A float-plane can always take back off if in working order.

I am surprised some Green didn’t fuss about the crew fiddling while the planet burned—(I want royalties for that one, Gary).

As for me, I think what was played on that violin was actually The Godfather theme dedicated to Starliner…

Richard M: Note that I replied to you with some important info. If you didn’t see it check your spam file.

_______
“I understand this viewpoint, but I do not share it.

“The reality is that Isaacman and his hand-picked crew, which included two SpaceX engineers who will take their learnings back to design spacecraft and other vehicles at the company, trained hard for this mission over the better part of two years. In flying such a daring profile to a high altitude through potential conjunctions with thousands of satellites; and then venting their cabin to perform a spacewalk, each of the crew members assumed high risks.

“For its Crew Dragon missions that fly to and from the International Space Station, NASA has an acceptable “loss-of-crew” probability of 1-in-270. But in those spaceflights the crew spends significantly less time inside Dragon, and flies to a much lower and safer altitude. They do not conduct spacewalks out of Dragon. The crew of Polaris Dawn, therefore, assumed non-trivial dangers in undertaking this spaceflight. These risks assumed were measured rather than reckless.

“So why? Why take such risks? Because the final frontier, after nearly seven decades of spaceflight, remains largely unexplored. If it is human destiny to one day expand to other worlds, and eventually other stars, we’re going to need to do so with more than few government astronauts making short sorties. To open space there must be lower cost access and commercial potential.

“With his inventive and daring Polaris Dawn mission, Isaacman has taken a step toward such a future, by pushing forward the performance of Dragon, and accelerating SpaceX’s timeline to develop low-cost spacesuits. Certainly, Isaacman had a blast. But it was for a very good cause. He was lucky enough to go first, but through his actions, he aims to blaze a trail for multitudes to follow.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/after-five-demanding-days-in-space-polaris-dawn-splashes-down-safely/

EagleDick: I can understand completely the joy that Kate and Jessie felt, and have no problem with them expressing it. What I found annoying was that they did it over and over and over and over again. After awhile it gets very old for a viewer, and actually detracts from that joy.

“Ditching?” Like every float plane ever built, from small Alaskan back-country brush-hoppers to the Martin Mars, Crew Dragon was built, from the get-go, to make water landings. There were certainly swimmers in attendance, but they were not there to do any “rescuing,” just to do the at-sea equivalent of what airport employees do on land near boarding gates every day for conventional aircraft.

ZimmerBob,

I didn’t find Kate and Jessie’s occasional gushy comments a problem. This was the first mission on which two of their fellow SpaceX-ers were on the crew manifest. And, like Kate and Jessie, both were female engineers in the same age and employment seniority bracket as themselves. Both commentators were pretty obviously a bit giddy with the growing possibility that they, personally, might be part of the flight crew of some none-too-distant-future SpaceX mission. I, for one, hope both get such an opportunity. Their obviously genuine delight was in no way comparable to the equally obviously manufactured chirpiness of NASA Public Affairs types – both male and female – which, I agree, has much in common with nails scraped across a chalkboard.

Richard M,

Agree about John “Norminal” Insprucker. But the launch, spacewalk and splashdown webcasts were conducted well outside of normal work hours. Insprucker is no spring chicken anymore and doubtless needs his sleep.

Ray Van Dune: During the broadcast, they explained that the weather issues prior to launch caused the landing teams to search for more potential splashdown locations to give them more options, thus increasing their ability to launch.

Richard M: Yup. Now fixed. Thank you.

On a completely different subject, you never answered my email about those hateful commenters at the NYTimes. Did you get it?

The art of an intelligent, well-prepared broadcast seems to be very difficult these days. Not sure what’s driving it. SpaceX has generally done a good job, and while they were cute to use their regular employees as commentators in earlier missions, some of those folks are getting a little jaded, so maybe time for some fresh talent.

On the other hand, NASA broadcasts are insufferably long-winded and targeted at 3rd graders.

I would second that motion!

These were the best answers to your question I saw posted.

From the SpaceX Twitter account:

“SpaceX teams recently selected this new splashdown location after nearly two weeks of launch delays due to unfavorable weather forecasts for each of Dragon’s seven return sites off the coast of Florida.

“ Dry Tortugas adds greater geographic diversity for Dragon’s return and helps increase the odds of having acceptable return weather forecasts for missions such as Polaris Dawn.”

You meant “spacewalk,” not “spacesuit,” right?

For the first time, they spent a lot of time giggling and focusing on PR and how “cool” and “incredible” and “wonderful” everything was, from amusing new decals in the capsule to the spacewalk to Sarah Gillis’ violin performance.

What they needed was more John Insprucker. You can never have enough John Insprucker.

Great recap of a great mission. Ad astra.

Were this an aircraft—it would be called a ditching…the same pararescue jumpers needed. Not fun.

Time for cheering when you are back on terra firma