spacex Sierra Nevada, SpaceX Get Commercial Crew Extensions from NASA

[Unobscured Vision]

Article Link | SpaceNews.com Website

 

 

WASHINGTON

[DocM]

The tests SpaceX has to run are the pad abort at KSC and the launch abort at Vandenberg.

The pad abort should happen after the TurkmenSat launch, as nd the flight abort is penciled in for later this summer. They performed propellant tanking tests on the flight abort core at Vandenberg this week.

Dream Chaser still has another glide & landing milestone to perform.

Dream Chaser is depending heavily on 2 things to move forward: an ISS cargo contract under CRS 2, and an international partner contract with either Europe or Japan.

[Unobscured Vision]

Seems to be an outright waste of resources (both money and equipment) forced upon SpaceX when the Abort System has already been proven to work. And this is purely from my slightly biased, not-the-fly-on-the-wall perspective, but the SpaceX people are no-nonsense, talented, and educated -- and they know the entire procedure will function correctly if it needs to in an Abort Scenario.

 

I know, I know. New ship, new testing required, new certification. Bureaucracy hard at work. *sigh* I just hate waste, be it money, time, resources, or any combination of the three. And we know that SpaceX does too.

[DocM]

SpaceX isn't being forced into anything as they wrote these milestones into theit original CCiCap proposal.

[flyingskippy]

Putting humans on a rocket isn't the same as hauling cargo.

They've demonstrated the SuperDraco burn on a test stand with just one pair. Not as a full capsule with all 8 burning. Also, these tests look at the aerodynamic effects and acceleration during the abort.