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After Trip to ISS, SpaceX's Dragon Capsule Returns Safely To Earth
thomas.kane writes "SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft has successfully reentered and is now safely in the waters of the Pacific Ocean after more than 9 days in space. The Dragon capsule became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station on May 25; SpaceX is contracted by NASA for at least 12 more flights in the coming months bringing supplies to the space station and returning science done on board back to Earth."
Reader MightyMartian adds a link to coverage at the BBC.
first!
Touched down intact, but I wouldn't declare it safe till they recover it and open it... Re-entry is a bitch...
EA David Gardner -"... but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun."
This is most excelent news. I, for one, welcome our new private sector space overlords!
I'm happy to see Safety successfully returned to Earth.
This is fantastic news. I don't care what you think of space policy or anything, this is a good day for everybody.
Now, let's see NASA make good on their promise to hand over LEO to the private sector so they can think about Mars and beyond!
Karma: pi (Mostly due to circular reasoning in posts).
Never knew they took safety with them.
The beginning of a new age of space exploration.
Now stop goofing off, and start building Discovery already. I have monoliths that need checking out.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
In digging around various information sources on Dragon, I noticed something odd: It appears in thisphoto that the capsule is equipped with standard red/green navigation lights. Are these actual nav lights? Are they an FAA requirement?
Have gnu, will travel.
That should be the title of the soon to be released documentary.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
so I'll just say it. The Millenium Falcon was built by private enterprise. This is a great day.
Had to be the video of the astronauts opening up the space capsule with the required safety goggles and masks. If something failed and an astronaut got sucked into space I am sure his final words would have been "The goggles, they do nothing...".
Its great to see private enterprise enter the space race now, maybe NASA will stop billing $20k for a toilet seat and $30k for a hammer because SpaceX can get them at Walmart for $5 a piece.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
SpaceX has just announced the great success of its new heat shield technology. It turns out they were burning facebook shares to protect the craft.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
SpaceX has several flights of dragon and one sat coming later this year. The question becomes does SpaceX have their QA in line to handle these without errors. Likewise, can they launch the dragons on-time (in august and dec)? If they get it on-time, then I have little doubt that they will succeed next year.
Do note that SpaceX is suppose to launch a sat on the F9 in Oct. I would not be surprised to see them carry that through to next year. The reason is that they will have to make sure that sat release is decent. However, I will be impressed if they DO get all 3 off the ground and without any real errors.
Finally, note that Falcon Heavy is coming. It is 'suppose' to launch this year, but that is not likely. SpaceX will be doing checks and re-checks (even spaceX says that there is little chance of it launching this year). If SpaceX can get that off the ground in the first half of next year again without major errors, SpaceX OWNS the industry.
Windbourne
It would be interesting to see if the human expansion into space eventually ushers in further extension of the extremes of inequality, with the first trillionaires (as measured in today's currency, adjusted for inflation) being, say, asteroid mining tycoons. I don't yet have much of an opinion here; I'm more interested on reading others' thoughts on this.
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
..."Part of Dragon Capsule Returns Safely To Earth."
Unfortunately, the back half is jettisoned and burns up. It's a wonderful achievement but it isn't a spaceship. The shuttles were spaceships. Earth doesn't have any at present (unless you count the US Air Force's little robot one).
By this logic, Apollo wasn't a spaceship since the "back half" (a.k.a. Service Module or SM) was jettisoned and burned up prior to re-entry.
Does anyone know if the primary and secondary launch stages landed safely? I can't find any info on this.
-A
Safety not guaranteed.
They have only done this once before.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Imagine what that would be like of a successful and safe flight of Dragon carrying people to and from ISS. SpaceX may even beat a crewed Orion (so far they are ahead in terms of actually flying something). There are many critics saying it cannot be done, but reminds me back in usenet days, someone posted a story of a sci-fi author who noted names and home phone numbers of every journalist that denigrated Apollo program during 1960s. Then while really drunk while Neil and Buzz walked the surface of the moon, and in middle of the night he called these journalists on the phone, yelled, "Ya dumb son-of-a-bitch!" and hung up.
Anyone collecting names and phone numbers?
mfwright@batnet.com
Your "logic" is inconsistent. The external tank on the Shuttle was also jettisoned and burned up on reentry. This it must not have been a spaceship either.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
Given that you would need that type of lighting on a craft i would bet that the whole Red/Green thing is saving the amount of needed thought for the various operators
"Okay we need it with White on top Red on Left and Green on the right ... okay looks good ... keep coming ...."
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Arthur Dent? Arthur Philip Dent?
You're a jerk. A complete kneebiter.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
> By this logic, Apollo wasn't a spaceship...
Correct. Non-reusable "capsules" are not spaceships.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Facebook? :-)
The tank never entered orbit. Every part of the shuttle that reached orbit returned (and more importantly, went up again). A ship is not a single-use device.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I read your post and immediately thought "How did he link to the Wikipedia article and not see where it mentions piloted spacecraft?" only to find out someone deleted all references to spacecraft in January with no explanation.
You can see the previous version here.
My understanding is that manned, piloted spacecraft are supposed to have nav lights on them. The Shuttle didn't have them because the FAA gave them a waiver and special airspace.
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
Imagine what that would be like of a successful and safe flight of Dragon carrying people to and from ISS. SpaceX may even beat a crewed Orion (so far they are ahead in terms of actually flying something). There are many critics saying it cannot be done, but reminds me back in usenet days, someone posted a story of a sci-fi author who noted names and home phone numbers of every journalist that denigrated Apollo program during 1960s. Then while really drunk while Neil and Buzz walked the surface of the moon, and in middle of the night he called these journalists on the phone, yelled, "Ya dumb son-of-a-bitch!" and hung up.
Anyone collecting names and phone numbers?
I am pretty sure Neil and Buzz were not drunk while they walked on the moon.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Yeah, he was only buzzed.
The enemies of Democracy are
Imagine what that would be like of a successful and safe flight of Dragon carrying people to and from ISS. SpaceX may even beat a crewed Orion (so far they are ahead in terms of actually flying something). There are many critics saying it cannot be done, but reminds me back in usenet days, someone posted a story of a sci-fi author who noted names and home phone numbers of every journalist that denigrated Apollo program during 1960s. Then while really drunk while Neil and Buzz walked the surface of the moon, and in middle of the night he called these journalists on the phone, yelled, "Ya dumb son-of-a-bitch!" and hung up.
Anyone collecting names and phone numbers?
I am pretty sure Neil and Buzz were not drunk while they walked on the moon.
I think he meant the Sci-Fi author did the drunk-dialing bit, while watching a sober Neil and Buzz do the real moonwalk.
Good thing the Dragon is reusable then, isn't it?
Trying to become famous by taking photos. Visit my homepage please.
Ah, but Dragon IS reusable. The fact that SpaceX has no intention of proving that using NASA's absolutely insane reusability standard that was created for the purpose of improving the pork byproduct of the Space Shuttle doesn't mean it isn't. Instead, it will have to be reused for purely commercial missions that don't involve the ISS. No big deal.
...not funded through theft! This is a turning point.
You can keep your "spaceship" at $60,000 / kg to LTO. I'm betting on the "non-spaceship", which costs $5,400 / kg to LTO. Read wikipedia for the consequences of demanding full reusability.
Correct. Non-reusable "capsules" are not spaceships.
Let me see if I've got this straight. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Vostok, Voshkod and Soyuz are all not spaceships?
Get cleaning with the 1000 lbs of stale feces tossed about inside the Dragon module, lest the pad crew for the next supply mission complain of persistent foul odor within the spacecraft.
The shuttles also jettisoned the part that lifted them into space.
That's why the Death Star was blown up TWICE
HA! I've got you now!
The Enterprise was blown up many more times than TWICE! Enterprise WINS. Your argument is invalid.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Dragon capsule became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station on May 25
There was a second capsule that docked with the ISS on May 25th?
Actually it's the second successful Dragon reentry. Also, this mission combines COTS2/3, so it's also considered the third.
I don't even have the time to refute the conspiracy nuts who think nobody went to the Moon. My solution to deal with them is the same as Buzz Aldrin: punch them in the face and tell them to go to hell.
When they start going on about shadows pointing in different directions, set up two lamps, hand them two objects, and tell them to set up the objects so they cast just one shadow each, pointed in different directions.
When they fail, quietly ask them how long they've believed the shadow thing proved a giant government conspiracy, without checking how lighting actually work.
Then point out that even if you personally can't disprove every single one of the thousands of ridiculous claims made by the people selling the hoax books/films/etc, your single demonstration shows that they also have never looked, or even thought, about how shadows are actually cast. It seems reasonable to suppose that if they haven't checked the simplest claims, they also haven't checked the more complex. These assclowns don't know how shadows work, and you trust them to tell you whether the astronauts could have survived the radiation belts, or how quickly a space-suit will heat/cool under different lighting, or the behaviour of regolith dust under rocket nozzles or on landing pads?
And once you see that wonderful magical awareness start to creep across their face, once you realise you've actually gotten through to them, then punch them in the face and tell them to go to hell. Fucking morons.
The entire capsule returned to Earth. The trunk is not part of the capsule, nor is it a service module. While it contains solar panels it's primarily purpose is to hold some extra cargo. Arbitrarily defining the trunk as part of the "capsule", so you can pretend only part of the capsule returned to Earth, is retarded. If you want to say that a capsule isn't a "spaceship", for whatever moronic reason that's important to you, then just say it. You don't have to make things up to support it.
You're confusing about what "shuttle" means. The part that looked like a deformed plane was called the Orbiter. The "Shuttle" is the entire stack, the orbiter, the external tank, and the two solid rocket boosters.
And the "Air Force's little robot one" is called the X-37. I mean it's not like this stuff is hard to find.
Subject says it all.