SpaceX Launch Failure

[nicodemusrat]

Comments

[thump]

I haven't been this excited about space travel since watching shuttles go up as a kid. Space is hard indeed!

I concur with your assessment based on the video. My question is, would this have been survivable if it were a manned capsule?

[nicodemusrat]

Quite possibly!

If you watch the video, you can see the Dragon capsule separated. It passes above (behind in the camera's view) then shows up as a dark gumdrop shape amidst the trailing white plume to the right of frame.

SpaceX COO Gwenn (I forget her last name) said that they continued to receive telemetry from Dragon after the Falcon broke up. However Dragon didn't survive -- I'm not sure if this one simply wasn't equipped with all the new abort mechanisms or if it was damaged by the blast.

[thump]

Yeah I've never heard that the cargo Dragons have any abort systems, I've only ever seen it mentioned for the crew version.

So excited

[sabercat]

For New Horizons. :) They've already piqued my interest with the teasers to date.