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Old January 19th 20, 03:48 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Default SpaceX Dragon 2 In Flight Abort Test

The launch abort test was just completed. I watched it live on the
SpaceX live stream. Everything appeared to have happened as predicted.
Thrust termination on Falcon 9 and Dragon 2 separation happened very
close to each other (I couldn't see any delay). Everything went very
smoothly. Four good main parachutes fully deployed before splashdown.

The SpaceX engineer who was one of the commentators for the live stream
said this is the Mark 3 design for the parachutes. They looked really
good. There was an awesome live camera view from the parachute
compartment on Dragon 2 looking up at the parachutes. You could see all
of the deployment steps (they don't just open all the way right away).

Congrats to SpaceX and NASA. Here's hoping that the reviews being
conducted by NASA go smoothly so that we can see a crewed demo flight to
ISS within the upcoming months.

Jeff
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