(And just to be clear, I have many problems and potential concerns about Musk. I'm just saying I'd choose him over, say, a Maoist, or a Stalinist, and over "Burn_The_Right".)
ptfrd
I’m sure he could block the Starlink terminals Russian army is using, if he wanted to try, for example.
I remember a story coming out about Russians using Starlink but it seemed a bit vague to me. Has anyone reliable actually asserted that SpaceX are significantly underperforming in the job of blocking captured terminals (once notified), or other aspects of the day-to-day operations that the Ukrainians would do if they controlled it themselves?
Though at least they've already proved they can relight during a belly flop.
I would not have thought it could float in a different orientation
Me either. But they call that orientation "Stable 1", possibly implying they've accounted for other stable orientations, and some non-stable situations.
Here was the first time I heard that term (with Bob & Doug): https://www.youtube.com/live/tSJIQftoxeU?t=6h29m34s
The commentator then gives some explanation.
Post-splashdown news conference: https://youtu.be/gOUoI-UYi2Y
They mentioned that Cargo Dragon sometimes reuses parachutes, which I didn't know.
Watched some of the official coverage: https://www.youtube.com/live/5CRB3FHV9Dw
Things that were new to me:
- 1:40:50 Drone footage of the capsule lift
- 34:42 Jones explains that the same set of 12 hooks secures Dragon to either its nosecone or to the ISS. Makes perfect sense; I'd just never thought about it before.
- 1:35:57 "There are multiple options so if Dragon were to splash down in a different orientation they could egress from the top hatch as well."
- Would this be a last resort after they'd tried & failed to correct the orientation?
- Would it only be used when Dragon was still in the sea or would they ever lift Dragon onto the boat in an orientation that necessitated top hatch egress?
And all this talk of Dragon orientation, combined with the extensive weather delays in Crew-8's departure, got me wondering ... How would Dragon fare if it was left in very rough seas for an extended period? (Imagine the recovery vessel broke down a minute after splash-down and then a big multi-day storm blew in, or something.)
Plausible. It's not how I imagine them engaging with their defence contractors but I don't actually have a clue how it works. One supporting point might be if there were any other companies treated similarly, like if Lockheed Martin was ordered to immediately ramp up production of relevant types of military hardware, and told that the details (contracts / payment / etc.) would be sorted out later.
An opposing point would be the fact that the US and its allies knew an invasion was likely well in advance. Yet the initial Starlink 'roll out' seemed pretty ad hoc, with SpaceX organizing its own logistics. But then maybe the allies didn't expect Russia to be so effective in disrupting the existing military comms infrastructure.
that the engines relight multiple times in orbit
Should they do an orbital test next? Or continue with the previously used 'almost orbit' trajectory that ensures the second stage re-enters safely with no need for a relight?
The SpaceX officials in the audio said they were “trying to focus on booster risk reduction versus ship envelope expansion” for the next flight.
For the "ship envelope expansion", do you think they will/should do an in-space engine relight test? Or are the seemingly successful flip-landing maneuvers on flights 4 and 5 sufficient? (Has this been covered elsewhere?)
Interesting! They're talking about unnecessary aborts, and how they want to do as much analysis as possible of the abort criteria, to prevent them.
This will remain an issue for Flight 6 which, it seems, will happen the moment SpaceX decides it's sufficiently ready. Unlike previous flights ...
"Given this is the first launch in a long time ... well really ever ... that we've not been FAA driven ..."
Yeah. One possibility is that SpaceX were indeed underperforming, and the story was placed to put public pressure on them to improve. (A bit like the 2019-09-27 Bridenstine tweet.)