In article ,
says...

Sylvia Else wrote:
On 1/06/2012 6:38 AM, Rick Jones wrote:
SpaceX have an image up on their website in the Updates section now.
I guess the expectation is someone will clean-up Dragons with a
scrub-brush for re-use? The thing looks just as scorched as a Soyuz
to my peanut gallery eyes.


Presumably residue from the heat shield.

Aesthetics apart, does it matter if a less than pristine capsule is
launched when it's reused?

Only from an emotional standpoint I suppose and the effect it has (or
not) on a potential passenger's willingness to board (once we get past
the point of flying steeley-eyed missile-men). Still, I don't recall
Shuttle's looking all that soiled at launch.

The shuttle's tiles did show some "streaking" after several flights, but
it wasn't as prominent as what is seen on Dragon.

The bottom of Dragon is protected by an ablative heat shield which
deposited some of its soot higher up on the craft. If you've ever seen
a "flown" Apollo capsule in a museum, you'll see they look quite similar
to a flown Dragon. No doubt SpaceX will want to clean and paint the
upper surface (or simply replace the outer panels with new ones) before
reusing a Dragon so the soot does not change the thermal properties of
the craft in orbit. That and it looks better to launch a shiny
spacecraft than a dirty one. :-)

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker