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Nice that it went flawlessly, the first stage landed back well, and they reached the ISS a bit ahead of time. They even did some intentional back and forth man

Nice that it went flawlessly, the first stage landed back well, and they reached the ISS a bit ahead of time. They even did some intentional back and forth maneuvers to test the dragon. Do they need more tests before the manned flight?

Klathmon 8y ago
They still need to do an in-flight abort test, which i'm super excited for. They are going to send the whole thing up a second time (I believe they will be using this EXACT Crew Dragon capsule after it comes back down), but this time they will abort the launch mid-flight around max Q which will trigger the capsule to eject safely away from the explosion behind it. It's going to be quite the sight, and if everything goes to plan the first stage will basically be blown up and the dragon capsule will rocket away in a "Cool guys don't look at explosions" style!
- grecy 8y ago
  Everyone on /r/spacex keeps flip-flopping on this, but there have been indications SpaceX will try to recover the first stage after the abort. Should be interesting either way!
  - Klathmon 8y ago
    Last I heard they weren't even going to have the landing hardware on the booster, but you are right that there are rumblings about how exactly the abort test will happen. IIRC we know stage 2 is going to be mostly a mass simulator, but not much else.
    - grecy 8y ago
      I read a tweet from Elon that said Stage Two is flight hardware, with the exception of the vaccum Merlin engine that is a mass simulator.
- legohead 8y ago
  For anyone that hasn't seen the ground abort test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FXVjf46T8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FXVjf46T8 It's pretty rocking.
  - rplnt 8y ago
    I wonder if this one is still valid (for the human certification) as it was done with a very different capsule. Wasn't there a new one since?
    - Klathmon 8y ago
      Yeah the current Crew Dragon is different and needs to be "re-certified" for at least some things. NASA wants the exact configuration used to be validated.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

Klathmon 8y ago

They still need to do an in-flight abort test, which i'm super excited for. They are going to send the whole thing up a second time (I believe they will be using this EXACT Crew Dragon capsule after it comes back down), but this time they will abort the launch mid-flight around max Q which will trigger the capsule to eject safely away from the explosion behind it. It's going to be quite the sight, and if everything goes to plan the first stage will basically be blown up and the dragon capsule will rocket away in a "Cool guys don't look at explosions" style!

grecy 8y ago
Everyone on /r/spacex keeps flip-flopping on this, but there have been indications SpaceX will try to recover the first stage after the abort. Should be interesting either way!
- Klathmon 8y ago
  Last I heard they weren't even going to have the landing hardware on the booster, but you are right that there are rumblings about how exactly the abort test will happen. IIRC we know stage 2 is going to be mostly a mass simulator, but not much else.
  - grecy 8y ago
    I read a tweet from Elon that said Stage Two is flight hardware, with the exception of the vaccum Merlin engine that is a mass simulator.
legohead 8y ago
For anyone that hasn't seen the ground abort test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FXVjf46T8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FXVjf46T8 It's pretty rocking.
- rplnt 8y ago
  I wonder if this one is still valid (for the human certification) as it was done with a very different capsule. Wasn't there a new one since?
  - Klathmon 8y ago
    Yeah the current Crew Dragon is different and needs to be "re-certified" for at least some things. NASA wants the exact configuration used to be validated.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]