Quote from: Blackstar on 06/11/2014 01:43 amI don't think this is flight hardware. They wouldn't have let us climb into flight hardware. They'll declare it ground test at some point.Why, do you think you're going to break it?It'd be pretty hard to claim that your vehicle is the safest thing since Ralph Wiggum's scissors if it can't even handle a few dozen people climbing through it.
I don't think this is flight hardware. They wouldn't have let us climb into flight hardware. They'll declare it ground test at some point.
Quote from: Blackstar on 06/11/2014 01:16 pmQuote from: Kabloona on 06/11/2014 11:41 amApparently so. I was guessing Edwards AFB for the test landing site since it's closer to the coast (and Hawthorne) than White Sands. But a landing on the lakebed at Edwards may require more precision than they are comfortable with for the first attempt.I suspect Edwards is also tougher to schedule. Too much going on there. And a colleague who has flown experimental UAVs at Edwards will talk your ear off about how insanely controlled and risk averse it is. Long gone are the days when Chuck Yeager could hop in a jet and go for a joy ride.White Sands may have a more amenable culture, and they're used to things smashing into the ground because they test a lot of ordnance.Although I very much doubt that SpaceX would want to have their precious Dragon mark 2 'smash' into the ground.
Quote from: Kabloona on 06/11/2014 11:41 amApparently so. I was guessing Edwards AFB for the test landing site since it's closer to the coast (and Hawthorne) than White Sands. But a landing on the lakebed at Edwards may require more precision than they are comfortable with for the first attempt.I suspect Edwards is also tougher to schedule. Too much going on there. And a colleague who has flown experimental UAVs at Edwards will talk your ear off about how insanely controlled and risk averse it is. Long gone are the days when Chuck Yeager could hop in a jet and go for a joy ride.White Sands may have a more amenable culture, and they're used to things smashing into the ground because they test a lot of ordnance.
Apparently so. I was guessing Edwards AFB for the test landing site since it's closer to the coast (and Hawthorne) than White Sands. But a landing on the lakebed at Edwards may require more precision than they are comfortable with for the first attempt.
Looks a lot better and shows more in this lighting.
- She sends hi to everyone here in NSA
Quote from: moralec on 06/11/2014 02:24 pm- She sends hi to everyone here in NSA The NSA gets nervous when you say hi -- they prefer to think that you don't know they are listening.
I was there. Took these a couple of hours ago.The sign out front and my pass.
Two Space X representatives where there answering questions. I had the chance of speaking to one of them (a very nice girl that works in SpaceX HQ in California, and that came to DC with the capsule as part of a marketing team). She told me the following:
- This capsule is indeed actual flight hardware, not a mockup. However, this does not mean that is ready to fly to space right now. The external part is ready, and the avionics have been installed. But the draco boosters have not being installed in this particular version (they don't carry the capsule around with them). - Further improvements to the interior are going to be included, in particular padding (I guess to avoid the astronauts getting hurt when floating in microgravity).
I just got back from the Newseum. I got to talk to one of the SpaceXers present and got one new (I think) bit of information: He said the plumbing and SD mounting hardware and all will be stripped from this capsule shortly, and put on the abort test article for the pad abort test and, hopefully, for the in-flight abort test. He also told me that this capsule will eventually fly in space. I also asked about the interior and was told they just removed/not installed some "boring" stuff like the padding, otherwise this is the final interior. Further small changes are possible.
