11 thoughts on “SpaceX’s “Aggressive” Schedule”

1. As I posted over there, Boeing’s schedule is the aggressive one: nothing flies till 2017, then pad abort, unmanned test flight, manned flight within a few months. No in-flight abort test, we’ll just assume that would work.

   To me it sounds like the kind of schedule you post when you certainly aren’t ready to do anything now, but it’s to your advantage not to say so for two years.

   1. But Boeing has all of that manned space experience, what could possibly go wrong? OK, they bought McDonnell, which merged with Douglas decades ago and who built the Mercury and Gemini capsules. So what is all those engineers are almost certainly retired, if not deceased? Likewise, Boeing owns Rockwell that built the Apollo capsules and the Shuttle. Some of those Shuttle engineers might still be around. Probably not very many of the Apollo engineers, though.

      Since nothing can possible go wrong (, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong), having a compressed schedule makes perfect sense, right?

      (Need I add?) \sarc

2. I’m not sure at whom the retort was directed, but given the category of “Media Criticism”, I’ll assume it was being directed at Belfiore. To be fair to him, the use of the word “aggressive” first came from Garrett Reisman of SpaceX.

   So, while I agree that their schedule isn’t maximally aggressive from where they currently reside, it’s not like the media is making that statement up out of whole cloth.

   And, as a commenter over there suggests, Boeing’s schedule is arguably MORE aggressive, inasmuch as they plan three test flights within a 5-month period in 2017, and without any in-flight test, relying instead on “engineering models”.

3. Assuming the first Dragon flight with crew will be carrying SpaceX employees, rather than NASA astronauts, is there any hint as to the identity of those individuals?

   1. I would assume that Garrett Reisman would be one of them.

      1. As would I. I wonder who else? Is there another ex-NASA astronaut working at SpaceX?

         1. Well, there was Bowersox, but he left.

   2. Last I heard, the first flight to carry crew will be NASA astronauts.

4. SpaceX’s -manned Dragon- progress/launch schedule might not be aggressive, but the actual recent (2015) launch history and future launch list still boggles.

   January, February, March, April, … April, May Pad Abort, and expected in June, 2x July, Aug, Sept … little fuzzier out here. But 2016 has an even longer list.

   1. A high tempo is not necessarily aggressive. Of the flights you mentioned, only one was a test launch. They have tested landing, but the landing test hasn’t been the primary mission.

5. They’ve been building for more than this tempo for years. So it’s not a surprise. Each of the next three years should be even faster than the one before.

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