DECLARE! NASA Just REACTED to SpaceX Crew Dragon heat shield "PROBLEM" rumor...

Exactly ten years ago, on May 22, 2012, Elon Musk's SpaceX made history. The company became the fourth entity, only after the United States, Russia, and China to launch a spacecraft into orbit and on 31 of that year, return it back to Earth. The achievement fundamentally altered the course of the next decade of space exploration.Show more

That mission, the Dragon C2/3, was also the first commercial spacecraft to dock with another spacecraft in orbit — the International Space Station, in SpaceX’s case, on May 25, 2012. It was also the first commercial spaceship to return cargo back to Earth.

Since then, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has been very successful.
While reuse is paramount to SpaceX’s mission, the Dragon capsule heat shield has started to cause issues once again that could put astronauts at risk.
So, what went wrong here?
Why is Nasa so worried about this?
How seriously does this affect Dragon flights?
Let’s find out everything about this interesting subject in today's episode of SpaceX fans.

To be fair, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule hasn’t been totally free of issues up to this point, but the issues have been comparably minor. With the Inspiration 4 mission in September, issues with the capsule’s toilet became widely publicized. While clearly not ideal for the astronauts, the toilet posed no major threat to the safety of the crew.

Slightly more concerning, on Crew-2’s return last year, one of the four main parachutes was slow to fully deploy. SpaceX’s capsule is designed to be able to safely land even with only three parachutes. Crew-2’s deceleration was still nominal, and that parachute behavior was seen in tests, so SpaceX and NASA could continue operating as normal. Crew-3 launched in a brand-new Crew capsule – Dragon capsule Endurance – just a few days after Crew-2’s splashdown.

One of the most important parts of any spacecraft is the thermal protection system, with the heat shield being the primary component. The heat shield protects spacecraft from the immense destructive power of atmospheric reentry – and there are multiple ways spacecraft can go about doing that.
DECLARE! NASA Just REACTED to SpaceX Crew Dragon heat shield "PROBLEM" rumor...