking waste of time.
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In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
Then he was followed by a whole slew of people that did the exact same thing. What a waste of time it all was. Nothing really changed until someone invented a steam ship.
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Re: Exciting times we live in (Score:2)
It's already been pointed out to you that the technology has advanced, and you've acknowledged it. Now you're just being a cunt.
Plan? (Score:2)
Musk is involved... (Score:5, Insightful)
If Musk is involved, it will happen... but not on time ;)
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It is really NASA's risk-adverse approach that extends all timelines
Simply criticizing Musk for pushing for better delivery is kind of like punishing the one person who is pressing to deliver quicker
Tell me, what is your dependence on ULA?
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Tell me, what is your dependence on ULA?
Tell me, what happened to your sense of humor?
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Tell me, what is your dependence on ULA?
Tell me, what happened to your sense of humor?
Gary is too busy for humor.
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Working through a massive sinus headache and slight nausea due to change in seasons and crap coffee
I apologize for failing to see the humour in your post
Alas, I also suffer from bitterness over NASA's recent trumpian slams aimed at SPaceX
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If Musk is involved, it will happen... but not on time ;)
He did get that battery bank installed in South Australia. Otherwise, yes, point stands.
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Schizoid NASA (Score:5, Interesting)
SpaceX is NASA's only hope in hell of achieving either of Trump's lunar dreams. Being pissy at them on Twitter is hardly going to motivate them to cooperate. NASA seems to forget that once Crew Dragon is done, they have money from many commercial customers plus Yusaku Maezawa. If NASA irritates them too much, they will be in a position to tell them to get bent, with exquisite politeness of course. This new guy at NASA seems to come from the Freewheeling Asshole school of management. That can work for a little while, but for anyone with options, it doesn't work at all.
And can you believe the nerve of this guy? The one company in the world who has ever recovered a first stage. The one company in the world that is putting massive amounts of downward pressure on launch costs. The one company in the world that can build a capsule for them radically cheaper than the usual suspects. And he's bitching at them for a little parachute trouble? Jim Bridenstine needs to sit down, shut up, and say 'Thank you' when SpaceX delivers a working capsule to them for $1.6 billion less than Boeing. $1.6 billion! I know government employees throw around billions like they're pocket change, but that is still a LOT of money.
Relax, Jim. Crew Dragon will get done. It will be safe. It will be reliable. It will restore America's ability to lift astronauts into orbit. It will be everything you asked for. I'm not so confident that we can say as much about Boeing.
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It is almost as if the NASA admin is acting at the behest of Congressional reps from Alabama, which are focused on getting more money for ULA since it will be spent in their state
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Seriously, fuck off. Elon Musk is a fucking dilettante. Do you have a fucking clue on how this works. There's no magic being worked here. We have DECADES of engineering knowledge on this stuff. The fucking question is can this be done reliably and safely. Re-usable is a fucking dream. Because you will have to replace the rocket and/or capsule due to the stress of launch and reent
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Funny, some dumbass says:
The fucking question is can this be done reliably and safely. Re-usable is a fucking dream.
And yet, publicly available data pegs ULA DeltaV launch at 109-153 Million dollars, while SpaceX launches for 61 million dollars... [wikipedia.org]
C'mon sparky show me the value of paying over 2 times as much for the same service
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Quick mea culpa, above link should have named AtlasV as ULA's current launch vehicle
The same list also claims that ULS Vulcan will launch for _only_ $91 Million, or 150% of SpaceX, and THAT is nothing but a press release
In the mean-time Ariane engineers have admitted that their newest generation will not be cost competitive with SpaceX [arstechnica.com]
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So, uh, how many billions have you made as the chief engineer in addition to chief executive of space launch companies? You throw around "fucking dilettante" a lot, but do you actually have any clue what Musk does, day to day? My housemate is an engineer at SpaceX; I hear a lot of stories. Musk can be a hard guy to work for, always coming up with "crazy" new engineering projects and re-designing systems... but the really crazy thing is that a lot of the engineering projects Musk launches work out. That man