"Since the spacecraft has a very powerful base heat shield, and even a leeward-side heat shield, it should be really not significantly affected by a fireball," Musk said. "So it could, quite literally like something out of Star Wars."
The SpaceX CEO evoked the scene near the end of "Return of the Jedi," when the Millennium Falcon narrowly escaped the fiery blast of the Death Star. Unlike the Star Wars mission,with the company's Falcon 9 rocket, which was intentionally shut down about 84 seconds into its flight. The Falcon 9 exploded afterward, but the unmanned Crew Dragon successfully detached and flew away, before later landing in the Atlantic Ocean.
Musk said the rocket booster of the spacecraft is "less an explosion" and "much more a fireball than it is an overpressure event." In principle, Musk says the Crew Dragon should be able to survive an upper-stage explosion before the escape event – but that's not the ideal course of events. "We want to avoid doing that," he said. "But it is really meant to be something that can fly out of the fireball."
Canada Canada Latest News, Canada Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Read more »