"Elon Musk expects his space company’s inaugural launch of dNASA astronauts is only a few months away."The SpaceX CEO said on Sunday that the company’s first crewed mission will probably be in the second quarter of this year, between the months of April and June. Known as Demo-2, this mission would see two NASA astronauts visit the International Space Station for at least a few days. Musk noted that the rocket and spacecraft needed for the mission are already coming together in Florida.
“We’re highly confident the hardware will be ready in Q1, most likely in February but no later than March,” Musk said.
Musk made the comments at a press conference after the company completed the in-flight abort test of its Crew Dragon capsule. Musk spoke alongside NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, who added that the agency and SpaceX are considering making Demo-2 a longer mission than previously expected." cnbc
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I watched the Space X recovery launch this AM. It was truly flawless. They used a several times fired Falcon 9 first stage and turned the engines off up high so that the onboard computers would initiate a Dragon escape routine. At that point the Falcon 9 first stage dropped off and then blew up due to turbulence as it fell away. The freed Dragon space taxi then dumped its unpressurized cargo section and descended to the Atlantic Ocean and waiting boats using onboard rocket engine thrust, drogue parachutes and then four big cargo parachutes pulled out of storage by the drogues. Splash at 20 MPH. An individual parachutist lands at more than 30 MPH. They recovered the Dragon AND the parachutes.
Why go to Disney World? I would ride this this thing to glory. Hell. When I was a kid Lt. in the SF Course I volunteered to be the guest of honor for a demonstration of the Fulton surface to air recovery system. This was at Ft. Bragg in 1964. I didn't tell SWMBO about this until it was done. pl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system
