How Quickly We Forgot Those Space Shuttle Things
SpaceX Dragon’s second splashdown is a historic first, CNET
“Until now, no single craft has visited the ISS and returned to Earth more than once. In fact, all other non-SpaceX vehicles that visit the space station are designed to burn up in the atmosphere after a single flight. SpaceX has been recovering its Dragon capsules via splashdowns in the ocean, but this is the first time that one of those recycled craft has completed a second re-supply mission.”
Good point! Looks like some key words were missing from the CNET story. We've fixed. Thanks for pointing out!!
— Michelle Meyers (@meymichelle) July 3, 2017
And Soyuz. I’m fairly sure that’s a non-SpaceX vehicle which goes to ISS and is not designed to burn up on reentry.
Soyuz does not get reused on multiple flights, obviously
Obviously. But the story also said, “In fact, all other non-SpaceX vehicles that visit the space station are designed to burn up in the atmosphere after a single flight.” That isn’t true, since the Soyuz vehicle doesn’t burn up on reentry.
Ah yes, diagonal read. The article is indeed still wrong even after the correction.
I wonder how the author thought astronauts returned home?
Parachute.
Dragon is currently the only unmanned cargo spacecraft that visits ISS and does not burn up on reentry. Clearly manned spacecraft never want to “burn up” on reentry. 😛
The lede is all about reusability – a fact worth pointing out (I mean the lede- seeing that reusability is now a thing, and that reusability is in itself newsworthy). I can overlook a few things wrong because at least she sees it’s important. And really STS were such different beasts.
On another point – the lady accepts correction with grace. A home run in my book.
Shuttle was not the first reusable. Look at the Almaz program for the first space station with reusable transportation. Do not believe the capsule was ever actually reused but what they did was a remarkable for the period – and in complete secrecy.
If you are going to bring up the Almaz let’s not forget the Blue Gemini which was also going to be reused for the MOL the USAF was working on. It predated Almaz by a decade and the Gemini capsule on display in the USAF museum actually did fly twice into space on unmanned test flights.
Traditionally, it doesn’t count as a record or a “firsts” unless it actually happened. The Shuttle, X-37B, Falcon first stage and Dragon have been reused. Almaz and Blue Gemini involved plans for reuse, but they never actually did it. Buran could have been reused but it never actually was.
But Thomas is correct. There is an actual Gemini capsule in the small USAF Museum on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station that flew into orbit twice, the first spacecraft to do so. I have seen it many times.
Gemini 2. I had to look that up, but you are mostly correct. Mostly because it made two, unmanned suborbital flights. I thought we were talking about orbital ones. If we are including suborbital ones, we should include the X-15 as well. Maybe. Does anyone know if the same X-15 flew into space more than once?
“Does anyone know if the same X-15 flew into space more than once?“
Although several X-15 flights exceeded the USAF designation of 50 miles, only two flights in the X-15 program went above 100 km. Both flights were piloted by Joseph Walker in the same aircraft, X-15 #3 (serial no. 56-6672) in July and August 1963.
First flown by Neil Armstrong, X-15 #3 was later destroyed in the Michael Adams crash in 1967. Only X-15 #1 and #2 remain in museums (Smithsonian and USAF). Joseph Walker was killed in the XB-70 midair collision in 1966.
In hindsight, those X-15 flights appear to the much more dangerous than even the Mercury flights. I suppose one could make lists for each vehicle, but still.
Chuck Yeager – and his colleagues, but especially Chuck Yeager – has been a hero top me since I was a wee person. His X15 flight was 2 years before I was born.
And the General was a “mustang”, as they are called, a person who joined the service as an enlisted man and became an officer. It’s rare, though not so rare then as now, but still quite unusual. The Army is very straightforward on the issue of ability and leadership, and Yeager had both.
Yeager enlisted as a buck private and retired with a star as Brigadier.
In October of 1942 he strapped a rocket between his legs – the X15 wasn’t much more than a seat, some stubby wings, and a hell of a lot of horsepower – and took her supersonic, after a test pilot for Bell demanded $15,000 to do the same thing, a story I’ve known for some time and corroborated by Wikipedia.
Some kind of guy.
For me the most memorable moment of “The Right Stuff” was Yeager’s cameo appearance as the bartender at Poncho’s.
Just 24 years old when he made the historic X-1 flight in 1947, amazingly on the 50th anniversary in 1997 at age 74 Yeager flew an F-15 at Mach 1. His entire flying career was definitely legendary
Ah, the XB-70… man I loved that aircraft as a kid. Thought it was the most amazing thing. B-58 Hustler was pretty cool too…
And SpaceShipOne should also be on the list of suborbital vehicles which have actually been reused. And New Shepard. Did I forget anyone else?
Its only a matter of time before someone claims there were far too big to ever fly into space and it was all a hoax, like they do with Apollo. That is what happens when a nation starts to retreat instead of boldly moving forward…
It’s already happening!! A friend of mine visited ‘Endeavour’ at the California Science Center earlier this year and overheard a man saying to his sidekick – “Nice lookin’ ship – pity it never actually flew anywhere except just beyond the horizon to an island, then they faked the rest”. My friend was speechless and being a small guy with rheumatoid arthritis, was not inclined to argue with the fool. And when the new Canadian Astronauts were announced about a week ago, morons and monsters on every social media platform were welcoming them to the ‘fine tradition of actors and phoneys’ etc. You can read this stuff if you like people – then you can weep. 🙁
I wonder how long before they claim passengers never crossed the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound. They will probably claim that British Airways and Air France just altered the clocks to fool them into thinking they did so.
Which really brings us around to the decline in the advance of aviation in general. Its hard to believe we are using Bombers (B52), Tankers (KC-135), and Transports (C-130) that are from the 1950’s. while the B737 and B747, both from the 1960’s still carry a large share of cargo and airline passengers. I just saw an Cessa 310 takeoff outside my office window, another 1950’s design.
What ever happened to the Mach 3 airliners and flying cars we were supposed to have today?
Physics.
Those may have been fanciful, but the all-composite light sport aircraft of today have performance that cannot be matched by legacy designs. The 787 may not be supersonic, but its advancement in efficiency over previous generations of airliners is every bit as incredible.
The C-130 is more a category than a specific design. The highly automated and far more powerful C-130J (https://en.wikipedia.org/wi… still has four props and a high wing, but otherwise it is vastly beyond the capabilities of the original C-130.
But the greatest advances are in the unmanned aircraft, which decades ago were just a curiosity used occasionally for target practice.
Some designs are just good. The 737 is one of them, although the -900ER is significantly different from the first 737 to fly in 1967. The 747 is also a demonstrably better design that some. You still see them around; it’s been a while since I saw a L1011 or DC-10 (or MD-11).
Good, but old designs sticking around isn’t unique to space or aviation. The HMS Victory was 40 years old when it was Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar, was in active service for another 19 years, and is still (technically) the flagship of the First Sea Lord. Although doing that in dry dock does make it a bit of a technicality…
As for the Mach 3 airliners, I’d love to see them. But flying cars? I get around primarily by walking, and that’s given me a pedestrian’s dismal view of most drivers’ skills and manners. Do you really want to give the average motorist three dimensions and plenty of room to fall on someone or thing?
I always agree with them and then say “ya people also think that you can access all of human knowledge from your cell phone on the internet, that is crazy talk”
I’ve said similar to someone – the result can be eyes rolling or a wry smile that still doesn’t look like they’re giving in…
More like that’s what happens when there are idiots who are also conspiracy theorists. But yeah, I guess if we kept visibly advancing then they probably wouldn’t invent BS like that.
Yep! If their were still astronauts on the Moon today giving live interviews it would be hard to claim we never went there 🙂
To make any such concrete accomplishments in the future we need to understand history accurately and practice critical thinking. If our citizens accept anything they hear that agrees with their preconceptions, reject anything that they don’t already agree with, and lack the desire and ability to question thier own biases and understand history and science on the basis of observed facts and rigorous logic, then putting on more shows will accomplish little.
“Some key words were missing”. That’s putting it lightly.
Well is was the first privately owned spacecraft to visit twice. NASA did pay for it to fly up there. The STSs that made multiple ISS visits were NASA owned and funded, property of the US taxpayers………….