SpaceX F9 : Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort Test : Jan. 19, 2020 : Discussion

[Stan-1967]

At what point over the North Atlantic does Dragon actually enter orbit and an abort to the ground is no longer possible?

This was also discussed when comparing against the CTS-100 abort & trajectory.  As a comparison, cargo dragon is orbital by the time it is just around a hundred miles or so south east of Long Island when on an ISS trajectory.  Crew dragons should be similar, as engine burn times are that different

[Lar]

John and a NASA spokesperson, cool!

It almost felt like they were sparring a bit?

[TorenAltair]

The chutes are hypnotizing to me 

[RotoSequence]

What a kaboom! 

[Norm38]

The breakup of the F9 was a bit more “energetic” than I’d expected based on what happened to CRS-7. Some shrapnel got blown forward quite a ways.

[mrhuggy]

I wonder how well the first stage came back to earth. Reports say they could see it coming back.

[Nomadd]

 It was spectacular and sad to see the rocket go out that way.

[haywoodfloyd]

I can't decide which was more exciting to watch... The launch, the escape or the really big BOOM!
Fantastic test. Now on to crewed flight.

[RotoSequence]

The breakup of the F9 was a bit more “energetic” than I’d expected based on what happened to CRS-7. Some shrapnel got blown forward quite a ways.

Looks like the vehicle failure might have happened after the interstage buckled.

[clongton]

Total Success! ISS here we come!

[AndrewRG10]

It's time to be armchair engineers


Launch escape system activated before engines had fully gone, good demonstration. The second stage was burning or depressurising afterwards and the vehicle looks like it started to pitch over and blow up once it was off the normal wind flow.

[inonepiece]

I'm wondering if a launch abort will ALWAYS be into the water or is there a possibility that an abort could actually terminate on land in southern Ireland, England or northern France. If impacting the ground under parachutes, would the impact be survivable for the crew?

Forget the crew: England is not sparsely populated, and I live there, so I hope not ;-(

[Johnnyhinbos]

I thought this when I watched it live, then went back and watched it again and still think the same thing...

I'm not convinced that the main chutes fully unreefed. Visually it didn't look like they fully opened, the capsule landed ahead of anticipated time, and Jon said the they would go to reef position 3 and I only saw two unreefing events, not three.

I'm solo certified in skydiving so at least have a small inkling of what to look for.

I hope I'm wrong. Probably am.

[lonestriker]

My quick takes:
* Amazingly energetic S1 explosion.
* The abort  seemed to happen almost instantly, coincident with S1 engine shutdown. Automated systems are sooo much faster than humans.
* Looks like S2 may have survived for quite a while (I assume that's what was still flying after S1 was consumed in Dragon fire.)

Definitely one of the SpaceX highlights alongside first first F9 landing, FH flight/landing, and DM-1.

[Tommyboy]

Jon said the they would go to reef position 3 and I only saw two unreefing events, not three.

I'm solo certified in skydiving so at least have a small inkling of what to look for.

I hope I'm wrong. Probably am.

You're wrong
3 reefing positions means 2 unreefing events;
Deploy
Reefing position 1
Unreefing 1
Reefing position 2
Unreefing 2
Reefing position 3

[clongton]

These constraints seem finicky to me. It's the Atlantic Ocean. You are not going to ever get calm winds and calm seas. I have a feeling conditions are not going to get better than they are now.

Not often but yes you do. It's more common in the equatorial regions but not unknown in the North Atlantic. The condition is called the doldrums. It's where the phrase "slack seas" comes from.

[leovinus]

As the Dragon was pulling away, I still missed a heartbeat when the Falcon exploded. Visually, that cloud reminded me of Challenger in '86, and I did not expect that memory. RIP. On a positive note, this Dragon IFA test looked like a great success! Thanks SpaceX for going the extra mile.

[toren]

I thought this when I watched it live, then went back and watched it again and still think the same thing...

I'm not convinced that the main chutes fully unreefed. Visually it didn't look like they fully opened, the capsule landed ahead of anticipated time, and Jon said the they would go to reef position 3 and I only saw two unreefing events, not three.

I'm solo certified in skydiving so at least have a small inkling of what to look for.

I hope I'm wrong. Probably am.

The Dragon view was apparently a wide-angle lens, which made the chutes appear deceptively small.  The long range shot from the chase airplane seemed to show them fully expanded.

[rsnellenberger]

The breakup of the F9 was a bit more “energetic” than I’d expected based on what happened to CRS-7. Some shrapnel got blown forward quite a ways.

CRS-7 was much closer to MECO when it broke up (approximately 2:20 into the launch), so there was much less fuel/LOX to burn.

I'm sure they'll be taking another look at triggering the FTS after an abort rather than letting the booster break up by itself if the shrapnel got anywhere near the Dragon this time.  It's hard to tell from a telephoto view -- hopefully, they got some good radar data on the debris cloud.

[Steven Pietrobon]

Congratulations to SpaceX and NASA for the successful inflight abort test!