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A comment on SpaceX's Fram2 returns from first-of-its-kind mission around Earth's poles. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX's Fram2 returns from first-of-its-kind mission aro... by _kst_ on Friday April 04, 2025 @03:53PM (#43586989)
Different crew vehicles have different capabilities. Dragon is similar to Soyuz, Apollo, et al. It doesn't have a lot of maneuverability on the way down -- and if it lands in the ocean, it doesn't need it. (Soyuz lands on land; again, if it's off target it's no big deal.)

I think there were designs for a version of Dragon that could do propulsive landings, but that was abandoned.

Assuming they get Starship working reliably, it will do precise landings, probably with a tower catch, eventually with a crew on board.

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Re:SpaceX's Fram2 returns from first-of-its-kind mission aro... by decimalenough on Friday April 04, 2025 @05:00PM (#43587551)
Soyuz is single use: if the capsule gets banged up a bit on a hard earth landing, it's not a problem (well, assuming the people inside survive).

Dragons are reusable, and Fram2 was in fact the fourth mission of the same vehicle. So they need to be treated with kid gloves.

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