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More quickly than anyone expected, NASA embraces reuse for human flights:
Weather permitting, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. Forecasters are closely watching conditions due to Hurricane Isaias but are hopeful the mission will find calm seas and light winds offshore from the Florida Panhandle.
[...] Although the company's next human spaceflight, Crew-1, will launch no earlier than late September on a new Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft, that will not be the case for the subsequent mission. This Crew-2 flight, due to launch no earlier than spring 2021, will reuse the Falcon 9 first stage from the Crew-1 mission, and the Dragon capsule is expected to splash down this weekend.
[...] The reuse of rockets and spacecraft always seemed like it would be part of SpaceX and NASA's extended plans for human spaceflights, but few anticipated it happening so quickly. NASA's original commercial crew contract with SpaceX called for the first six operational missions to each use new Dragons.
However, a contract modification signed in May allowed SpaceX to introduce reuse much more quickly. In exchange for extending the Demo-2 test flight—carrying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken—from two weeks to up to 119 days, SpaceX got permission to reuse spacecraft instead of building new ones. This extension allowed Behnken to participate in four spacewalks in recent weeks, swapping out battery packs on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory.
The move toward reuse was supported by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "From my perspective, what we're really looking for in all of our missions is sustainability," he said.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 02 2020, @06:12AM (2 children)
If we were able to reuse the shuttles, you know, the unit that actually house the human cargo, as opposed to the throw-away booster rockets, and that was three decades ago, how is this "news" significant?
Why would NASA oppose economical reuse of booster rockets?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday August 02 2020, @06:33AM
Because the Congress would never have approved a research program for reusable boosters? After all, anything reusable would have reduced the amount of pork to barrel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 02 2020, @03:26PM
Easy answer, off the top of my head:
Rockets are all full of fire. With the metallurgy available, rockets tended to wear out in use. No one wanted to trust an engine, let alone the entire booster, after it had been fired, then allowed to fall willy-nilly into the ocean.
SpaceX explained that they don't much like recovering a booster from the water, because it requires a lot more work to get it ready for another launch.
Technology is awesome - things we only dreamed of fifty years ago, are possible today. Things that we can only dream about today, may well be possible in the year 2100. Hang around, and see what happens!