8 ms·

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule successfully returns from ISS resupply mission

190 points by andruby 9y ago

Fjolsvith 9y ago
And NASA couldn't do this?
- chasingtheflow 9y ago
  NASA's focus has shifted more to deep space
- greglindahl 9y ago
  NASA paid SpaceX to do it, actually.
- bbojan 9y ago
  NASA could have totally done this, just not at that cost.
  - RobertoG 9y ago
    Sometimes I have the feeling that the problem with NASA is not bureaucracy but subcontracting. Maybe, it acquired too many leeches feeding from it to move fast and lean since the Moon landings times? Perhaps somebody more informed in the organizational differences between then and now care to share his opinion.
    - mikeash 9y ago
      NASA definitely moved fast for Apollo, but I wouldn't call it lean. I think its biggest problem is that it's such a political animal. They can't just do things in the obvious and straightforward way. The work has to be spread around so that each congressman's district can get a piece of the pie.
    - mschuster91 9y ago
      > Maybe, it acquired too many leeches feeding from it to move fast and lean since the Moon landings times? Yes, that's one part - but the "real" reason is risk aversity. Basically, as long as there was the UdSSR to beat in a space race, the American public was 100% behind NASA - no matter how much (money and lives) it'd cost. When the Soviets were beat square, there was nothing worth the "risk" so everything had to be done by the books, with certifications and all that other bureaucratic nonsense.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - bkanber 9y ago
      NASA's focus is not so much the engineering of repeatable launches. NASA's focus is the deep science of next-gen space travel and utility, solar system exploration, etc. There was a Reddit AMA recently where a NASA director said they're happy to help SpaceX innovate in rocket engineering and reducing launch cost, because that's not where NASA wants to focus.
- ceejayoz 9y ago
  Currently? No, they've got no vessel that could do this. In the future? Sure, they could, but it's kinda silly to use NASA's resources on shuttling cargo to/from low Earth orbit. That can and should be a routine thing that we offload to commercial entities, so NASA can focus on the risky, not-profitable, big-picture stuff.
mulletbum 9y ago
I know everyone keeps saying this, but the fact that this type of thing is happening and it has almost become boring is just fantastic! We are on the cusp of the most ground breaking time in the space industry. I cannot wait to see what happens next. Space-X makes me wish I was 18 again so I could change my field of work.
- imbusy111 9y ago
  Change into what exactly?
  - icholy 9y ago
    aerospace engineering?
  - SubiculumCode 9y ago
    Space Explorer?
  - SubiculumCode 9y ago
    Colonist?
  - ChuckMcM 9y ago
    Astronaut. Back when I was at a point to choose a career to get me into space the only choice was "join the military, get flight status, apply to NASA." SpaceX can launch its own rockets into space, so they could conceivably launch their own crews. Certainly the 'space tourist' business from Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have employees as 'operators' for the equipment, they just have less capable equipment. The fact that SpaceX exists and is competing in the crew option means that "Dragon Pilot for SpaceX" can be a thing. Before now, that was just science fiction.
    - joshvm 9y ago
      One positive note for astronaut wannabees - the average astronaut age is relatively high, mid 30s is the average and 40s is not uncommon. You have plenty of time to build up a respectable science career and get fit! Although all astronauts have stellar (ha) resumes, most are not test pilots. Mission specialists come from all areas of science: the current cohort include a marine biologist, geologist, oceanographer and a ton of aero/astro engineers Then you remember that you're also competing with Jonny Kim: > The California native trained and operated as a Navy SEAL, completing more than 100 combat operations and earning a Silver Star and Bronze Star with Combat “V”. Afterward, he went on to complete a degree in Mathematics at the University of San Diego and a Doctorate of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
addHocker 9y ago
From Impact-boom to elevator-bling in 2 years. Not bad, Mr.Musk, not bad at all.
treetoppin 9y ago
Stories like this remind me that we are standing at a key decision point for human presence in space. At the culmination of the commercial resupply and commercial crew contracts that NASA has been fundinf there will be several privately held entities that have the capacity to send people and pressurized cargo to and from low earth orbit. Now will be the first time that all of us space dreamers will have the opportunity to see if capitalism can find a reason to send humans into space. Very exciting, but its going to be a time to either put up or shut up.
- bane 9y ago
  I think the up-down space industry is not necessarily where the future lies. Fighting gravity wells is a huge and someday not terribly useful expense. Bootstrapping an end-to-end mine-to-manufacture space industry is probably where we'll be in the much longer term. Right now we have to haul 100% of our mass into orbit. But what if we derived that mass from sources that weren't at the bottom of a huge gravity well? If we can shift most of that mass to those sources, convert the raw materials to finished goods and start to construct habitats in space, we can move that 100% up/down to just us and a few things we can't space-derive. Building out that manufacturing and supply line is where the future really is and it will allow us to handle component assembly on scales far outside of the reach of any space-launch system no matter how cheap. Moving a million tons of steel and composite from one point in space to another is just a matter of delta-V to get it going and to get it to stop moving. Getting it up from the ground may be an impossible endeavor. The entire ISS weighs only 450 tons. But an Aircraft Carrier weighs 100,000+ tons. Even with a 90% launch cost reduction, it's impossible to build Carrier-sized habitats without breaking national economies. How does this get funded? Also not sure, but I have a sense that there's enough rich people who wouldn't mind living in orbit and dropping down to any point on the planet in about an hour if their physical presence is required and getting back "home" a couple hours later. But with enough industry, a contract signing ceremony to build a factory in France could simply be shifted to an intra-orbital flight to an orbital factory for a tiny fraction of that cost and time. There's potential efficiencies in space. And a lot of very valuable R&D waiting to happen to make it work. And I think that R&D hill is where the medium-term money is.
justifier 9y ago
is there a timetable on a drone landing for the dragon capsule?
- wolf550e 9y ago
  Red Dragon is cancelled, but watch Elon's update[1] on September 29th for the Mars plan. There should be a good discussion thread on reddit.com/r/spacex/ if you don't want to watch the Livestream. 1 - http://www.iafastro.org/elon-musk-at-iac-2017-in-adelaide/ http://www.iafastro.org/elon-musk-at-iac-2017-in-adelaide/
  - SuoDuanDao 9y ago
    Hey, that's my birthday! Hope I get something good :)
TeMPOraL 9y ago
Did anyone notice that SpaceX launch streams stopped showing on HN's frontpage? That's a testament to their work; we all treat both their launches and landings as normal now.

190 points by andruby 9y ago

Fjolsvith 9y ago

And NASA couldn't do this?

chasingtheflow 9y ago
NASA's focus has shifted more to deep space
greglindahl 9y ago
NASA paid SpaceX to do it, actually.
bbojan 9y ago
NASA could have totally done this, just not at that cost.
- RobertoG 9y ago
  Sometimes I have the feeling that the problem with NASA is not bureaucracy but subcontracting. Maybe, it acquired too many leeches feeding from it to move fast and lean since the Moon landings times? Perhaps somebody more informed in the organizational differences between then and now care to share his opinion.
  - mikeash 9y ago
    NASA definitely moved fast for Apollo, but I wouldn't call it lean. I think its biggest problem is that it's such a political animal. They can't just do things in the obvious and straightforward way. The work has to be spread around so that each congressman's district can get a piece of the pie.
  - mschuster91 9y ago
    > Maybe, it acquired too many leeches feeding from it to move fast and lean since the Moon landings times? Yes, that's one part - but the "real" reason is risk aversity. Basically, as long as there was the UdSSR to beat in a space race, the American public was 100% behind NASA - no matter how much (money and lives) it'd cost. When the Soviets were beat square, there was nothing worth the "risk" so everything had to be done by the books, with certifications and all that other bureaucratic nonsense.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - bkanber 9y ago
    NASA's focus is not so much the engineering of repeatable launches. NASA's focus is the deep science of next-gen space travel and utility, solar system exploration, etc. There was a Reddit AMA recently where a NASA director said they're happy to help SpaceX innovate in rocket engineering and reducing launch cost, because that's not where NASA wants to focus.
ceejayoz 9y ago
Currently? No, they've got no vessel that could do this. In the future? Sure, they could, but it's kinda silly to use NASA's resources on shuttling cargo to/from low Earth orbit. That can and should be a routine thing that we offload to commercial entities, so NASA can focus on the risky, not-profitable, big-picture stuff.

mulletbum 9y ago

I know everyone keeps saying this, but the fact that this type of thing is happening and it has almost become boring is just fantastic! We are on the cusp of the most ground breaking time in the space industry. I cannot wait to see what happens next. Space-X makes me wish I was 18 again so I could change my field of work.

imbusy111 9y ago
Change into what exactly?
- icholy 9y ago
  aerospace engineering?
- SubiculumCode 9y ago
  Space Explorer?
- SubiculumCode 9y ago
  Colonist?
- ChuckMcM 9y ago
  Astronaut. Back when I was at a point to choose a career to get me into space the only choice was "join the military, get flight status, apply to NASA." SpaceX can launch its own rockets into space, so they could conceivably launch their own crews. Certainly the 'space tourist' business from Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have employees as 'operators' for the equipment, they just have less capable equipment. The fact that SpaceX exists and is competing in the crew option means that "Dragon Pilot for SpaceX" can be a thing. Before now, that was just science fiction.
  - joshvm 9y ago
    One positive note for astronaut wannabees - the average astronaut age is relatively high, mid 30s is the average and 40s is not uncommon. You have plenty of time to build up a respectable science career and get fit! Although all astronauts have stellar (ha) resumes, most are not test pilots. Mission specialists come from all areas of science: the current cohort include a marine biologist, geologist, oceanographer and a ton of aero/astro engineers Then you remember that you're also competing with Jonny Kim: > The California native trained and operated as a Navy SEAL, completing more than 100 combat operations and earning a Silver Star and Bronze Star with Combat “V”. Afterward, he went on to complete a degree in Mathematics at the University of San Diego and a Doctorate of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

addHocker 9y ago

From Impact-boom to elevator-bling in 2 years. Not bad, Mr.Musk, not bad at all.

treetoppin 9y ago

Stories like this remind me that we are standing at a key decision point for human presence in space. At the culmination of the commercial resupply and commercial crew contracts that NASA has been fundinf there will be several privately held entities that have the capacity to send people and pressurized cargo to and from low earth orbit. Now will be the first time that all of us space dreamers will have the opportunity to see if capitalism can find a reason to send humans into space. Very exciting, but its going to be a time to either put up or shut up.

bane 9y ago
I think the up-down space industry is not necessarily where the future lies. Fighting gravity wells is a huge and someday not terribly useful expense. Bootstrapping an end-to-end mine-to-manufacture space industry is probably where we'll be in the much longer term. Right now we have to haul 100% of our mass into orbit. But what if we derived that mass from sources that weren't at the bottom of a huge gravity well? If we can shift most of that mass to those sources, convert the raw materials to finished goods and start to construct habitats in space, we can move that 100% up/down to just us and a few things we can't space-derive. Building out that manufacturing and supply line is where the future really is and it will allow us to handle component assembly on scales far outside of the reach of any space-launch system no matter how cheap. Moving a million tons of steel and composite from one point in space to another is just a matter of delta-V to get it going and to get it to stop moving. Getting it up from the ground may be an impossible endeavor. The entire ISS weighs only 450 tons. But an Aircraft Carrier weighs 100,000+ tons. Even with a 90% launch cost reduction, it's impossible to build Carrier-sized habitats without breaking national economies. How does this get funded? Also not sure, but I have a sense that there's enough rich people who wouldn't mind living in orbit and dropping down to any point on the planet in about an hour if their physical presence is required and getting back "home" a couple hours later. But with enough industry, a contract signing ceremony to build a factory in France could simply be shifted to an intra-orbital flight to an orbital factory for a tiny fraction of that cost and time. There's potential efficiencies in space. And a lot of very valuable R&D waiting to happen to make it work. And I think that R&D hill is where the medium-term money is.

justifier 9y ago

is there a timetable on a drone landing for the dragon capsule?

wolf550e 9y ago
Red Dragon is cancelled, but watch Elon's update[1] on September 29th for the Mars plan. There should be a good discussion thread on reddit.com/r/spacex/ if you don't want to watch the Livestream. 1 - http://www.iafastro.org/elon-musk-at-iac-2017-in-adelaide/ http://www.iafastro.org/elon-musk-at-iac-2017-in-adelaide/
- SuoDuanDao 9y ago
  Hey, that's my birthday! Hope I get something good :)

TeMPOraL 9y ago

Did anyone notice that SpaceX launch streams stopped showing on HN's frontpage? That's a testament to their work; we all treat both their launches and landings as normal now.