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Transport to a space station may need a few days in transit. It also makes it useful for non-station missions, such as research (DragonLab), in-orbit assembly,
by jccooper 12y ago
Transport to a space station may need a few days in transit. It also makes it useful for non-station missions, such as research (DragonLab), in-orbit assembly, or satellite repair.
For long-duration missions, the PICA-X heat shield has plenty of margin for a direct entry from a lunar or Mars mission. Dragon systems seem happy enough so far loitering at the ISS for an extended duration. However, the Dragon itself is still pretty darn small and may require an additional logistics/living module, which it could dock with like Apollo did the LM. Such a thing wouldn't be too hard for SpaceX to make up.