Flying Astronauts to Space Is Never Routine

Super interesting piece from The Atlantic about safety and space flight.

SpaceX’s first attempt to fly astronauts to space and back was, from start to finish, a success. The launch into orbit—seamless. The spacecraft’s arrival at the International Space Station—smoothly done. On return, the capsule, buffeted by billowy parachutes, coasted through the sky, toward the waters off the coast of Florida—a vision of a new era of American spaceflight.

But later, when technicians inspected the capsule up close, they saw something they didn’t like. On the astronauts’ way home, the heat shield, the hardware that protects the capsule as it plunges through the atmosphere, eroded more than SpaceX had expected.

Read more.

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