Manned Dragon Testing Philosophy

SpaceX Status Report on Falcon 9/Dragon
http://www.onorbit.com/node/2845

From above:

While the maximum reliability is designed into our
vehicles, there is no substitute for recent, relevant
flight experience when it comes to demonstrating
flight safety. The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to
fly at least 11 more times and the Falcon 9 launch
vehicle is scheduled to fly 17 times before the first
Dragon crew flight. Given the extensive manifest of
Falcon 9 and Dragon, the SpaceX system will mature
before most other systems will be developed.

It sounds like SpaceX is going to be using the ISS resupply flights to
thoroughly test Falcon 9 and Dragon before putting people on it. This
approach is quite different than the traditional approach of having very
few unmanned flight tests (or zero in the case of the shuttle) before
putting a crew in a spacecraft.

This fly a little test a little approach should enable the engineers
plenty of time to debug problems without the typical schedule pressure
found on much more expensive programs which seem to push people on them
early in order to show "progress".

Jeff
--
"Had Constellation actually been focused on building an Earth-Moon
transportation system, it might have survived. The decision to have it
first build a costly and superfluous Earth-to-orbit transportation
system (Ares I) was a fatal mistake.", Henry Spencer 1/2/2011

On Jan 18, 9:09*am, Jeff Findley wrote:
SpaceX Status Report on Falcon 9/Dragonhttp://www.onorbit.com/node/2845

From above:

* *While the maximum reliability is designed into our
* *vehicles, there is no substitute for recent, relevant
* *flight experience when it comes to demonstrating
* *flight safety. The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to
* *fly at least 11 more times and the Falcon 9 launch
* *vehicle is scheduled to fly 17 times before the first
* *Dragon crew flight. Given the extensive manifest of
* *Falcon 9 and Dragon, the SpaceX system will mature
* *before most other systems will be developed.

It sounds like SpaceX is going to be using the ISS resupply flights to
thoroughly test Falcon 9 and Dragon before putting people on it. *This
approach is quite different than the traditional approach of having very
few unmanned flight tests (or zero in the case of the shuttle) before
putting a crew in a spacecraft. *

This fly a little test a little approach should enable the engineers
plenty of time to debug problems without the typical schedule pressure
found on much more expensive programs which seem to push people on them
early in order to show "progress".

Jeff
--
"Had Constellation actually been focused on building an Earth-Moon
transportation system, it might have survived. *The decision to have it
first build a costly and superfluous Earth-to-orbit transportation
system (Ares I) was a fatal mistake.", Henry Spencer 1/2/2011

sounds like a excellent idea, getting paid to deliver cargo while
testing the launch system before humans are at risk.

the first shuttle flight manned was a royally bad idea