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SpaceX Completes Dragon Parachute Test

Posted by timothy on from the here-be-drougeans dept.

mattclar writes "SpaceX just released footage and pictures of last week's Dragon parachute drop test. Using an Erickson Air-Crane, the Dragon capsule was carried to 14,000 feet, then released. After a few seconds of freefall, the drouge chutes appeared, followed by the main chutes. The test concluded with a gentle touchdown within the target area to conclude a test described by SpaceX as '100% successful.'"

2 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not level by darkmeridian · · Score: 2, Interesting

    SpaceX eventually wants to land this sucker on the ground instead of splashing down to save recovery costs. They will need retrorockets and landing gears to do this. I think the landing angle is designed to accommodate a future landing gear.

    --
    A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
  2. Re:It's SO GREAT! by CapOblivious2010 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    we really need to be reinventing the shuttles as they are reusable, sustainable, and have much more cargo space.

    Wrong on nearly all counts: yes, shuttles are (sort of) reusable, but they have a finite lifetime (a few dozen launches) and they require so much refurbishing that they might as well be rebuilt from scratch. Not quite sure how you measure sustainable, but refurbishing a shuttle costs more than building a Saturn V from scratch, so that's not exactly a win. And finally, a Saturn V can put over 100 tons into orbit; the shuttle can only put 19 tons in orbit.