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Dragon launch abort tests
Bob Zimmerman was just on the John Batchelor Show and he said that Space-X has two launch abort tests planned around the end of the year.
The first will be from a Falcon 9 on the pad. The second will be during an actual flight. If they pass both tests, Dragon will essentially be ready to make manned flights. Bill
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It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill! If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too... Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit. : countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ; Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding... |
#2
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NASA doesn't have patience for that. They would far rather spend 10 years on SLS verifications.
cites: http://science-beta.slashdot.org/st...o-tie-up-spacex http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr...te_space .html |
#3
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Quote:
NASA is getting closer to finding itself in total irrelevance if it's not careful... Latest news is Orion won't be ready for the 2017 SLS test flights... the Europeans apparently are finding the modifying the ATV into a service module for Orion isn't as easy as they thought (surprise, surprise, surprise)... Not that it particularly matters... Orion is never going anywhere near ISS... it's too d@mn expensive to ever be used in that role... that was a well understood fact LONG before even the POS Ares I was cancelled... Even if EFT-1 goes well later this year (is it still on schedule?? Thought I read something that it might be delayed into next year...) Orion won't even be flying with a crew for YEARS... even if the 2017 flight slips into 2018 or later, Orion won't fly again manned for a few years AFTER THAT... SLS is still a rocket with no payloads and Orion a spacecraft with no destination or mission... Just vague talk of doing an Apollo 13 loop around the moon and maybe lassoing an asteroid and dragging it back to cislunar space, which will require a billion dollar robotic spacecraft to achieve, and then another billion-dollar plus Orion mission to "explore" this washing-machine to refrigerator-size bit of space-rock... If you're gonna spend a billion bucks to build a robotic spacecraft capable of dragging a space-rock back to the vicinity of the Moon, just equip it with the sensors and stuff and a sample return capsule to bring whatever you need back, and skip the billion-dollar Orion mission to 'explore' it in cislunar space... Course, that leaves Orion/SLS with NO mission or reason for existence whatsoever... Is this any way to run a space program?? LOL In the meantime, if US astronauts are EVER going to launch from US soil again and not have to thumb a ride from the increasingly belligerent Russians (if "belligerent" isn't the proper word choice, at the very least, their "national interests" are increasingly "divergent" from our own...) it WILL be aboard one of the commercial contenders under the Commercial Crew Development program... NASA isn't capable of doing it... Later! OL JR
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