In article ,
says...

JF Mezei wrote:

On 2016-01-05 13:52, Fred J. McCall wrote:

Pretty sure I read somewhere that NASA is going to fly 4 (vice 7)
people and require parachute landings. In other words, force Dragon
V2 into the same mould as the other capsules. SpaceX is pricing
things accordingly.

But that still means firing the engines for the landing, right ?


Wrong. They'll do water landings.

Because if you're NASA, if you're not landing exactly like we did in the
1960's, you're not doing it right. Today's NASA is so risk averse it's
holding back significant advancements in manned space that would reduce
costs.

Sometimes too much of a focus on safety is detrimental. This is one of
those times.

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer