Demo-2 Post-Splashdown Conference
(thread)
Speakers:
@JimBridenstine, NASA admin.
Steve Stich, @Commercial_Crew manager
Joel Montelbano, ISS Program Manager
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX COO
USCV-1 Crew:
Michael S. Hopkins
@VicGlover
@Astro_Soichi
Shannon Walker
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EecYSD7WkAA9vcT.png)
Bridenstine proceeds to shout out Artemis and how Commercial Crew leads to Moon, Mars
"The SpaceX team did extraordinary work, I do think it's important to point out this was an extraordinary mission and day for NASA, SpaceX, Americans, and anyone w/ spaceflight interests."
Bridenstine: "That was not what we were anticipating, we needed a clearing, the CG did an excellent job, but after they landed the boats just came in."
Stich: "We did clear that area, we had a 10 nm area we cleared, it was clear for splashdown, and then boats saw the capsule and came in. We'll work together to do better for next splashdown."
Stich: "When I left control center, they were doing very well, all indications are they're doing well. Rest of the day, a helicopter will take them off the ship, and they'll return to Houston tonight."
Bridenstine: "As soon as the capsule was in the water, the boats made a beeline for it. It's a big area to clear."
Shotwell: "Their focus was to make sure they got on the boat safely, not their job to police the area. Lesson learned here, we need more CG, SpX, and NASA assets policing the area."
"We're comfortable taking commercial passengers, but our focus right now is Crew-1 and the Crew-1/2 handoff, but I'm very comfortable with commercial passengers."
Stich: "They'll come back and start doing some special training, within a few days or weeks they'll be back to normal. We'll get them back here and re-adapt them to Earth. They're doing very well."
Shotwell: "We're trying to change the paradigm of human spaceflight, and Dragon 2 was designed with reuse 5-10x"
Stich: "Reuse was part of SpX's original bid, we looked at the data and decided it was reasonable, takes ~4mo to refurb."
Bridenstine: "Our desire as an agency is sustainability, and that usually means reuse."
Shotwell: "No question it was enormous relief. Splashdown was just the beginning, we wanted to make sure they exited the vehicle and looked good. We weren't done til Bob and Doug exited the vehicle."
Shotwell: "It's hard to process, I never shy away from our failures, they're incredible opportunities to learn."
V. Glover essentially states Crew-1 is ready for flight, and they will adapt as needed.
Montelbano: "We did some testing and learned where to stow items, how to live in Dragon, and took advantage of having it@ISS"
S. Walker: "We were together here in Houston watching the splashdown, it was very exciting and emotional for all of us, to watch our friends come home safely, along with how smooth it was"
Shotwell: I have such an extraordinary team here at SpX, I don't want to undermine any of that, but greatest surprise is everything went as well as it did. "Minorly surprised"
Stich: "I'd say these were very similar to Apollo, one difference, SpaceX used four main chutes instead of Apollo's 3, but all in all parachute tech is very similar."
Dragon v. Apollo, well, Dragon is automatic.
"We'll do a few things, such as reviewing all telemetry, we've done that the whole flight, we'll do it now for undocking, recovery
"Thirdly, SpaceX will take the vehicle apart, we'll start to inspect parts of the spacecraft, we'll learn things from that and certify soon."
Stich: "It's pretty typical crews need help coming out of a spacecraft after long durations in space."
Montalbano: "We're going to expand our time for utilization on the space station from 35 hours to 70, with a 4th crew member. Also, 5-6 resupply flights."
(this one was rough)
Shotwell: "Megan is 1st/foremost an astro., We'll make sure the vehicle is improved and better than Bob's flight
Stich: "It's commonpractice with any space craft to check for vapors, we did see a slight hit on the sensor for oxidizer (NTO), there may be a mechanism where it's trapped."
Shotwell: "We didn't find any system breaches, we should've had a service section purge initiated right away, it was also a calm day and no wind blowing."
Bridenstine: "We invited everyone to join us online."
Stich: "They'll come back here to JSC, get some med. evaluations, they may have to stay for evaluation. Everyone on the ship quarantined and was tested. We're excited to have them back here."
"We'll add another backup generator, and as for the discussion about the oxidizer on the outside of Dragon, we'll work on that to make sure we keep the astros. and capsule techs safe. The mission on orbit was quiet."
Bridenstine: "Thank you to everyone who participated, to NASA, to SpaceX, to Bob and Doug. A historic day. It came up earlier, what size of a fleet do you need? As a private company, SpaceX is looking at the demand, and our goal is to make sure there's demand."
"And how has SpaceX changed since Falcon 1? The reason we had success today is because SpX is...