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Now the Program Lead for the Dragon V2, Dr. Reisman brings with him a huge amount of space flight experience, as the California-based company look to upgrade their role in space from satellite launches and cargo missions, to crew transportation.<\/p>\n
The three main contenders to win back domestic crew launch independence for the United States \u2013 SNC\u2019s Dream Chaser, Boeing\u2019s CST-100 and SpaceX\u2019s Dragon \u2013 are all making good progress via NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program.<\/p>\n
![\"Z3\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Z3.jpg\")
At least one \u2013 hopefully two \u2013 of the contenders will progress towards a test mission sometime between 2015 and 2016, with the latest expanded FPIP manifest (L2) showing a conservative placeholder for a CCP test flight at the end of 2016.<\/p>\nAccording to Reisman, that flight will have a NASA astronaut on board. It was previously thought the test missions would involve a roster of internally selected astronauts.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSo the rule is that at least one of the crew on the test flights has to be a NASA astronaut,\u201d noted Dr. Reisman to media at the Dragon V2 reveal event (click here for video).<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s up for interpretation whether the other crew members are NASA, or SpaceX, or a combination thereof.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Z7\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Z7.jpg\")
Pending a successful test flight, Dragon V2 \u2013 providing she wins the Commercial Crew process \u2013 will change call signs to USCV-1 (US Crew Vehicle -1).<\/p>\nThis flight is currently manifested \u2013 per the FPIP schedule \u2013 for docking with the ISS on December 7, 2017. However, efforts are being made to accelerate that date in light of the recent geopolitical uncertainties surrounding relationships with the Russians.<\/p>\n
For that Dragon mission, the crew will be entirely made up from NASA astronauts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019re flying regularly, it\u2019s a rental car. So it\u2019ll be all NASA astronauts,\u201d added Dr. Reisman \u2013 as much as the vehicle will be controlled from MCC-X in Hawthorne during launch and ahead of entering \u2013 and departing \u2013 the ISS\u2019 neighborhood, as is the scenario with cargo Dragons under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.<\/p>\n
![\"Z5\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Z5.jpg\")
\u201cWe\u2019ll run mission control, and we\u2019ll be controlling from the ground, but we\u2019re not going to have anyone inside other than the NASA astronauts.\u201d<\/p>\nStanding just off stage from the new Dragon V2 that was enjoying the glare of the media for the first time last Thursday, Dr. Reisman provided insight into the obvious differences between the sporty looking capsule and the spacecraft he has had the honor of riding to space in.<\/p>\n
Dr. Reisman launched with the STS-123 crew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on March 11, 2008 and returned to Earth with the crew of STS-124 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on June 14, 2008. <\/p>\n
![\"Z4\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Z4.jpg\")
During the interim period, he served with both the Expedition 16 and Expedition 17 crews as a flight engineer aboard the ISS \u2013 and as a result was trained to fly on the Russian Soyuz, which serves as a lifeboat for Expedition crewmembers.<\/p>\nOn STS-132, he served as Mission Specialist 1 (MS-1) aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which launched on May 14, 2010. During the mission, Dr. Reisman conducted two EVAs on the ISS.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, man, they\u2019re very, very different,\u201d noted the New Jersey native when asked to compare Dragon V2 to Shuttle.<\/p>\n
![\"Z12\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Z12.jpg\")
\u201cThe thing about V2 is, it has the potential to be a lot safer than Shuttle. (You can) abort at any time, that\u2019s something the Shuttle couldn\u2019t do. You know, it\u2019s got very robust design for entry, it can sustain a number of failures and still be safe.<\/p>\n\u201cThe Shuttle was a wonderful, wonderful vehicle, but it was very fragile. It operated very close to the edge of its operating envelope.\u201d<\/p>\n
In comparison to the Russian Soyuz \u2013 another capsule design vehicle \u2013 Dr. Reisman noted the huge difference in internal volume and the impressive advances in technology.<\/p>\n
![\"Z14\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Z14.jpg\")
\u201cI trained in the Soyuz, (and) there\u2019s so much more elbow room in there compared to the Soyuz. Plus, instead of just taking two of your buddies, you can take six, so there\u2019s a lot of advantages.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s got modern electronics, modern materials in the heat shield,\u201d added the astronaut, who also confirmed SpaceX will be looking to conduct the six hour fast rendezvous profile on Station missions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean just technologically speaking, it\u2019s a giant leap beyond Soyuz.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s not to mention the fact Dragon V2 will be capable of propulsive landings on terra firma.<\/p>\n
While Soyuz touches down under parachute on the steppes of Kazakhstan, Dragon V2 will land under the power of its SuperDraco thrusters with pinpoint accuracy akin to that of a helicopter.<\/p>\n
Parachutes will still be on board as a contingency, as will the ability to abort to a water landing.<\/p>\n
![\"Z9\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Z9.jpg\")
Tests of the propulsive landing technology will be conducted at SpaceX\u2019s McGregor test site in Texas, utilizing the DragonFly test vehicle, which will look very similar to the Dragon V2.<\/p>\nThese tests will lead up to the first return from space for the V2, which will be aiming for land.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur very first V2 is going to come down on land,\u201d Dr. Reisman confirmed. \u201cThere is the capability \u2013 as a backup \u2013 to come down in the water, in an emergency, but yeah we have a couple places picked out where (we will land)\u2026 I don\u2019t want to get ahead of (SpaceX CEO) Elon (Musk). (I\u2019ll let) him tell you where.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Z5\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Z52.jpg\")
Dragon V2 \u2013 and her CCP competitors \u2013 are now entering the next phase towards returning the domestic crew launch capability that was lost when Atlantis concluded her \u2013 and the Shuttle fleet\u2019s \u2013 loyal service at the end of STS-135.<\/p>\nThis next phase will involve the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) milestones, although the funding related threat of a downselect could see at least one of the contenders missing out on continued NASA funding.<\/p>\n
While SpaceX are believed to be the least threatened by such a downselect, Dr. Reisman would like to see the at least one of the competitors moving forward alongside SpaceX.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly, it\u2019s in NASA\u2019s interest for there to be more than one,\u201d he added. \u201cYou always want to have a plan B.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust got to convince Congress to pay for it, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Images via SpaceX, SNC, NASA and L2).<\/p>\n
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Dragon V2 Program Lead Dr. Garrett Reisman believes SpaceX\u2019s new crew vehicle is a \u201cgiant leap forward\u201d in safety and technology. The new vehicle \u2013 unveiled last Thursday \u2013 is the leading contender to win the right to launch NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), a viable advance on the current mode of […]<\/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":[7893,2304,1395,233,316],"class_list":["post-39572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ccp","tag-crs","tag-dragon","tag-iss","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39572"}],"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=39572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}