New Details on SpaceX Plans Emerge

See on Scoop.it – The NewSpace Daily

“Now having completed 3 missions in 10 months, including the latest which set a new Dragon record of 23 days in orbit and was the first to see use of the spacecraft’s trunk, attention is turning to two major technology development efforts. Staying with the Dragon theme for a moment, Elon Musk suggested that his company is working on a public rollout ceremony for the new Dragon 2.0 to take place, possible with NASA participation, this summer. SpaceX has taken pains to point out that the final design of the new, crew capable Dragon, also called DragonRider, will differ considerably from images and mockups released so far. Apparently, whenever it is unveiled, the public can expect to see a significant profile change with the inclusion of the side mounted escape and propulsive landing thrusters, deployable landing gear and larger windows. Or as Musk put it, something which looks like “a real alien spaceship.” With a pad abort test planned for the end of this year as part of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capacity (CCiCap) milestones, at a time when rival Boeing is still only conducting design reviews, SpaceX is poised to open up a runaway lead in the high stakes competition.”

 

 

See on innerspace.net