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A comment on SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight by slg on Friday March 08, 2019 @06:59PM (#19343427)
I am curious about this as well. Was the propulsion the problem? Did they just want a water landing? Did they specifically want an ocean landing to increase the acceptable margin for error in the splash down location? Is there some specific property to the salt water like buoyancy that is important? Would a landing in fresh water like the Great Lakes (or Lake Victoria if they need something more equatorial) meet NASA's requirements and allow the capsule to be reusable?
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Re:SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight by nordsieck on Friday March 08, 2019 @08:37PM (#19343929)
> Would a landing in fresh water like the Great Lakes (or Lake Victoria if they need something more equatorial) meet NASA's requirements and allow the capsule to be reusable?

I'd guess that one of the big reasons they (and everyone else who does water landings) lands in the ocean, is that it is much more palatable to regulators to create an exclusion zone in the ocean, which people can easily route around.

Also, people live on the side of the lake, so there isn't much margin for error, which never warms the cockles of a regulator's heart.

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Re:SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight by hermitdev on Saturday March 09, 2019 @12:48PM (#19347381)
I'd also wager that the concentration of vessels on the great lakes is significantly higher than 100 miles or so out into an ocean. Wouldn't want to land on a sailboat. Don't think that'd work out well for either end.
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Re:SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight by phkahler on Friday March 08, 2019 @07:06PM (#19343471)
+1 for splashdown in the great lakes. Now let's throw in launch pad on the shore of lake superior for getting in polar orbits. ;-)
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Re:SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight by torpfactory on Friday March 08, 2019 @10:23PM (#19344241)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keweenaw_Rocket_Range

So yah they didn't reach orbit but you betcha it was still pretty neat to see it.

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Re:SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight by duxup on Saturday March 09, 2019 @12:07AM (#19344597)
This is Space X.... let's go for a splash down in a water park in Wisconsin too!
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Re:SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down After Historic Test Flight by pferde on Saturday March 09, 2019 @10:34AM (#19346606)
Eventually, SpaceX will improve the accuracy so much that they will be able to get random celebrities to pay for having splashdowns in their private Beverly Hills swimming pools. :)
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