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Old January 20th 20, 01:28 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Default SpaceX Dragon 2 In Flight Abort Test

In article ,
says...

On 2020-01-18 19:18, Alain Fournier wrote:

Yes. Note also that even if the Dragon capsule did experience 7g for a
few seconds, that wouldn't be a problem. Such an acceleration is a
problem if it is sustained but for a few seconds 7g is uncomfortable but
not really dangerous.


I am more concerned about a sudden change in G force. Going from 0 to
7G progressively over a matter of a couple of minutes 9eg: re-entry) is
quite different than going from 0 to 7G instantly as engines fiore.


Ejection seats have a much higher jerk and much higher G forces (up to
22 Gs for some Russian e-seats). This 4 plus G escape was very tame by
comparison.

I watched the early videos from today's launch, and it appears there was
a time delay between the call for engine shutdown and seeing the Dragon
get away. And tis was apparently an abort command sent to the stack
(which then initate engine shutdown and Dragon escape, as opposed to an
engine shutdown command that would then trigger the abort).


The Falcon9 continued in a more or less straight trajectory for quite a
while and was not thumbling uncontrollably at the time it exploded.
(aka: not a viooent course deviation that cause deviation).


Still, it looks to have been torn apart by aerodynamic forces. The
second stage was intact when it hit the ocean (and created quite the
fireball). If destruct charges would have taken it out, I would have
thought the 2nd stage would have been deliberately destroyed too.

I assume juicy videos will come out later giving more info on that part
of the test.


I am not sure we'll see much more than what was on the live-stream.

I haven't listened to the press conferences yet. Did they trigger range
safety because it hadn't broken up as quickly as expected? Or would they
have waited till Falcon9 would have been much close to sea level before
triggering it?


I've not watched that yet either.

Jeff

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