this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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SpaceX

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With 6x more propellant and 4x the power of today’s Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX was selected to design and develop the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle for a precise, controlled deorbit of the @Space_Station

Looks like there will be 30 draco engines on the back of that thing. Pretty Kerbal!

Edit: Image

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[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

LOL, they just stretched the trunk and put a sh*tload of draco thrusters on the back. Definitely Kerbal AF.

I wonder how they'll launch it? Will Falcon 9 be enough, or Falcon Heavy be required? Will they also need a custom stongback? It will be a taller stack than a regular Dragon.

[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago

For the strongback, they've made changes in the past, like recently running liquid methane up it for Intuitive Machines, so that shouldn't be too big of a deal.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

NASA is not paying SpaceX enough to design a new engine for this, so they may as well use what they have.

[–] ptfrd@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

For $0.8 billion I'd design a new engine! (Would have to learn rocket science first but I'd be able to afford the best teachers, so doable.)

[–] toast@retrolemmy.com 3 points 2 months ago

There's junk in that trunk

[–] ptfrd@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Will Falcon 9 be enough, or Falcon Heavy be required?

https://www.youtube.com/live/Dw1JXZwo00o?t=34m48s (34:48) Seems to imply Falcon 9 is insufficient.

[–] ptfrd@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

But later on the SpaceX person is asked about launch and just says something about the "Falcon product line", IIRC.