The Crew Dragon coming home.

[maw lod qan]

I was just reading up on their return. Going to be the first Gulf of Mexico landing if I'm thinking right. Everything before has been the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans.

I am a little, well surprised, though.

They spent most of the night sleeping. Any return trip home over 6 hours must be extended to allow them to rest up a bit.

Come on guys! Your astronauts! The things kids dream of! Heros!

I've done return trips before where I'd drive 20 hours straight, me behind the wheel, sometimes doing 90 or 100 on the interstate when traffic and weather permitted! 😁

And aren't they just sitting there enjoying the ride?

 

[Alan White]

Wherever they land, as long as they arrive in one piece all is good with me.

This does bring back boyhood memories though of splashdowns, 

somehow the Russian dust downs, just don’t feel right, even though they plainly work well.

[DaveL59]

I always felt the Russian dust downs were a greater achievement really, after all sploshing into water is a kinda cop-out in terms of engineering a landing solution. Getting down onto a hard surface and keeping the pod and people intact seems that much harder to do successfully... 

[Gina]

Actually, the water surface can be pretty hard unless travelling very slowly.

[DaveL59]

54 minutes ago, Gina said:

Actually, the water surface can be pretty hard unless travelling very slowly.

true but unlike solid ground the water will have some give to aid damping the impact and offer some final deceleration should you not have lost quite enough speed. 

[Stuart1971]

They were asked online last night about landing in the water, during the live transmission and whether they would be landing on solid ground in the future, and the reply was that the margin for error was too great and as far as they were concerned crew dragons will always land in the water, just like the Apollo’s did....It’s just easier and safer all round....

Edited August 3, 2020 by Stuart1971

[Alan White]

The best bit is they are back safe and sound.
I don't remember the Apollo recoveries taking so long though.
But the  again, what did I have fro Breakfast?