Posted on 12/10/2014 6:13:35 AM PST by artichokegrower
Following last Friday’s historic first test flight of NASA’s new Orion spacecraft, U.S. Navy sailors were on-hand to recover the Orion Crew Module after its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
An amphibious transport dock, also called a landing platform/dock (LPD), is an amphibious warfare ship, a warship that embarks, transports, and lands elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare missions.[1] Several navies currently operate this kind of ship. The ships are generally designed to transport troops into a war zone by sea, primarily using landing craft, although invariably they also have the capability to operate transport helicopters.
Amphibious transport docks perform the mission of amphibious transports, amphibious cargo ships, and the older LPDs by incorporating both a flight deck and a well deck that can be ballasted and deballasted to support landing craft or amphibious vehicles.
Son is on an LSD which is similar - been all over it. Amazing ship.
The USS Anchorage (LPD-23) is a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. Not built specifically for this Orion mission, it is a boat and vehicle recovery for Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit teams.
Almost looks like the Navy built a ship specifically to perform this task.
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This is a big government program. The primary purpose is to spend money.
Nice ship. However the crew module looks very 1960’s. And we’re back to fishing the capsule out of the ocean. We used to land the shuttle on a runway. Cheer the progress...
Reducing the cost of launching all that structure that the shuttle needed to fly home, and the fact that Orion is designed to leave Earth orbit, are driving factors of the design. Progress is a function of mission.
You’re comparing apples to oranges. Shuttles weren’t designed for escape orbit round trips like Apollo and Orion capsules.
Just this morning on twitter, Homer Hickam was saying that NASA should be a subversive agency in the sense that it should facilitate freedom and revolt against earth.
He also expressed irritation that we’re still using chemical rockets when there are so many better options for real spaceflight.
So how far and how long. Can’t imagine a Mars mission in that. We all ready had this technology in the 1960’s. Looks like a giant boondoggle. We haven’t done space in so long we have to reinvent “settled” technology?
A mission beyond the moon will require a supply vessel rendezvous. But the distance after that is limited only by the supplies.
Perhaps the lesson learned is that the shuttle was a costly mistake
Where do you get the idea they are reinventing settled technology? They scaled the Apollo caspule/heatshield technology up to a larger capsule, and yes, it needs to be tested. More critically, the service module is an all-new design from Apollo and this needs extensive unmanned testing.
We toiled around in low earth orbit for 30 yrs. with the shuttle. What a waste.
NASA if it is going to continue to exist, needs to have a chain saw taken to its bureaucracy and revert to big goals, some risk taking and a defined mission. Globull warming and muslim outreach are not missions that should be mentioned in the same breath with NASA. If they won’t change the private sector will leave them in the dust eventually.
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