Someone’s brother in law owns a raft company and got his input on the recovery procedures…..and conveniently won a $17M contract to build a raft….that floats.

There’s a bunch of O&G platform workers from the gulf could have wrapped this up in 15 minutes.

Typical military operation. Two hours to do something that could have been done in two minutes. Pull a zodiac up next to the capsule and hop out. Done.

Rube Goldberg designs an astronaut recovery plan.

From my perspective, that looked like a pretty risky way to do things. Helicopters over water are a pretty good way to die, and why you would go from a capsule, to a raft, to a winch lift, to a helo flight, to a deck landing, simply escapes me.

Capsule to RIB to well deck. Done.

^^^ All of that!

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
Rube Goldberg designs an astronaut recovery plan.

From my perspective, that looked like a pretty risky way to do things. Helicopters over water are a pretty good way to die, and why you would go from a capsule, to a raft, to a winch lift, to a helo flight, to a deck landing, simply escapes me.

Capsule to RIB to well deck. Done.

Because this way everyone gets a medal/participation award.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
Rube Goldberg designs an astronaut recovery plan.

From my perspective, that looked like a pretty risky way to do things. Helicopters over water are a pretty good way to die, and why you would go from a capsule, to a raft, to a winch lift, to a helo flight, to a deck landing, simply escapes me.

Capsule to RIB to well deck. Done.

Yep, not to mention all the swimmers in the water in close proximity to all those boats. Wouldn't take much for somebody to get run over. There's safety in simplicity.

NASA hasn’t learned a damned thing in 50 years - they got the Apollo 11 astronauts out in less time

Whomever was in charge of this process needs a new job. What a shit show.

So glad we have a ton of mission experts here. If you followed the mission, NASA stated several times that Integrity would be in the water for at least 30 minutes, and possibly up to 2 hours, before the astronauts left. Getting the crew out quickly was not the plan, nor was it the call of the guys setting up around it. It was still NASA's ship even in the water, and they were running shutdown procedures, testing comms, getting final sensor readings, and doing whatever the ship commander decided needed to be done prior to popping the hatch. The boat crews were waiting for the commander's permission to begin extraction.

Why would doing it more quickly have been any better?

quote:

Originally posted by jaaron11:
Why would doing it more quickly have been any better?

Ask Gus Grissom about what can go wrong bobbing in the ocean in a tin can.

Today's post splashdown cluster fuck began with SARSAT comms inop, and the surface team unable to talk directly to the flight crew - comms had to be daisy chained via MC @JSC in Houston.

Today's goat rope may have well have gone according to plan, but the kids who dreamt it up should have asked their grandfathers how they did it in the 60's and 70's

Safe to say NASA's ability to show-off, project confidence and basically provide any showmanship...is pretty pathetic; their marketing sucks. After a decade of watching Space-X, Blue Origin and a variety of other commercial space operators showing their launches from a variety of angles and perspectives, along with modern telemetry graphics for viewers...NASA instead goes with basic 80's era views. Since new NASA head Isaacman is not of the hidebound NASA bureaucracy, perhaps he can shake things up and improve NASA's public engagement...might help with selling the program and secure funding.


Recovery of the Artemis capsule was, safe and expected but....why did the astronauts need to be winched onto a helicopter when the LPD they're going to is nearby AND it has a well deck? Is it too much for a RIB or, a larger patrol boat come alongside, pick-up the astronauts and bring them over to the LPD? The inability to speak to the Navy dive/recovery team despite them being just outside bobbing around in a boat was a wet-fart in a drama-free mission.

What did we learn on this "mission"?
"

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
What did we learn on this "mission"?
"

The shitter & the post splash-down comms need a redesign, oh and the heat shield did its job.


Meanwhile, some SLS launch porn. If you have 4K or 8K, might as well put this on a loop

meanwhile the professionals have 42 launches YTD and have 5 more planned this month. https://www.spacex.com/launches

“Are you pushing the PTT (push to talk) button (to talk)?”

Watched it on Fox. Ugh!

I watchd the original moon landing in 1969.

Jessie Watters is no Walter Cronkite.

quote:

Originally posted by jaaron11:
So glad we have a ton of mission experts here. If you followed the mission, NASA stated several times that Integrity would be in the water for at least 30 minutes, and possibly up to 2 hours, before the astronauts left. Getting the crew out quickly was not the plan, nor was it the call of the guys setting up around it. It was still NASA's ship even in the water, and they were running shutdown procedures, testing comms, getting final sensor readings, and doing whatever the ship commander decided needed to be done prior to popping the hatch. The boat crews were waiting for the commander's permission to begin extraction.

Why would doing it more quickly have been any better?

I have no issue with the amount of time it took. I think the mission as a whole was a great success. We proved that we can get back out there, the vehicle performed as designed with only a few minor issues, and the trajectories were spot-on. It's a huge win and they deserve some kudos.

My concerns with the recovery are not the amount of time it took, or even the communications problems or difficulties getting the inflatable skirt attached. That stuff happens, and it's part of the learning process...small details to iron out for the next time. But the whole ordeal with 5 or 6 boats, 4 helicopters, and all the guys in the water just looked overcomplicated and had all the hallmarks of some desk-sitting administrator wanting to put on a show instead of finding the safest and most effective way to do it. There are so many things that could have gone seriously wrong yesterday...engine failure, landing way off-course, heat shield failure, chutes not opening or getting tangled, etc. Thankfully none of that stuff happened and the landing was pretty much perfect. It would absolutely suck to taint that by dropping an astronaut in the ocean, crashing a helicopter, or running a swimmer over with a boat.

I didn't breathe easy until all four of those Seahawks were on the deck and the rotors had stopped turning.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
What did we learn on this "mission"?
"

How to get to the moon safely.
And to correct any problems that arise for future missions.


The next mission is to rendezvous with and test the landers.

I got to agree with you guys. The mission turned out to be a complete success and we thank God for that...but, the time spent in doing it was a long, drawn out mess.

I generally like Jesse Watters but his show was painful.

While it seems obvious getting the astronauts out of the capsule could have gone better, I'm guessing it could have gone worse hence all the people, boats, and helicopters. Pardon the mixed metaphors, maybe NASA planned for the worst and worked that plan?

Do they know 10 days ahead of time what the sea state of the landing area will be?

Are there alternate landing areas available?

Can they enter orbit and wait for better conditions?

As far as what was learned, it was a test flight. NASA will be analyzing all the data they collected, so it'll take awhile before we learn what they learned.

Getting a capsule around the moon wasn't the point. They did that twice with Artemis I. I just looked at Artemis I's path for the first time and it's impressive to the point I'm thinking, "Now you are just showing off". They sent the capsule around the Moon but did not put it in orbit. Instead, it follows the Moon halfway around the Moon's revolution of Earth, then it catches up and goes around the Moon again before heading back to Earth.