I had a tear in my eye at the launch. And the docking put a smile on my face. Congrates to both SpaceX and NASA.
As a side note, it’s clear SpaceX and NASA have a good working relationship. I’m glad SpaceX, rather than Boeing, got first return of Americans to space on an American craft. The whole vibe would have been different if this had been a Boeing flight. Eventually Boeing will get their turn. Just not this time for this milestone.
My understanding is that NASA requires new hardware for each flight (at least for now), and that the crew dragons will fly again as cargo vessels only. Although I guess SpaceX could lauch it’s own astronauts in used crew dragons. Maybe others can provide more info.
Reuse of the Endeavor-class Crew Dragon will have to occur in order to maintain the economic advantages. If NASA wants to insist on new hardware for every one of their flights, fine (except for the higher costs to us taxpayers). But it will otherwise be like throwing away an airliner after every flight. Congratulations to SpaceX and NASA on this milestone flight of a new space system. Hopefully, the success will continue throughout the remainder of the mission. Ad LEO! Ad LUNA! Ad Ares! AD ASTRA!
Actually it will be providing SpaceX with a fleet of cargo vessels already paid for by NASA. They can fly them to the ISS, Bigelow and Axiom a few times on used F9’s
I have read elsewhere that SpaceX will use new build Dragon 2 vessels for cargo primarily because they won’t need the abort system (Super Dracos and their propellant tanks and plumbing). Not including those systems in the build will save a lot of mass that can be used for cargo.
I suppose time will tell. I’m sure that there will be a sub-Reddit tracking the Dragon 2 vehicles just like there is for Falcon 9 first stages.
The salt water won’t help. Originally SpaceX wanted to land propulsively. My only sadness about Crew Dragon is that it’s a water landing. Even a landing like Soyuz or Starliner would be better, but water was probably the most expeditious change when NASA decided to abandon propulsive landings.
Yes, one of many ways that NASA help dragged out the gap to support Old Space starting from day one when they switched funding for COTS-D to other programs.
Perhaps wishful thinking but I am kind of hoping that Elon will decide that the Endeavour capsule as well as the Falcon first stage will not fly again and will be kept for historic value. Flying them again risks losing them, probably not the capsule so much but the booster would be at risk, and it would be remarkable to have both of those together in a museum someday which would be an unprecedented display for any booster/capsule combo that flew together, but especially considering the historic nature of this particular flight.
Of course the bean counters at SpaceX would probably argue against such sentimentality, but I’m not sure they would really miss an extra Falcon 9 booster that much. And assuming that NASA continues at least for the near term to require a new capsule for each ISS flight they should have at least one extra capsule available by the time they fly their first commercial (i.e. non-NASA) flight.
I guess worse case if they fly the booster again and loose it, there could at least be a future display with Endeavour and the first recovered booster from 2015 which they did not fly again and which is currently on display outdoors at Hawthorne.
Elon Musk is very open to public input. Start a twitter Hashtag on his feed and it may well happen. Also push for the Smithsonian to ask for both the Falcon booster and Crew Dragon. They belong there.
Great Job! Congratulations both to SpaceX and NASA. ?
I had a tear in my eye at the launch. And the docking put a smile on my face. Congrates to both SpaceX and NASA.
As a side note, it’s clear SpaceX and NASA have a good working relationship. I’m glad SpaceX, rather than Boeing, got first return of Americans to space on an American craft. The whole vibe would have been different if this had been a Boeing flight. Eventually Boeing will get their turn. Just not this time for this milestone.
My understanding is that NASA requires new hardware for each flight (at least for now), and that the crew dragons will fly again as cargo vessels only. Although I guess SpaceX could lauch it’s own astronauts in used crew dragons. Maybe others can provide more info.
Reuse of the Endeavor-class Crew Dragon will have to occur in order to maintain the economic advantages. If NASA wants to insist on new hardware for every one of their flights, fine (except for the higher costs to us taxpayers). But it will otherwise be like throwing away an airliner after every flight.
Congratulations to SpaceX and NASA on this milestone flight of a new space system. Hopefully, the success will continue throughout the remainder of the mission.
Ad LEO! Ad LUNA! Ad Ares! AD ASTRA!
Actually it will be providing SpaceX with a fleet of cargo vessels already paid for by NASA. They can fly them to the ISS, Bigelow and Axiom a few times on used F9’s
I have read elsewhere that SpaceX will use new build Dragon 2 vessels for cargo primarily because they won’t need the abort system (Super Dracos and their propellant tanks and plumbing). Not including those systems in the build will save a lot of mass that can be used for cargo.
I suppose time will tell. I’m sure that there will be a sub-Reddit tracking the Dragon 2 vehicles just like there is for Falcon 9 first stages.
Who throws it away?
This was a decision made before SpaceX made reuse somewhat routine and was logical at the time. I wonder if it may be revisited at some point?
The salt water won’t help. Originally SpaceX wanted to land propulsively. My only sadness about Crew Dragon is that it’s a water landing. Even a landing like Soyuz or Starliner would be better, but water was probably the most expeditious change when NASA decided to abandon propulsive landings.
Yes, one of many ways that NASA help dragged out the gap to support Old Space starting from day one when they switched funding for COTS-D to other programs.
Perhaps wishful thinking but I am kind of hoping that Elon will decide that the Endeavour capsule as well as the Falcon first stage will not fly again and will be kept for historic value. Flying them again risks losing them, probably not the capsule so much but the booster would be at risk, and it would be remarkable to have both of those together in a museum someday which would be an unprecedented display for any booster/capsule combo that flew together, but especially considering the historic nature of this particular flight.
Of course the bean counters at SpaceX would probably argue against such sentimentality, but I’m not sure they would really miss an extra Falcon 9 booster that much. And assuming that NASA continues at least for the near term to require a new capsule for each ISS flight they should have at least one extra capsule available by the time they fly their first commercial (i.e. non-NASA) flight.
I guess worse case if they fly the booster again and loose it, there could at least be a future display with Endeavour and the first recovered booster from 2015 which they did not fly again and which is currently on display outdoors at Hawthorne.
Elon Musk is very open to public input. Start a twitter Hashtag on his feed and it may well happen. Also push for the Smithsonian to ask for both the Falcon booster and Crew Dragon. They belong there.
A seemingly perfect mission just keeps rolling.