NASA May Be Sucking Wind, But The New SpaceX Dragon V2 Is Awesome

I just had to share this awesome video!

With NASA temporarily (we hope) out of the manned spaceflight business, our once-proud space program has been reduced to paying the Russians over $70 million per seat to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.
Now, the private company, SpaceX — which has already completed 3 successful missions to the space station — has unveiled its Dragon V2, which will not only be able to carry 7 astronauts into orbit, but can return them safely and land them in your backyard with the precision of a helicopter.
Yeah, Russians, bring it on: American technology is alive and well.

www.ijreview.com...

originally posted by: nighthawk1954
I just had to share this awesome video!

With NASA temporarily (we hope) out of the manned spaceflight business, our once-proud space program has been reduced to paying the Russians over $70 million per seat to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.
Now, the private company, SpaceX — which has already completed 3 successful missions to the space station — has unveiled its Dragon V2, which will not only be able to carry 7 astronauts into orbit, but can return them safely and land them in your backyard with the precision of a helicopter.
Yeah, Russians, bring it on: American technology is alive and well.

www.ijreview.com...

Yes, SpaceX is great. The plan has been all along that private industry will take over LEO so that NASA can focus on Deep-Space missions. Nasa is heavily involved in SpaceX's progress.

originally posted by: lostbook

...Nasa is heavily involved in SpaceX's progress.

Very true...

“I would not have been able to start SpaceX without the amazing work NASA has done in the past. Nor would SpaceX be where it is today without the help of NASA.”
-- Elon Musk

Here's that video,

It does look cool, I'm not sure about that swinging nosecone though..it just looks vunerable.

To add another thought to my post above...

This is not the first time outside independent companies have designed , built, and supplied space hardware. Granted, the funding mechanism and NASA oversight of SpaceX is much different than -- say -- for Apollo contractors, but even Apollo was not built in-house by NASA. Apollo hardware was designed and built by contacting companies.

-- The Saturn V rocket was built by three companies. Boeing built the first rocket stage, North American Aviation built the second stage, and The Douglas Aircraft Corporation built the third stage (which was also the cruise stage used for the trans-lunar injection).

The first stage was built in Boeing's' New Orleans plant, while the second and third stages were built in California in North American Aviation's plant and in Douglas' plant. NASA then received the various completed stages separately from these various companies, and then stacked the assembly together at their vehicle assembly building in Florida.

-- The Command Module (capsule) and the accompanying service module were built by North American Aviation.

-- The Lunar Module was designed and built by Grumman; they were the ones responsible for designing the LM and giving it that "bug-look". They built them in their plant in Long Island, NY, and shipped the finished product to NASA.

-- The Lunar Rovers were conceived, designed, and built by General Motors and Boeing. NASA had almost given up on a lunar rover, thinking that it would need to be sent ahead via a separate rocket (this making it cost-prohibitive), but two GM engineers convinced NASA that they could build a rover than could be folded up and taken along by the astronauts on the LM.

-- The Apollo space suits were deigned and built by ILC Dover, whose parent company at the time was ILC -- or International Latex Corporation -- who specialized in making women's underwear (they manufactured Platex bras and girdles). However, ILC Dover was a branch of that company that had prior experience in providing aviation pressure suits to the air force.

-- Hamilton standard designed and built the life support backpacks for the space suits.


But, like I said, this new Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program and the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programs for which SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, and Boeing are building spacecraft are different in the manner in which the contract is let, and in how NASA oversees the contract and contractors (i.e., NASA has less oversight and the contractors are far more independent) than it was back in the Apollo Program days.

This new method also has the independent contractor supply launch vehicle and launch services (although the launches will, at least for now, be done at NASA on launch pads leased from NASA by the independent contractor.


HOWEVER, it was still independent contractors who did the majority of the design and construction of the rockets, spacecraft, and hardware that went to the Moon. Independent contractors designing and constricting spacecraft is not that new.

originally posted by: smurfy
Here's that video,

It does look cool, I'm not sure about that swinging nosecone though..it just looks vunerable.

That's the first thing I thought, too -- that it could potentially get in the way. The other object they would be docking to would need to be designed to have a clear path around the docking ring for this open nose-cap to fit. I wonder if all ISS docking rings are currently compatible?

I'm also very eager to see more of the Dragon V2. I'd love to see them do a drop test from 30,000+ ft up and watch it land, sort of the same way it landed in the animation in this video starting at around the 5:45 mark:

a reply to: nighthawk1954

If someone kicked those boosters on while it was upside down it would cause some damage!

Nice post OP.

NASA is Sucking Wind

Climate change is causing the global increase in the wind suckage...

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Thank you for a most interesting read, my interests are at both ends of the spectrum, astronautics and archaeology! Plus the history in between.