NASA and SpaceX: Dragon Crew Extraction Rehearsal

From NASA

[Lots of us have our issues with Musk, but %#%&&, look what he’s done for spacesuit style.~ctm]

Aug. 15, 2019

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, left, and Bob Behnken

On August 13, 2019, NASA at the Trident Basin in Cape Canaveral, Florida, astronauts Doug Hurley, left, and Bob Behnken work with teams from NASA and SpaceX to rehearse crew extraction from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which will be used to carry humans to the International Space Station. Using the ship Go Searcher to recover their spacecraft after splashdown and a mock-up of the Crew Dragon, the teams worked through the steps necessary to get Hurley and Behnken safely out of the Dragon. The pair will fly to the space station aboard the Crew Dragon for the SpaceX Demo-2 mission.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Last Updated: Aug. 15, 2019

Editor: Yvette Smith

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Here’s more than you ever wanted to know about the relation of Sci Fi to space suit design.

Here’s a link to more images

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Patrick MJD
August 20, 2019 2:50 am

Musk wants everyone to save the planet by buying more expensive cars that use more resources to make and run. Musk: Save the planet! But more of my cars.

MrGrimNasty
Reply to  Patrick MJD
August 20, 2019 6:06 am

And probably indirectly use the enormous taxpayer subsidies for the silly cars to burn/use incredible amounts of fuel and resources so rich friends and businesses (and complicit governments) can mess around in space.

Flight Level
August 20, 2019 3:28 am

Mixed signals for me. This entire adventure, starting with the ship’s names, I mean the entire thing looks like an entreprise where achieving goals does not matter.

Be it that I’m used to a certain level of rigor, procedures and methods, but I perceive those guys as even less professional than weekend sailplane fliers on a club jamboree.

I mean, something’s not right, can’t really pin-point where and what, it all looks as a real life role game. Am I getting old, is my Bravo-Sierra radar going out of alignement ?

Am I alone to doubt on al this ?

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Flight Level
August 20, 2019 4:49 am

looking at the crematoria on wheels and the money dodges etc
I sure wouldnt put my butt on a seat his company has anything to do with

Reply to  Flight Level
August 20, 2019 5:14 am

Level flight is easy compared to what these guys are supposed to do.
If they bypass or cut corners at NASA manned spaceflght checks and tests, they are on one-way tickets.

Haute couture just won’t cut it.

rbabcock
Reply to  Flight Level
August 20, 2019 5:45 am

weekend sailplane fliers on a club jamboree

.. easy, that’s me!

I’m kind of in your camp on their seemingly laissez-faire attitude on space launches, but they have been very successful over quite a few launches. Bringing the boosters back down to the launch site is quite a feat in itself. It appears they have a very solid booster and know how to get them successfully off the pad regardless of the Daffy Duck names they put with everything.

Flight Level
Reply to  rbabcock
August 20, 2019 6:13 am

Sory pal, then you know what I mean, the difference between safe smooth passion hobby + grill party and space level energy concentrations 😉 No offense intended !

Rotor
Reply to  Flight Level
August 20, 2019 9:39 am

Flight Level, your radar is still aligned.

NASA has never been comfortable with SpaceX’s Engineering Problem Resolution.
I personally don’t believe there will ever be “NASA” astronauts on SpaceX launch vehicles.
This belief was reinforced by the disastrous Hypergolic explosion which destroyed their capsule a few months ago.
Time will tell if the Sober, Plodding, NASA can coexist with the Flamboyant, Industrious, SpaceX.

Sam Pyeatte
Reply to  Rotor
August 20, 2019 4:56 pm

Manned Spaceflight has always had a risk. So does flying. SpaceX has as good a record as anyone. Good for them, at least they are trying, and I am convinced they will succeed soon with orbital manned flight to the space station, and within a very few years, a manned mission to the moon.

Duane
Reply to  Flight Level
August 20, 2019 9:48 am

Musk’s goal could not be any plainer: put people on Mars as soon as practicable. Everything else is in support of that goal.

You can declare it a dumb goal, but you’d be wrong.

Peter Morris
Reply to  Flight Level
August 20, 2019 10:31 am

Nope. Musk sets off my BS detector every time he makes a statement.

JaKo
Reply to  Flight Level
August 20, 2019 12:00 pm

Flight Level,

I think just a bit “fine-tune the discriminator:” There’s an echo of Foxtrot…..Golf BS on mine.
OTOH, Russkies, especially in the sixties, took big chances as well:
https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/05/02/134597833/cosmonaut-crashed-into-earth-crying-in-rage
All what we can do is wishing them good luck…

Dan Cody
August 20, 2019 3:49 am

Did you hear about the two antennas that got married?
The wedding was terrible,but the reception was great.

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  Dan Cody
August 21, 2019 2:15 pm

What does ctm stand for:

https://www.urbandictionary.com › …

ctm – Urban Dictionary:

the meaning its in spanish ” ConcheTuMadre” in english its “mother fuker”

https://www.google.com/search?q=ctm+urban+dictionary&oq=ctm+urban+dictionary&aqs=chrome.

August 20, 2019 3:57 am

There is a red Tesla on its way to a Mars or asteroid flyby.
The occupant has that suit in red.
Hey, anyone missing here?

ralfellis
Reply to  bonbon
August 20, 2019 4:33 am

And he has “Don’t Panic” on the dashboard.
A nod to Hitchhiker’s, not Dad’s Army……

R

Patrick MJD
Reply to  bonbon
August 20, 2019 5:22 am

IIR it’s actually in an orbit around the Sun, and not around Mars. The only Mars I like is icecream Mars bars.

Dan Cody
Reply to  Patrick MJD
August 20, 2019 5:23 am

What kind of dessert do aliens like? Martian-mallows.

Doug Huffman
August 20, 2019 4:03 am

Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.
The Works of George Santayana

Jeff Id
August 20, 2019 4:30 am

Daft Punk?

H.R.
August 20, 2019 5:24 am

Gotta agree with ctm on this one. The Michelin Tire Man look is gone.

Dan Cody
Reply to  H.R.
August 20, 2019 5:27 am

Why did the bicycle fall over? because it was two tired.

August 20, 2019 6:09 am

look what he’s done for spacesuit style.~ctm]

Tending toward Empire storm-troopers.

David Spain
August 20, 2019 8:28 am

Now there’s a job description! Seeking experienced Principle or Senior Crew Extractor with 5+ yrs experience…

Walter Horsting
August 20, 2019 9:00 am

Musk has drop launch costs down to $3K a kilogram, he is doing everything that NASA can’t do…NASA’s heavy lift rocket has even launched after 15+ years and Billions. As to Space, Musk is the Holy Grail…

Duane
Reply to  Walter Horsting
August 20, 2019 9:52 am

Ankle biters here at WUWT will keep ankle biting – it’s what they do. Just like what Greta Thornberg does is make herself into a media meme.

In the meantime, Musk is getting stuff done.

He built more electric automobiles than anyone else in the world.

He developed the first reusable liquid fueled rocket booster to drastically reduce the cost of space lift to orbit.

He is near completion of his goal to put the world’s first privately funded spacecraft into orbit.

And he is working very feverishly on developing a manned Mars mission and eventual Mars colony.

Everything else – including this post and thread – is mere talk. Musk is DOING. And he’s using his own money to do it.

Ditto with Jeff Bezos.

MrGrimNasty
Reply to  Duane
August 20, 2019 12:09 pm

Musk hasn’t succeeded with electric cars at all. Any fool can build low-volume rich boy hyper-car toys with near limitless taxpayer cash.

He’s failed to build/deliver an electric car for the masses at a competitive and economically viable price, and now he’s lost that race as all the old car manufacturers are doing it (albeit still failing, but ‘less bad’ than Tesla).

His battery power walls are not economically viable in a sane world.

His roof tile PV is nonsense.

His vacuum tunnel is dead.

His reusable rocket is a clumsy gimmick that fails almost as often as they manage to recover any parts!

Rose-tinted glasses anyone?

BillJ
Reply to  MrGrimNasty
August 20, 2019 7:39 pm

“His reusable rocket is a clumsy gimmick that fails almost as often as they manage to recover any parts!”

Well that’s a demonstrably false statement. The truth is important.

72 of 74 launches of Falcon 9 have been successful. There’s also been one failure during pre-launch testing.

34 of 40 landing attempts have been successful. The last two failures were the center booster of Falcon Heavy.

To look at it another way, if a Falcon 9 booster is worth $50 million then SpaceX has successfully landed $1.7Billion worth of boosters.

Another way to compare is that SpaceX has landed almost as many boosters as ULA has launched with their Delta IV booster – 34 for SpaceX vs 39 total Delta IV launches.

Rotor
Reply to  Duane
August 20, 2019 1:36 pm

He developed the first reusable liquid fueled rocket booster to drastically reduce the cost of space lift to orbit.

Sorry Duane, Space Shuttle pioneered reusable launch vehicles 40 years ago. Both liquid and solid fuel.

Musk is DOING. And he’s using his own money to do it.

Sorry again Duane, NASA (read: American Tax Dollars) funded SpaceX’s launch vehicle development to the tune of 3.5 Billion dollars.

sycomputing
Reply to  Charles Rotter
August 20, 2019 5:46 pm

So as a practical matter . . .

What I think you’re saying is that even the “loathsome subsidy farming con man” doing it privately does it better than the loathsome extortionist tax man doing it publicly.

Agreed.

michael hart
Reply to  Charles Rotter
August 20, 2019 6:47 pm

The good point is that many of the objectives in space travel are much easier to judge as success or failure. If you don’t make orbit (or Mars) then it’s pretty difficult to fake it. He won’t be able to go half way and then blame the short-sellers.

While having given him the benefit of the doubt so far on this one, I read a while ago that the self-returning launcher was likely to be dropped because it meant the maximum payload was significantly reduced. So is this another of his great ideas that was shot down by simple economic considerations? Doesn’t bode well.

Peter Morris
August 20, 2019 10:34 am

Sure it looks fancy, but what if you need to see something above you?

Space suits should have function above form.

Bryan A
Reply to  Peter Morris
August 20, 2019 2:14 pm

The neck area appears to be made of a pliable fabric. Simply tip your head back to see above you much like you do normally.

old construction worker
August 20, 2019 4:32 pm

Musk should stick to building cars, but when you receive a large amount of free money from Co2 Cap and Trade you can waste it.

Robert
Reply to  old construction worker
August 20, 2019 5:47 pm

I wouldn’t call musk a waste,That my friend is a learning experience

August 20, 2019 8:53 pm

engineers needs architects in the design of human structures.
If civil engineers (like me) had the only voice, every building would look like Soviet-era concrete block apartment housing unit. Utilitarian. Efficient. Dull.
I recognize the human spirit needs more. It needs beauty. It needs inspriation.
Thank God not everyone is an engineer.
I think its one reason God gave Man a woman to tell him what to do.

Joel

Dan Cody
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
August 20, 2019 9:35 pm

The optimist sees a glass that’s half full.The pessimist sees a glass that’s half empty.An engineer sees a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be.