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That was the original plan, but NASA asked SpaceX to do splashdowns instead as it's viewed as a less risky landing method for a crewed vehicle.
by skykooler 8y ago
That was the original plan, but NASA asked SpaceX to do splashdowns instead as it's viewed as a less risky landing method for a crewed vehicle.
- JulianMorrison 8y agoI figure it's less important to them for Mars etc, now that they plan to land the whole "second stage".
- skykooler 8y agoThe second stage landing has been shelved, to work on Starship.
- JulianMorrison 8y agoStarship is a second stage.
- skykooler 8y agoSorry, I should clarify - the Falcon second-stage landing has been shelved. At this point Falcon is mostly a mature rocket, with (as I understand) the only continuing development being on the fairing recovery systems.
- nickhalfasleep 8y agoI assume they will pull off a few unscrewed cargo rocket decelerations before offering it as a crewed option.
- rojobuffalo 8y agoAren't splashdowns bad for re-usability? Doesn't all the saltwater do more damage than a falcon-style landing would do?
- mLuby 8y agoYes, they are planning to refurbish and re-fly the splashed down crew Dragons as cargo dragons. But each crew Dragon will be new. I think Musk said it's almost as expensive to refurbish as build a new one (which is crazy to me but he'd know).