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All New For NASA
SpaceX will only use brand new Dragon V2 craft for NASA crew missions.
Both SpaceX and Boeing were offered the option of reflying capsules and Boeing plans to do so, landing on dry land on airbags and then reflying each of their capsules up to 10 times. SpaceX, however, has announced that they will only use new spacecraft for NASA crewed missions (and still compete on costs because Falcon 9 is so much cheaper than any ULA launcher). So what happens with all the 'gently used' capsules that will be stacking up at SpaceX? Apparently the plan is to switch them to cargo versions and use them to fly ISS resupply missions under the next NASA Commercial Cargo contract. This will let SpaceX do the cargo launches for less than half the price of any competitors. Some number of Crew Dragon could presumably also be used for non-NASA launches. -- "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw |
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All New For NASA
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All New For NASA
Jeff Findley wrote on Thu, 30 Aug 2018
07:06:45 -0400: In article , says... SpaceX will only use brand new Dragon V2 craft for NASA crew missions. Both SpaceX and Boeing were offered the option of reflying capsules and Boeing plans to do so, landing on dry land on airbags and then reflying each of their capsules up to 10 times. SpaceX, however, has announced that they will only use new spacecraft for NASA crewed missions (and still compete on costs because Falcon 9 is so much cheaper than any ULA launcher). So what happens with all the 'gently used' capsules that will be stacking up at SpaceX? Apparently the plan is to switch them to cargo versions and use them to fly ISS resupply missions under the next NASA Commercial Cargo contract. This will let SpaceX do the cargo launches for less than half the price of any competitors. Some number of Crew Dragon could presumably also be used for non-NASA launches. Actually their CRS2 contract is going to cost NASA more money than their CRS1 contract. Yes, I know. But after the price increase they're still estimated to be 50%-75% cheaper than the competition. I'm sure that if they simply let to the 'best value' bidder SpaceX would wind up with all the business. But they have 'no more single point failures' as part of their objective, so they're going to buy much more expensive launches to keep the competition in business. -- "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." -- Charles Pinckney |
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