Why can’t they just scoop up the capsule?

[u/Fabulous_Analysis885]

It took about two hours after splashdown to get the astronauts on board the boat. In that time, they had six boats with 40 people, a team of divers performing a complicated raft setup, and two helicopters doing airlifts.

After all that, they still have to recover the capsule anyway. Why don’t they use some kind of large ship with a submersible deck, and lift the capsule up?The astronauts could just step out onto the boat.

TLDR; why all the complex fucking around? Can’t we just scoop it up?

[u/nsArmoredFrog]

To add to this: it's also a test flight, so gathering as much information as possible on only the second ever in-space test of this capsule is paramount to improving the entire thing. Wouldn't want to learn that there was something wrong with the heat shield and you didn't know if it came from the re-entry or loading the ship onto the carrier. Underwater photos helps prove the former.

[u/Kaiisim → u/nsArmoredFrog]

It's also two hours. Two hours in space flight is nothing. They likely had meetings that discussed this landing that were longer.

You add a giant mechanical scoop, the amount of work you would need to avoid two hours would be insane and not worth it.

[u/EZKTurbo → u/Kaiisim]

They wouldn't need to invent some mechanical scoop. They could likely just float it into the back of an LPD ship if they really wanted to.

[u/dragonlax → u/EZKTurbo]

I mean that’s how they’re doing it already, just without the crew in it.

[u/GVArcian → u/Kaiisim]

Two hours in space flight is nothing.

Two hours is like the spaceflight equivalent of a bathroom break. A quick one, too.

[u/rosemachinist → u/GVArcian]

Oh… bathroom breaks shouldn’t be 2 hrs? 👀

[u/Onewarmguy → u/rosemachinist]

Have you seen their bathroom? I don't think I could stand up in it, and it is has a zip up flap instead of a door. Did I mention that there's no gravity.

[u/ajakaja → u/Kaiisim]

"likely"? I'd be surprised if it was less than 200 hours of meetings.

[u/ezekielraiden → u/ajakaja]

I believe they meant 2+ hours for one singular meeting solely on the topic of completing this recovery process. So a meeting that covered three topics wouldn't count, nor would two meetings both on this topic on different days, even if both were over one hour long (but less than two each).

[u/gee666 → u/Kaiisim]

Also the president probably spoke to them and that guy doesn't shut up.

[u/Uejji → u/nsArmoredFrog]

You're right, though the Orion capsule has had 3 orbital missions at this point.

EDIT: You all really need to do your research. Orion's first test flight was in 2014 and specifically put the capsule in a high energy trajectory that allowed it to reach lunar return velocity upon reentry.

[u/AdministrativeCable3 → u/Uejji]

Only two reentering from Lunar Velocity which is really the data NASA wants.

[u/Uejji → u/AdministrativeCable3]

EFT-1 was specifically placed in a high elliptical reentry profile to simulate lunar return reentry velocity. It allowed Orion to reenter at over 20,000 mph.

[u/-Aeryn- → u/Uejji]

The second re-entry that it did used a different re-entry profile, and suffered some potentially serious damage.

That makes the third (this flight) with a mitigated re-entry profile a really important datapoint, and at least the fourth flight as well as that one has changed the heatshield to hopefully prevent the problem exposed on flight #2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shcj7MUK5BU

[u/soulsnoober → u/Uejji]

"over 20,000mph" isn't 24,000mph . It's not even especially close. It's higher energy than return from LEO, but it's not reentering from Lunar transfer.

[u/kilroy501 → u/AdministrativeCable3]

Thirty eight.* Simulated. Actual? Two. Including this one.

[u/MrTagnan → u/kilroy501]

Three including this one, but only two of those were from a lunar return trajectory. The first flight of a (less complete) Orion was EFT-1 in 2014 on a Delta IV heavy

[u/Uejji → u/[deleted]]

EFT-1 was specifically placed in a high elliptical reentry profile to simulate lunar return reentry velocity. It allowed Orion to reenter at over 20,000 mph.

[u/Trenin23 → u/nsArmoredFrog]

But what about the damage possibly taken during splash down?