SpaceX Dragon 2 - testing & updates


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  • 2 weeks later...

The SpaceX CRS-2 award mentioned using both Dragon 1 and Dragon 2, with Dragon 1 having the big CBM port for bulky cargo and Dragon 2 having a rapid trip propulsive landing option. Landing sites are KSC LZ-1, 2 or 3;  the Houston Spaceport at Ellington; and IIRC Edwards.  Right to NASA or the  USAF's front yard.

 

Also, starting with CRS-11 Dragon 1's will be reflown airframes. This frees up the production line for Dragon 2's. 

 

REUSE IS HERE.  

 

The second is likely Cargo Dream Chaser since it has an IDA. No room in the tail for the large CBM, and the small CBM is nearly the same size as IDA. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Commercial Crew Program Partner Milestones

 

Uncrewed ISS test flights

 

Crew Dragon: May 2017
Boeing Starliner: December 2017

 

Crewed ISS test flights

 

Crew Dragon: August 2017

Boeing Starliner: February 2018

 

Certification Review

 

Crew Dragon: October 2017

Boeing Starliner: May 2018

 

IMG_20160725_104416.jpg

Edited by DocM
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I'm looking forward to November then! Those suits are going to be the absolute bomb

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Was following tweets about the presser, unbelievable how that mess of an SLS/Orion is going to be at least a full decade behind the facts _if_ the SpaceX timeline holds.

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I'm still shocked that it hasn't been cancelled.

 

Meanwhile the CCP timeline (thanks to LH/M and the problems with Starliner) has had to be bumped again. I don't have a problem with SpaceX having more time to work on Dragon 2, of course -- after all, it's good sense to make the most of the opportunity when your competition has knocked themselves on their own posteriors from their own mistakes -- but Starliner might as well be Apollo 2.0 ... the design is from 2003. Talk about a severe lack of creativity.

 

Even SpaceX has to be getting frustrated by the delays by now.

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SpaceX will be shipping 2 former NASA MILA (Merritt Island Launch Annex) S-band 9 meter ground station antennas from KSC to Brownsville, arriving September-ish. These will be used, along with other stations, to track Dragon missions.

 

spacex-falcon9-launchpad.jpg

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tick off another milestone.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2016/08/19/spacex-conducts-successful-crew-dragon-parachute-system-test/


SpaceX Conducts Successful Crew Dragon Parachute System Test

A Crew Dragon test article successfully deployed its four main parachutes as planned during a test that saw the SpaceX-made test article dropped from a C-130 aircraft 26,000 feet above Delamar Dry Lake, Nevada. The Crew Dragon, designed to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, will use four parachutes when returning to Earth. SpaceX plans to land the initial flight tests and missions in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX is working on a propulsive landing system the company intends to use in the future missions to propulsively land on land using its SuperDraco engines.

The parachute test is just one of an evaluation regimen that is expected to include many additional parachute drops of increasing complexity. SpaceX and NASA engineers will use the results throughout the test program to confirm the system and get it certified for use first on flight tests and then for operational missions. Photos by SpaceX.

post-10859-0-71132700-1471627902.jpg

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

@jeff_foust from AIAA 2016

 

Crew Dragon

 

Benji Reed of SpaceX says to drive by company HQ in Hawthorne to see landed F9 booster. “It’s a lot bigger than you think.” #AIAASpace

 

Reed: going through lot of testing on Crew Dragon, including parachutes, capsule qualification, design closeouts. #AIAASpace

 

Reed didn’t give any specific schedules for Crew Dragon demo missions, which likely in flux anyway. #AIAASpace

 

Reed: focus is on getting F9 ready to fly again soon. We want to fly when it’s safe, and keep comm’l crew on track. #AIAASpace

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  • 5 weeks later...

Sounds like the Dragon 2 propulsive landing tests worked and NASA is on board: the CRS-2 ISS cargo runs will use it.

 


@jeff_foust

[Benji] Reed [SpaceX]: SpaceX has delivered 15,800 kg of cargo to ISS, returned 12,100 kg to date. 11 more missions remaining on CRS-1 contract. 
>
Reed: well use Dragon 2 for our CRS-2 missions, with propulsive landing (vs. splashdown). #ISPCS2016
>
Reed: well re-fly our first Dragon capsule on the SpX-11 mission, so relatively soon. #ISPCS2016
>
Reed: reusing Dragon capsules will allow us to close down the Dragon 1 production line and focus on Dragon 2. #ISPCS2016
>
Reed: biggest issue for reusing Dragon was dealing with water intrusion. Worked hard to update capsule to avoid it. #ISPCS2016

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Those tests must have went well. I seem to remember that NASA was only luke warm to the idea, if an opportunity presented itself.

 

We will now have another landing "show" to attend ....:)

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As noted in the general SpaceX thread, the test vehicle showed up for Obama to get a look so it must have worked. A bit of soot, wear & tear but not a crash test victim.

 

IMG_20161013_214544.jpg

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

From ISPCS* 2016: SpaceX's Benjamin "Benji" Reed, Director of Crew Mission Management 

 

1) Commonality between Crew and Cargo Dragon 2; both will dock, no  berthing, plus what's below.

 

2) all 6 CRS Round 2 missions will use Cargo Dragon 2 with propulsive landing at KSC.

 

3) Cargo Dragon 2 has significantly more internal volume. [To meet the CRS Round 2 max delivered volume requirement in 6 flights it would need to be about 11.7 m^3. Cargo Dragon 1 is 10 m^3]

 

4) working on unused CRS Round 2 upmass to be sold commercially [per NASA.]

 

5) CRS-11 will be a reflown Cargo Dragon 1.

 

*International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight

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Awww yeah. :yes: They wanted to retire the Cargo Dragons, so it's fine. I'd love to see them refly one or two of them though, just to prove that it was all worth the trouble -- and they'll succeed brilliantly.

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