torrid said:

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The Sun said:

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Swollen Thumb said:

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How is this more impressive than spacex? Seems like I dream of genie reruns. Genuinely curious.

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Huh? The process or the achievement? Four humans traveling the farthest ever from Earth on a 100% nominal mission? That's a pretty impressive achievement.

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The questions remains - and I'm saying this as someone who grew up a NASA brat in Clear Lake - was the SLS the best use of taxpayer money in achieving this mission?

And you can see from how much I'm posting that I'm a big space nerd.

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Impressive that their still using 1960s technology so to speak and made back home in one piece.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Hah, erection.

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Now trying the backdoor approach lol

You know something I wonder about. Does Earth gravity instantly kick in when they start re-entry, or is it more gradual?

torrid said:

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The Sun said:

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Swollen Thumb said:

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How is this more impressive than spacex? Seems like I dream of genie reruns. Genuinely curious.

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Huh? The process or the achievement? Four humans traveling the farthest ever from Earth on a 100% nominal mission? That's a pretty impressive achievement.

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The questions remains - and I'm saying this as someone who grew up a NASA brat in Clear Lake - was the SLS the best use of taxpayer money in achieving this mission?

And you can see from how much I'm posting that I'm a big space nerd.

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I can agree with you about SLS... But the Orion capsule and reentry is independent from the launch vehicle.

This vehicle is the only piece of machinery currently operated by any country that can do what was just done.

The US remains the only country to ever send people beyond LEO.

torrid said:

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The Sun said:

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Swollen Thumb said:

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How is this more impressive than spacex? Seems like I dream of genie reruns. Genuinely curious.

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Huh? The process or the achievement? Four humans traveling the farthest ever from Earth on a 100% nominal mission? That's a pretty impressive achievement.

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The questions remains - and I'm saying this as someone who grew up a NASA brat in Clear Lake - was the SLS the best use of taxpayer money in achieving this mission?

And you can see from how much I'm posting that I'm a big space nerd.

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SLS may not seem the best, but also, how many other options have made it out of LEO? If we keep switching solutions, we'll never get anywhere. We need to keep using SLS at the same time as we make it's replacement.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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You know something I wonder about. Does Earth gravity instantly kick in when they start re-entry, or is it more gradual?

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They never lose gravity, they are just in a continuous state of free-fall. Once they hit the atmosphere, they feel several gs as they slow down. I guess you could say they feel one g once the chutes deploy and they are gently falling.

I thought I heard someone say they tighten their straps on their seats during the comms blackout because gravity starts to increase, whereas before that they're still floating in their seats a bit.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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You know something I wonder about. Does Earth gravity instantly kick in when they start re-entry, or is it more gradual?

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Earth gravity "kicked in" three days ago when they crossed over from lunar to earth influence. G loads in the vehicle grew slowly (relatively speaking) at our shortly after entry interface, and peaked at 4G.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Swollen Thumb said:

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How is this more impressive than spacex? Seems like I dream of genie reruns. Genuinely curious.

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ISS (than therefore SpaceX) orbits at 17000 mph. This vehicle entered at 32,000 mph. Considering energy is the product of mass and the square of velocity, the total energy that was just dissipated was VASTLY greater.

Dragon... 17,000 lbs dry mass x 170000 mph ^2
Orion... 20,500 lbs dry mass x 32,000 mph ^ 2

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Is this different than 50 years ago? I honestly don't know. Just seems like the same videos from back then so wondering what the fuss is about. Not trying to be a jerk. My kids are asking.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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You know something I wonder about. Does Earth gravity instantly kick in when they start re-entry, or is it more gradual?

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They've been in Earth's gravity for essentially the whole journey back from the moon. They went from accelerating in free fall (0G) to peak deacceleration (4Gs) in a matter of seconds when they hit the atmosphere.

Burdizzo said:

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Watching the YouTube feed, and they have an external view with a solar array in the foreground and Earth in the background. Occasionally it looks like the array deflects/vibrates a little. I assume that is from the occupants moving around in the command module.

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I'm not sure if the movement you observed was from crew moving around in the vehicle, but when they were orbiting the moon, they showed video of Orion moving back and forth when the astronauts were using the exercise machine. It actually looked pretty rough from the outside camera view!

Thank you! Good stuff!!

Swollen Thumb said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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Swollen Thumb said:

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How is this more impressive than spacex? Seems like I dream of genie reruns. Genuinely curious.

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ISS (than therefore SpaceX) orbits at 17000 mph. This vehicle entered at 32,000 mph. Considering energy is the product of mass and the square of velocity, the total energy that was just dissipated was VASTLY greater.

Dragon... 17,000 lbs dry mass x 170000 mph ^2
Orion... 20,500 lbs dry mass x 32,000 mph ^ 2

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Is this different than 50 years ago? I honestly don't know. Just seems like the same videos from back then so wondering what the fuss is about. Not trying to be a jerk. My kids are asking.

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A big difference is the launch abort system that's on the vehicle at launch. That's the cap with the stick at the very top of the rocket assembly. It's jettisoned shortly after launch, once they have completed the ascent.

It was a requirement for Orion. No other manned launch vehicle ever had anything comparable. It was a significant design change and added a decent amount of weight. But the program wouldn't have gone forward without it. That's the legacy of the shuttle program and Challenger/Columbia.

But the basic design is very similar to Apollo because that was a relatively safe(r) design to begin with.

Since they were allowed to bring their iPhones, I bet they're catching up on the millions of texts they received while in space. Their phones probably blew up.

OKCAg2002 said:

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Since they were allowed to bring their iPhones, I bet they're catching up on the millions of texts they received while in space. Their phones probably blew up.

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Doubt they are getting much cell coverage out there. Maybe the recovery ship has some good Wi-Fi.

Apollo, Gemini, and I'm pretty sure even Mercury all has launch abort towers.

SpaceX has it's abort system built into the capsule with the Super Draco thrusters.

Im still amazed they landed within pissing distance (relatively speaking) of the rescue ship.

crack a window a little bit for god's sake

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Apollo, Gemini, and I'm pretty sure even Mercury all has launch abort towers.

SpaceX has it's abort system built into the capsule with the Super Draco thrusters.

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I don't think they had anything quite like what is on this vehicle. From what I understand, it was completely redesigned.

The shuttle had nothing.

From Google:
Steering and Stability: Unlike the Apollo system, which relied on the capsule's weight to flip over after separation, the Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) features a specialized Attitude Control Motor. This motor can actively steer the capsule away from a malfunctioning rocket and orient it for a safe, consistent landing.
More Powerful and Capable: The Orion LAS offers a much wider range of successful abort conditions (the "abort envelope"). It provides 400,000 pounds of thrust to pull the crew module.
Weight and Scale: The Orion LAS is considerably larger and more powerful, with the abort system weighing 16,093 lbs compared to Apollo's 8,000-lb Launch Escape System (LES).

Don't know how it compares to SpaceX - my previous comments were all in reference to NASA vehicles.

Longer they stay in that can the bigger the chance someone gets to wanting to chum for fish.

That's partially why they launch weather balloons shortly before reentry. It gives them all the meteorologic data, weather and atmospheric, needed to refine the entry.

The capsule is a lifting body. So with small attitude adjustments they can steer the vehicle to a limited extent to pinpoint splash down on set coordinates.

Mathguy64 said:

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Longer they stay in that can the bigger the chance someone gets to wanting to chum for fish.

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They're going to need a bigger spaceship.

Way too long to open the capsule. This is weird.

aggiehawg said:

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Way too long to open the capsule. This is weird.

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Pretty sure they said the crew has roughly 30 minutes of checklists to run anyway.

Crew finally able to breath fresh air.

now they can breath

EIGHT people inside the capsule??!!

torrid said:

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EIGHT people inside the capsule??!!

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The other difference between Apollo and Orion is it's like double the size

I believe there will be some changes post splashdown on future missions. I mean give them swimsuits and let them jump out.

This rubber boat porch thingy seems ridiculously complicated, lol. And what's the point of stabilizing the capsule two hours after splashdown?

"Navy Divers", my ass…….they're "frogmen" - a term I always thought hilarious growing up.

B-1 83 said:

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"Navy Divers", my ass…….they're "frogmen" - a term I always thought hilarious growing up.

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Frogmen were AAF back in the day. Navy has always called them Navy Divers. Similar to how they have Naval Aviators rather than pilots.