Dragon Abort Success
 

SpaceX showed off a little today. The abort test was a success, they had a cool fireball with the 1st stage booster, and most of all, they used two classic Centuri chutes and two classic Estes chutes!!!!

I was wondering about those two ‘chute patterns. :)

Very nice test indeed! I wonder why they didn't do it at Max Q, as that would be the most stressing case.

I'm interested in reading more about the recovery operation. Dragon-2 has hypergolic propellants on the capsule, and those propellants react with sea water (ask any Russian sailor who crewed a Russian boomer with liquid-propellant SLBMs - at least two of those boomers sank during the Cold War). So interesting to confirm there were no issues with salt-water intrusion into the propellant system.

Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARIZnaMXTEU


Launch is at 18:40 min.'s in, chute deploy is @ 24:13.

Very cool. I cannot decide which pattern I like best. But the shroud line attachment is a bit different. :)

It is easy for me. My first Saturn 1b and Saturn V kits were Centuri, so the Centuri pattern wins!

First thing I noticed when the chutes popped. Loved that!

Mine too.

Matter of fact, Centuri released their ‘Apollo’ chutes (24” size) I believe sometime in latter ‘67, even before the Super Scale 1/45 Little Joe II, Saturn V, and Saturn 1b kits were released. They were patterned after the real Apollo chutes and would be available in each of the aforementioned kits over the next year and half or so; the Little Joe II in the summer of ‘68 and the Saturn V and Saturn 1b by early ‘69.

Interesting that Centuri went with that pattern so relatively early in the Apollo program, as that was well ahead of the first manned flight by just about a year. They also offered that 24” chute in yellow and black, but I always like the red and white better.

Earl

I was lucky to only have the red ones. I would have been mad to get another color with my Saturns. Until the point that I got the 1B, I only had a couple Centuri kits and they came with a black and yellow checkerboard-like pattern. I started out with Estes and didnt discover Centuri until later.

During the pre-launch coverage on SpaceX's "channel," they mentioned that the exact instant that the abort would be triggered was unknown, because it wasn't programmed (like the open-loop guidance that's often used early in the ascent of satellite launch vehicles [before going to closed-loop guidance, reacting to ambient conditions, later during ascent]). The announcer gave an approximate window a little after a minute after liftoff ("In less than ten seconds, the abort will be initiated"). The abort system operated in closed-loop mode--the on-board sensors, reacting to the conditions in flight, "decided" when Max Q had been reached and then triggered the abort. Also:

During the post-flight press conference, what you mentioned was brought up--that the abort initiation occurred, as far as they could tell, slightly after Max Q. I suppose it might have been a slight sensor "lag" or software mis-calibration issue, but the SpaceX and NASA folks said that they would look into it as part of the overall data analysis from the flight; in any event, it wasn't far enough "off-nominal" that any of them were disappointed by the results. As well:

I wouldn't be surprised, given the Super Draco thrusters' seawater-reacting hypergolic propellants, if the abort software calls for "burn to depletion," or else "sequentially vent all remaining fuel and oxidizer after abort burn shutdown," to prevent such unwanted reactions after splashdown. There may be (and, I imagine, there are) similar procedures for getting rid of residual Super Draco propellants after a normal re-entry burn and re-entry, for the same reason.