An interesting look at the delays for Commercial Crew.
Coming in on chutes is such a 20th-century concept. At some point we will land rockets just as we do airplanes. And if Elon has his way, that point will be within half a decade, at which point, Crew Dragon capsules may come back inside a Starship.
At some point we will land rockets just as we do airplanes
I’d say helicopters would be a more apt simile, except for Skylon.
… at which point, Crew Dragon capsules may come back inside a Starship.
Lest we forget the original plan for Crew Dragon (Dragon V2) was propulsive landing using the same SuperDracos that provide the launch escape system. NASA would have none of that. So as long as NASA is footing the bill I doubt it. Maybe in two decades or 5-10 years *after* SpaceX has been routinely landing crewed Starships. It would be so typical that NASA insist on bringing the crew down in Crew Dragons captured into the Starship’s cargo hold whilst the crew of the Starship waves at the crew in the Dragons prior to de-orbit. NASA will hang onto its buggy whip in case the crank doesn’t work…
Starship may not be capable of docking at ISS, due to clearance issues, so Dragon might be an intermediary way of getting crew home.
I’m sorry I can’t get over the images from You Only Live Twice Mr. Simberg.
NASA would have none of that.
I did not realize until recently how much of a delay in Crew Dragon development was caused by the abandonment of retropropulsive landing.
I so wish that NASA’s Commercial Crew management had simply told SpaceX it was a non-starter from the very outset, before any time was spent by SpaceX on it.
Noted: Eye roll.
Related to the Parachute Problem, Tim Dodd (“The Everyday Astronaut”) has a new video out today on launch abort systems, “Why Starship won’t have an abort system… but should it?”
At any rate, when he delves into the final section, “Are Launch Abort Systems Necessary for Human Spaceflight?” I thought of your work on this question, Rand. “But you’re solving the problem of rockets by sticking more rockets on them!” If his answer to the question ends up being “Yes”, I appreciate the fact that it’s a rather equivocal answer that appreciates that risk calculation is not so straightforward as NASA’s conventional wisdom is assumed to suggest.
Time stamp link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6lPMFgZU5Q&t=2510s
I do think Starship is going to have to launch a bunch of times to prove out an architecture that relies on dispensing with a full-fledged launch abort system and uses retropropulsive landing rather than parachutes. Fortunately (unlike SLS) it’s designed to do just that!