Dragon commander after space docking: “It flew really well, very crisp”

[smp]

From Ars Technica:
"After the docking, the spacecraft's commander, NASA Astronaut Doug Hurley, was complimentary after he and Bob Behnken spent some time flying Dragon manually. "It flew just about like the sim, so my congratulations to the folks at Hawthorne," he said, referring to SpaceX's headquarters in California, where the astronauts spent many weeks practicing in a flight simulator. "It flew really well, very crisp. We couldn't be happier about the performance of the vehicle.""

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06 ... n-the-way/

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[Graeme1858]

How long before Crew Dragon trip is cheaper than a Soyuz and the Russians ask to hitch a ride?

Regards

Graeme

[helicon]

Hopefully soon.

[smp]

How long before Crew Dragon trip is cheaper than a Soyuz and the Russians ask to hitch a ride?

Regards

Graeme

I believe the whole idea is that as any of the partner countries have launch capability, then any of the partner country astronauts can purchase the ride up for their astronauts. The next Crew Dragon launch is supposed to be carrying 2 US astronauts and 1 astronaut from Japan.

In fact, I believe that Russia was invited to send 2 cosmonauts on this Demo 2 mission, but Russia declined, citing that the Crew Dragon spacecraft was not yet certified (!).

It may be that Russia will always send their cosmonauts up on their own launch systems. I don't know for certain, but didn't the US only use the Space Shuttle for US astronauts prior to retiring the Space Shuttle? I do not recall any time that the US purchased rides from Russia while the Space Shuttle was in service. I think a bit of national pride may be at work here.

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[pakarinen]

Hmmm. Wonder if Musk worked the deal so he can eventually sell launch systems to other countries. That would really be commercialization of space. Hey, if Boeing can do it with 7X7s...