{"id":18870,"date":"2017-07-19T22:28:05","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T14:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/elon-musk-is-bullish-on-dragon-space-rides-but-red-dragon-on-mars-not-so-much\/"},"modified":"2017-07-19T22:28:05","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T14:28:05","slug":"elon-musk-is-bullish-on-dragon-space-rides-but-red-dragon-on-mars-not-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/elon-musk-is-bullish-on-dragon-space-rides-but-red-dragon-on-mars-not-so-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk is bullish on Dragon space rides, but Red Dragon on Mars? Not so much"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_246391\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-246391\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-246391\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160427-touchdown-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Red Dragon touchdown\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160427-touchdown-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160427-touchdown.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-246391\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artwork shows a Red Dragon capsule firing its thrusters for a Mars landing. (SpaceX Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he expects to see astronauts flying to the International Space Station on his company\u2019s Dragon capsules by mid-2018&nbsp;\u2013 but is downplaying a technology that would have opened the way for robotic \u201cRed Dragon\u201d missions to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>His comments today at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington, D.C., lent credence to suggestions that SpaceX was shelving its Red Dragon plan and shifting its focus to an Interplanetary Transport System capable of sending settlers to the Red Planet.<\/p>\n<p>As recently as February, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the first Red Dragon mission could lift off as early as 2020. But Musk confirmed that SpaceX was no longer planning to have the crew-capable Dragon spacecraft, known as Dragon 2, touch down on land using its thrusters and a set of landing legs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was a tough decision,\u201d he said. \u201cDragon 2 is capable of landing propulsively, and technically it still is, although you\u2019d have to land it on some pretty soft landing pad because we deleted the little landing legs that pop out of the heat shield.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk said it would have take too much effort to get such a configuration qualified for NASA\u2019s use as a transport vehicle for astronauts. He also said he no longer felt the Red Dragon scenario was the best approach for landing on Mars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow there\u2019s a far better approach,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what the next generation of SpaceX rockets and spacecraft is going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Elon Musk, ISS R&amp;D Conference, July 19, 2017\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BqvBhhTtUm4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Musk didn\u2019t provide details, but there have been suggestions that SpaceX would turn to testing a scaled-down version of the Interplanetary Transport System, known informally as the \u201cmini-ITS.\u201d Musk has said he\u2019s revising his grand plan for Mars missions, and may reveal the revision in September at the International Astronautical Congress in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The size of the ITS spacecraft may end up being reduced so that it\u2019s suited for missions in Earth orbit as well as missions to Mars, Musk said. That would make building the mission architecture more affordable. \u201cI think this one\u2019s got a shot of being real on the economic front,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Musk said SpaceX\u2019s primary focus was to stay on schedule to start flying astronauts to the space station on the Dragon 2 by the middle of next year, which is in line with NASA\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s going to be real exciting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_213558\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-213558\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-213558\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/151120-spacex-620x387.jpg\" alt=\"Image: Crew Dragon\" width=\"620\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/151120-spacex-620x387.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/151120-spacex.jpg 1235w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-213558\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon capsule en route to the International Space Station. (Credit: SpaceX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He said developing the Crew Dragon has been \u201cway more difficult\u201d than developing the current-generation Dragon capsules, which have helped resupply the space station since 2012.<\/p>\n<p>NASA has exercised far tighter oversight for the commercial crew development program, he said, but the disagreements have been limited to \u201csmall, technical bones of contention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk also said it\u2019s been more difficult than expected to create the Falcon Heavy, a three-core, heavy-lift version of SpaceX\u2019s flagship rocket. The first Falcon Heavy test flight is now scheduled to lift off late this year from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat requires the simultaneous ignition of 27 orbit-class engines. There\u2019s a lot that could go wrong there,\u201d Musk said. \u201cI encourage people to come down to the Cape and see the first Falcon Heavy mission. It\u2019s guaranteed to be exciting. \u2026 There\u2019s a real good chance that that vehicle does not make it to orbit. I want to make sure to set expectations accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Artwork shows a Red Dragon capsule firing its thrusters for a Mars landing. (SpaceX Illustration) SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he expects to see astronauts flying to the International Space Station on his company\u2019s Dragon capsules by mid-2018&nbsp;\u2013 but is downplaying a technology that would have opened the way for robotic \u201cRed Dragon\u201d missions to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1395,1045,678,367,3241,316],"class_list":["post-18870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-dragon","tag-elon-musk","tag-falcon-heavy","tag-mars","tag-red-dragon","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}