Posted on 08/05/2020 8:04:08 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The capsule vibrated, jolted, and roared while the surrounding air heated up and scorched the outside of the vehicle...
“I did record some audio of it, but it doesn’t sound like a machine. It sounds like an animal coming through the atmosphere with all the puffs that are happening from the thrusters and the atmospheric noise,”
The capsule undocked from the space station on Saturday evening and slowly distanced itself from the ISS, before taking a harrowing dive through the planet’s atmosphere and then splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday afternoon.
Behnken noted that their trip was relatively smooth between undocking and the start of the dive, since he and Hurley were still in space, orbiting Earth. But the process of getting out of orbit became a vigorous one. Just an hour before landing, the Crew Dragon ejected its attached trunk — a large cylindrical piece of hardware that provided support during the mission. The capsule then fired its onboard thrusters, taking the vehicle out of orbit and setting it on course for Earth. Soon after, the Crew Dragon heated up immensely as it careened through the planet’s upper atmosphere, experiencing temperatures of up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Eventually, it deployed a series of parachutes to slow the capsule down so that it could touch down gently in the water off of Pensacola.
“All the separation events — from the trunk separation through the parachute firings — were very much like getting hit in the back of a chair with a baseball bat, you know, just a crack,” he said. “And then you get some sort of a motion associated with that usually, pretty light for the trunk separation. But with the parachutes, it was a pretty significant jolt.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
“It is at my house.”
Can you clarify? Is it the animal noise or getting hit on the back of the chair?
Most of NASA’s current astronauts have flown the current Russian systems and would be good people to discuss ablative re-entry with the SpaceX flyboys. Probably already have. And since they’d both (?) flown the Shuttle, they’ve been around long enough to at least have opportunities to listen to the old-timers. :^)
Heck yeah! And install the first simulated CrewDragon Reentry ride at Cape Canaveral Visitor’s Center. Might as well start breaking in the future generations of astronauts early.
I wonder what the ride back from space in a returning Falcon 9 rocket would feel and sound like? (Assuming decelerating to landing in the last 3-5 seconds didn’t kill you outright. Might need to work that out before starting to shuttle people around in large numbers between continents.)
On a completely unrelated note, in China, during the 19th and early 20th century, “chasing the Dragon” was a reference to the effects of smoking opium (usually in one of the many and notorious opium dens).
They don’t make Astronauts like they used to.
The Soyuz capsule reentry is reported to be a pretty wild, rough ride.
Who is Loren Grush? With a name like that, it could be a Sheilah or a limp wristed pretty boy. My guess is that the two astronauts didn’t make those wimpy statements. I think the writer took what they said and embellished it, effeminately. The two space men gave the rugged details to give the impression that they’re tough and hairy chested; but the sissy reporter twisted it around to sound like pearl clutchers.
In the old days, a Marine would have said “Smooth as silk...”
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Smooth as silk, said no one ever. You renter earth atmosphere at 17,000 mph. The wind is screaming past the capsule while atmospheric friction heats the ablative shielding cherry red.
What was wrong with the old space shuttles? They landed like aircraft.
Were armed gorillas on horses waiting to greet them?
Who ever said that?
Which marine was going through speeds of 17,000 miles per hour and temps of 3500 degrees and saying it was “smooth as silk”?
You don't know what the heck you are talking about?
Disgusting!
No. You are disgusting. And a drama queen to boot.
They were incredibly expensive to build and to operate, had to be essentially rebuilt between flights, and they tended to explode on re-entry.
But other than that they were great.
That’s like saying giving birth is a violent event no matter how sophisticated the medical doctor is.
Going to space on a rocket ship and back is not a dinner party, to paraphrase Chairman Mao. Heck, even flying an SR 71 is no joke. It takes a special kind of guy. These are not ordinary men.
Real astronauts had cool names like Deke, Gus & Gordo. What do we have now? Bob & Doug? Sheesh! I half expected the MacKenzie Brothers to step out of the Dragon capsule!
Maybe it’s the flowery writing that got me. I remember lots of the stories from the earliest days about the rough ride during re-entry.
No, not yet. That is still 4 months away. Shhhhh!
Newtonian physics is a b*tch.
One thing I thought was interesting is that, to me, both mission control and the interior of the capsule looked like cheap movie props. Mission control was what looked like folding tables with nothing on them but dual monitors and a key board. The interior of the capsule was equally sparse. It was obviously all that they needed, I just thought it looked kind of funny.
I know Charlie Duke. Godly man to say the least.
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