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SpaceX Demo-2 mission in 2020 ends with a splashdown off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.
LOS ANGELES—In an effort to stem the chance that debris from discarded Dragon capsule trunk sections could reenter over populated areas, SpaceX will shift splashdown and recovery operations to the West Coast, the company said July 26.
The decision follows the recovery of a piece of Dragon debris in Australia in 2022, indicating that—contrary to computer modeling—parts of the capsule’s discarded trunk can survive reentry heating.
The unpressurized trunk section of Dragon, which is jettisoned prior to the capsule’s deorbit burn, does not have any maneuvering capabilities after separation, so the location and time of its reentry is dependent on solar activity, atmospheric conditions and other factors, says Sarah Walker, SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management.
“The majority of trunk debris has reentered over unpopulated ocean areas, but the fact that any debris reentered indicates to us that we need to draw a different conclusion from that initial analysis,” Walker says. “We are committed to safe spaceflight operations and public safety. It’s at the core of what we do.”
The company is developing a software change for Dragon to conduct its deorbit burn prior to discarding the trunk section, positioning the trunk to reenter up-range where any surviving debris would fall into unpopulated ocean areas.
SpaceX began its Dragon program with splashdowns in the Pacific Ocean, then five years ago shifted to Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico returns off the coast of Florida. The determining factor in making the change was the belief that passive reentry of the Dragon’s trunk section would pose no risk to populated areas, Walker said.
East Coast splashdowns saved transportation time and costs of returning the reusable Dragon capsules back to SpaceX’s Florida launch base.
The company plans to reposition a Dragon recovery vessel to the West Coast next year and use SpaceX facilities at the Port of Long Beach in California for initial post-flight processing. “We may see a transition period where we’re moving all of the hardware, facilities and infrastructure, but eventually we will land all Dragons on the West Coast,” Walker said.
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