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Comment by BrandonMarc | Hacker News Reader

I couldn't shake the feeling that Elon seemed a bit nervous. The pressure of expectations when you're already successful, perhaps.

I wonder: the chairs do seem awkward, especially for someone who's spent 6 months in space (from what I've read, they can barely walk ... or is that less true these days?). I'm sure SpaceX knows a helluva lot more than me, though.

The inside ... it looks so roomy ... and pretty ... such a far cry from Soyuz, Apollo, or hell the Shuttle even. Like someone said, a spaceworthy Tesla, giant touchscreens and all.

Question: let's say an anomaly occurs, and it has to land using the chutes .. on land. How's that going to feel? Or, will they aim for a coastal area on purpose, and use the chutes to splash in the water if they have to?

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> Question: let's say an anomaly occurs, and it has to land using the chutes .. on land. How's that going to feel?

The seats look to be suspended well above the floor. That gives you the ability to smooth out the pretty large instantaneous acceleration from hitting the ground faster than intended. I imagine you won't be reusing that particular Dragon again, but the astronauts should be fine.

Probably pretty similar to how it feels when soyuz capsules land on land on parachute descent. It's not a new technique.

Well, the Soyuz does depend on retro-rockets to cushion the final impact. If those don't fire, it's not going to be a soft landing. If I recall correctly, that did happen on one of the Soyuz landings, resulting in some broken teeth from the impact.

It makes for cool videos, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2X2kaqYatI

If you don't know what's going on, it looks like the thing explodes on impact.

man, you weren't kidding. to the untrained eye, that doesn't look like a successful landing. I wonder if airbags, similar to the mars rovers, would do well to cushion the landing.

In reading up a bit on NASA's Orion capsule, a parachute landing on ground with air bags to cushion the impact was apparently a serious option for a while, before they decided to go for a water landing instead.

Haha, Elon always seems nervous. Have you seen him in other videos? I think that's just his normal persona.

I agree. When I first started watching him I thought he was nervous but after seeing him on increasingly larger, and more important stages I think it's just his mannerisms that give that impression. Dude can handle himself.

His mild (very suppressed) stutter probably makes him seem more nervous than he is.

I watched this and thought, "If this guy had Robert Downey Jr's presentation as Tony Stark, he could rule the world."

For reasons I can't explain I get the feeling Elon struggles to explain things in Layman's terms. He obviously a genius and wants to tell us all the details.. but instead he simplifies it.. but then he corrects himself because he doesn't like being so inaccurate.

If you parachute onto land, you're probably going to have a bad time. But better than no rockets and no parachutes.

However, I expect they will usually pick a coastal landing site where the "no power" trajectory puts you in the water, but where the rockets and/or aero lift can put you on land. Unpowered capsules have a pretty good ability to adjust downrange just by changing attitude (look up the Soyuz "ballistic descent"); the powered Dragon 2 would have more options.

A bit nervous? He was so nervous it was painful to watch! I just wanted someone else to take over for the guy. I would like to know more about why it was so difficult for him. He was stuttering, repeating himself, at the moment of the reveal he said "Here's Dragon V1!" then corrected himself. At times the mic picked up nervous little laughs to himself. Perhaps he should practice the presentation more, the way Steve Jobs did. When Mark Zuckerberg would get on stage, he too was terribly awkward but he got better over time.

I think Elon looked extra uncomfortable inside the thing with the control panel in front of him. He seemed eager and relieved to get out. I got the impression he doesn't like confined spaces.

Funny, my impression is that he's running through his head, "I wonder how much it would hurt our efforts if I insisted on taking a seat for our first launch?"

It might help, actually. It would certainly demonstrate his confidence in the system.

Reminds me of the bulletproof-vest company who shoots every employee at least once, point blank, while wearing one ... certainly shows their confidence in their product (and instills in every team member the desire to get it right). http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/02/22/ballistic-vest...

On a side note, I wonder if the shooter would be charged with murder if the vest failed...

I love the spirit, but I think it depends on the industry and probably wouldn't work here. Seats on the first Dragon flights will be at a premium, and any goodwill from "I'm willing to risk my own life" would, I think, be overshadowed by "deadweight CEO is taking up space that we could have used to bring someone useful".

But I wouldn't place bets on it. If Dragon V2's first manned launch gets narrated live by Musk from inside the capsule, I won't be too shocked.

People's ability to move after being in space differs. Shannon Lucid walked right off after months aboard the Mir, possibly because of her strict adherence to exercise routines.

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