JF Mezei wrote on Wed, 17 Oct 2018
16:00:23 -0400:

On 2018-10-17 06:49, Jeff Findley wrote:

So, as always, Wikipedia is pretty much the best starting point for
anything.


I looked at the wikipedia entry for Dragon 2 whcih simply stated crew
capacity of 7 and no information on how NASA planned to use it. Hence my
question which to you seemed stupid


It didn't just seem stupid...


And asking Mr Google for Dragon 2 crew capacity yielded "7" in responses.


Well of course it did. Because that is the Crew Dragon capacity.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commer...ew_Development


This very long entry mentions the early RFPs requesting ships with
capacity of 4.


Which says that NASA will never fly more than 4.


But much lower on that page, the initial crew manifests for the first 2
manned Dragon flights have only 2 crewmembers.


Because that's what the current crew exchange requires. I'd expect
they'll almost always fly 2-3, keeping with the current crew rotation.



So, it looks like crews of 4 for most operational missions.


No, it looks like 4 is the mandated max capacity, not what NASA actually
intends to use.


I don't think NASA plans to ever use more than 3 seats. That's why
Boeing applied for (and got) permission to sell 'spare' seats to
tourists.



The maximum crew capacity of 7 could be used in a contingency.


Will Dragon 2 always launch with 7 couches and 7 SpaceX suits that are
compatible with any/all astronaut sizes? Are the couches on-orbit
adjustable to fit astronauts of different sizes or are they more like
Soyuz, requiring either the couch is adjusted on ground, or a custom
liner made on ground ?


Judging by the way the simulator is laid out, they'll fly with four
seats and the option to put three cargo pallets where the other three
seats would bolt in. Crew Dragon has a pretty 'gentle' reentry
profile, so I don't think it requires a lot of 'special fitting'. The
max g load on Dragon is something under 3.5g. Soyuz hits 6g and has a
big 'jolt' at the end due to recovering on land the way it does. I
would expect that, for escape purposes, the assumption would be that
people will fly down on the vehicle they flew up on, so everyone who
would ride Crew Dragon will already have a suit.


--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn