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Soyuz still uses UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide as its propellants. It simply jettisons the propulsion module before reentry so the reentry module has no thruster
by sephamorr 6y ago
Soyuz still uses UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide as its propellants. It simply jettisons the propulsion module before reentry so the reentry module has no thruster system and therefore no (toxic) fuel.
With the return of a SpaceX vehicle, the recovery crew don't have suits on, that would be very unwieldy at sea, and they would just back off if trace gas detectors measure a toxic leak.
- avmich 6y ago> Soyuz still uses UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide as its propellants. Right, but at least Soyuz doesn't have them in the returning capsule. Crew Dragon could be just as good in this aspect, but unfortunately isn't. So when moving the capsule from the sea the team has extra dangers.
- jabl 6y agoIsn't the crew dragon using those hypergolic thrusters only in an abort scenario? IIRC they did test using them to do a propulsive landing, but the current plan is to use parachutes and land in the sea, no? And those thrusters had some ports to prevent seawater ingress, so I would guess that if they haven't been fired and there's no leak there's no danger.