Thread by @WeAreSpaceScout

#NASA and #SpaceX
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

45 years and 9 days since the last American splashdown. Concluding the "first Launch America mission", - Launch America isn't ending yet?

Looks like everyone's in telepresence this time.

Bridenstine: "This is a great day for NASA, and a great day for the USA. I want to thank our SpaceX partners and the CC program here at NASA. Today we really made history."

"This is really an amazing day, but this is just the beginning. Now is the time to capitalize on all of the great programs that have been recently established, such as going to the moon."

Bridenstine proceeds to shout out Artemis and how Commercial Crew leads to Moon, Mars

"Congrats to SpaceX, Elon Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, and the entire NASA team, who has worked so dilligently on this for many years."

And now Gwynne, who we couldn't hear for the first 30 seconds.

"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."

Shotwell concurs with Bridenstine that this is the "springboard" to doing even harder things with the Artemis program and moving on to mars.

Steve Stich: "I'm speechless with how well things went today. We had 3 real objectives, deorbit and entry, demonstrate successful recovery, and bringing back cargo from space. I think we demonstrated all 3."

"Entry was as expected, parachute performance was great, we touched down just fine, we did have one slight issue - as we were bringing the vehicle back onto the ship, we noticed slight toxic vapors, within limits to get the crew safely out but we purged anyways. Incredible day."

Joel Montalbano, ISS mgr. "Bob and Doug completed over 110 hours of science, research, and work that will help this great lab that we have, and allow us to go to Moon and Mars. This is just a small window into the future. So a huge thx to SpX team, CC team, and congrats to all."

Crew-1 (M. Hopkins): "Congrats to Bob, Doug, and their families. It's truly impressive and inspiring. We've got big smiles on our face from what we saw, I said this after the launch and will say it now, it did not seem like their first time. Seemed to go very very well."

"We're wrapping up our training, we got a chance to see the C1 capsule, it's a beautiful vehicle and we can't wait to ride it into space. But today is about DM-2."

And now, Media QA. @lorengrush: The boats that were surrounding Crew Dragon at landing, how was that allowed to happen?

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."

"We need to do a better job next time for sure."

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."

@wapodavenport: "Any updates on Bob and Doug?"

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."

@KeithCowing: "Why did you drop the capsule into a location where powered boats were going to be? Boats seemed to be feet away and nobody shooed them off."

Bridenstine: "As soon as the capsule was in the water, the boats made a beeline for it. It's a big area to clear."

"We're probably gonna require more resources, and we'll do better next time for sure."

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."

Unintelligible question, but Shotwell seems to have caught it.

"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."

askNASA question: How long will it take astros to get used to Earth?

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."

@joroulette: "Based on the results so far, how many missions do you foresee before private missions? Also, refurb process for capsules, and how did NASA agree to it?"

Shotwell: "We're trying to change the paradigm of human spaceflight, and Dragon 2 was designed with reuse 5-10x"

"We have to see how things work out when we examine the capsule when it gets back at the Cape, but based on telemetry, it seems to be in good shape."

Stich: "Reuse was part of SpX's original bid, we looked at the data and decided it was reasonable, takes ~4mo to refurb."

"As soon as it gets back to Area 59 at the cape, we'll start maintenance, and re-look at all the certifications. We want to make sure we want to have overlap with Crew 1 and 2."

Bridenstine: "Our desire as an agency is sustainability, and that usually means reuse."

"We're looking forward to reusing this capsule for Crew 2, and as Shotwell said, based on telemetry, we seem to be in great shape."

Marcia Dunn, now: "What was it like at SpX HQ leading up to splashdown?"

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."

"Elon hopped on a flight and is headed to Houston to greet them, and it was an initial relief at splashdown for sure, but much greater relief when they exited the capsule."

@SciGuySpace, for Gwynne: "12 years to this day since Falcon 1 failed, and since then, you guys have accomplished this, how has SpX transformed during this?"

Shotwell: "It's hard to process, I never shy away from our failures, they're incredible opportunities to learn."

"We would not be the company we are today without the support without the moral, financial, and tech. support of NASA. August of 2006 is when we started working closely with NASA. Though it seems like a long time, we've done a lot in that timeframe, and we've done it w/ NASA."

"It's a great day to celebrate not only Bob and Doug's return, but also this extraordinary relationship with NASA."

AskNASA question: "How does data from DM-2 change your mission?"

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"

@StephenClark1 for Gwynne: "Since you'll be reusing these vehicles, how many will you have in your fleet for crew missions? And for Noguchi, since you're 1st astro since John Young about to fly on 3 vehicles, how do you think F9 will be?"

Noguchi: "I'm very honored to fly this mission, but the important thing is I am a rookie to SpaceX, this is like going back to square one. Important thing is we have a great variety and diversity in this crew, and my contribution is experience to this crew. Great mission ahead."

Shotwell: "We are building a fleet of Dragon 2, cargo and crew versions, we want to see how this vehicle looks after inspecting it, but we anticipate building up a fleet."

Jackie Goddard: "I wonder if you could describe how you [Crew-1] watched that splashdown?"

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"

"We're very excited it went as smoothly as it did, and points to the success of our mission when we get a chance to launch."

@businessinsider now: "What was the greatest surprise? Is there anything you'd change for Crew-1?"

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"

"Looking to upgrade solar arrays, on this mission they did better than we anticipated, preflight we learned some things, we'll make sure we include those in Crew-1, today I think we learned we'll have three generators on rescue boat, and that's a small thing we'll do forward."

Houston Chronicle? now: "How do these landings compare to Apollo?"

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.

@jeff_foust: "Question for Stich, A little bit more detail in what's involved going over Endeavour now that it's back and certification for Crew-1?"

"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

"We'll go through all that data to make sure there's nothing anomalous. We'll look at the parachutes, take those back, analyze those."

"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."

@thesheetztweetz now: "Both of the astros were helped out of the capsule, is that the protocol? Or will future astros not be able to step out themselves."

Stich: "It's pretty typical crews need help coming out of a spacecraft after long durations in space."

"It takes the body a bit of time to adapt, and the inner ear a bit of time to adapt, that's what you saw with Bob and Doug today and I'd expect the same for our longer missions."

@SpcPlcyOnline: "What will this mean, now that we have 4 inhabitants of the US segment permanently?"

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)

Falling a bit behind on this question, our apologies.

@EmreKelly: For Gwynne, "this spacecraft that arrived today, Bob trusted it for his mission, and will trust it again for his wife's mission. Can you talk about that?"

Shotwell: "Megan is 1st/foremost an astro., We'll make sure the vehicle is improved and better than Bob's flight

Spaceflight is hard, but the mission went very smooth, but we still have a lot of work to do. We'll learn every mission we have, but our mission is to make sure astronauts remain safe. I was really excited to have her named the pilot for Crew-2"

@latimes now: "Anything that you guys were looking at or may need to be changed before next 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."

"We'll figure out a way to handle it better on the next flight, perhaps with a purge as soon as we get on the vehicle."

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."

"We certainly could've brought them outside the capsule sooner than we did, but needed to make sure we weren't experiencing any fumes. Doug said "take your time." Good lesson learned, we'll initiate a purge sooner, and we may not see this in the future."

Bridenstine: "What is not common is having passers-by approach the vehicle with close range with NTO in the atmosphere. We need to make sure we're warning people not to approach the craft in the future."

Zachary Hall of @Space_Explored: "Is there a distance the public could view from, and in the same idea of inclusivity, what's the better way to channel your excitement for spaceflight, especially during a pandemic?"

Bridenstine: "We invited everyone to join us online."

"SpaceX did a great job with the cast online, there were a lot of ways to celebrate, approaching the spacecraft is *not* one of those ways."

CNN: "How will Bob and Doug's re-habilitation go, especially with the pandemic?"

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."

Another question, for Shotwell, about anomalies.

"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."

Closing remarks.
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."

"We'd love to see a fleet of Crew Dragons servicing not just the ISS, but commercial stations too. The future is very bright, but it'll require these public-private partnerships."

"And how has SpaceX changed since Falcon 1? The reason we had success today is because SpX is...

...good at adapting, and NASA is great at sharing their information. When NASA publishes requirements, and we allow a company like SpaceX to go and innovate, incredible things happen. These are things NASA would never have done on its own."

"SpaceX proved, and we as an agency had to verify that, and I will tell you it has been a magnificent thing to watch. Congrats to SpaceX and NASA teams, and one last things before we close out, @SciGuySpace sent a tweet yesterday about how we now have...

Dragon, Starliner, Starship, Orion, Blue Moon, etc. and we may never have a time without access to space. And I was the first admin. who didn't see the Moon landing, and now we're going to go to the Moon sustainably. So I want to thank Eric for that tweet."

"The budget request for NASA is now $25.2bn. When I first joined NASA as the administrator, the budget was $18.2bn. We've got a bright future, and a big agenda, and I'd implore the bipartisan members of congress to fund that budget request."

"Thank you to everyone who's gotten us where we are, and thank you guys so much. We made history today. Congratulations to everyone."