SpaceX Dragon V2 - Because Russians overcharge for space flights

[TummieGaruda]

Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur behind the private spaceflight company SpaceX, unveiled his firm's latest innovation — the Dragon V2 manned spaceship —Thursday night (May 29) in a stylish debut for the 21st-century space taxi for astronauts.

SpaceX's Dragon Version 2 spaceship is designed to be reusable. Image released May 29, 2014.Pin It SpaceX's Dragon Version 2 spaceship is designed to be reusable. Image released May 29, 2014.

SpaceX's Dragon Version 2 crewed spacecraft has a sleek interior design, complete with a large tablet-like computer that swivels down in front of the capsule's tan leather seats. The manned space capsule can ferrying up to seven astronauts to and from destinations like the International Space Station, Musk said during the reveal, which SpaceX webcast live online from its headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

"I think it's really a big leap forward in technology," Musk said. "It really takes things to the next level."

http://www.space.com/26063-spacex-un...spaceship.html


I think this is interesting as the Dragon V2 will be able to land vertically with a propulsion system instead of relying on parachute crash landings like the Soyuz which can be pretty rough. It seats up to seven astronauts at the cost of $10 million per person. Also, the inside controls look futuristic as if it were out of a movie.

[Alarial]

While propulsion landing is cool as fuck, I hope it has some emergency parachutes for when they don't work as expected.

[Waraji]

I hope people would watch/read the presentation. :l

[6souls]

needs more images

http://i.space.com/images/i/000/039/...aft-musk-2.jpg
http://i.space.com/images/i/000/016/...120425c-02.jpg

[Priran]

"hey guys I'm trying to think of a name for the new design. nobody's ever called a rocket a V2 before right?"

[Galkaeater]

version 2 dummy

[octopus]

lol, the pic reminded me of Iron Man

[Waraji]

lol, the pic reminded me of Iron Man

Well ya know, he's setting himself up pretty nicely to actually go for it.

[6souls]

not enough videos

[Outlaw]

I like how the thrusters are at an angle. That should provide for more stable landings.

Edit: I just remembered Musk was on 60 Minutes a couple months ago. It is a really good piece.

[Gwynplaine]

This is really amazing and needs more comments.

[Cantih]

This is dipping into politics, but relevant
http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2014/06...favor-of-pork/

This is fucked up:

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“Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) has put his thumb on the scale. He has added language to the Senate bill that will make it a lot harder for commercial space companies—like, say SpaceX—to launch humans into space. He’s basically adding a layer of government to the requirements for commercial companies, making them account for costs and pricing.

Oddly, this sort of accounting is already in place with contractors like Boeing—which, shockingly, is a big player with SLS, and which has a large plant in Alabama, Shelby’s home state—but is not in place in companies like SpaceX and Sierra Nevada. This means that the newer startup companies will be put at a disadvantage against the older government contractors.

Bottom line: Shelby’s addition makes it easier for SLS to get built, and harder for commercial companies to build their own vehicles to send humans into space (and, importantly, can do it far, far cheaper than SLS can). That means we’ll have to rely on the Russians more for the time being.”

(Via NASA funding: New Senate bill will keep us relying on Russians for rides to space..)

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The continued attempts to block competition in space access by the party that supposedly should champion it is pretty sad. They’ve already pared back investment and pushed back the timelines of cheap rides to orbit by 2-3 years by cutting funding for the COTS program.

[archibaldcrane]

Bump for a near-landing on a drone-ship.

https://vine.co/v/euEpIVegiIx

The rocket toppled right after this video, unfortunately - came in a little too wobbly.

[Dantrag]

Bump for a near-landing on a drone-ship.

https://vine.co/v/euEpIVegiIx

The rocket toppled right after this video, unfortunately - came in a little too wobbly.

Looks like it came in pretty fkn hot too. That's not all that slow lol..

[Waraji]

I forgot to bump the Poopdeck thread with this info.

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/124...mission./page2

It may look like it came in hot up until the point where you see the thrust start bouncing off the water/barge, then it slows down quite a bit as it hovers over the barge before touching down and tilting over. It was hella close, considering they had it at a 50% chance of landing. They have to compensate for that random lateral velocity caused by wind and other shit. The tilting is not a problem up to the point where its about to touch down and the fins don't do shit anymore; mini Merlins on the sides? :shrug: :S

[archibaldcrane]

It actually does have little jets on the sides at the top, you can see them in the high-def video:

[TummieGaruda]

Bump,

SpaceX finally got the barge landing today which is pretty damn exciting.

[myreality]

That's awesome! What is the next step after perfecting the barge landing?

[Waraji]

We should merge these threads into one super Space thread or something...

https://www.bluegartr.com/threads/12...mission./page5

[leghorn23]

Pretty sure we'll have cooked ourselves off this planet before the next astroid hits... Either way, my hope is that this species ends here on this rock and our madness doesn't spread to the skies of alien worlds.