Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Exciting news from SpaceX as they announce plans to relocate their Dragon spacecraft landing operations from Florida to California due to debris concerns.
The decision was revealed during NASA’s press conference discussing the upcoming Crew-9 mission to the
Sarah Walker, SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management, stated, “After five successful years of landing off the Florida coast, we have opted to move Dragon recovery operations to the West coast.”
This transition will apply to both cargo and crew versions of the spacecraft.
The primary issue revolves around the trunk section of the Dragon capsule, which is jettisoned before reentry. While the cargo Dragon previously landed in the Pacific 21 times from 2011-2020, the shift to Florida occurred with the introduction of crew missions to allow for capsule landings in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico.
Scientific
2024-07-31 19:15:03
Article from phys.org
