What SpaceX Did With Dragon Recovery Shocked NASA!

"What SpaceX Did With Dragon Recovery Shocked NASA!
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Intro 0:00
A modified offshore supply ship 1:14
A faster recovery process 5:26
The suborbital missions 9:57
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#techmap #techmaps #elonmusk #starshipspacex #spacex
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1) SOURCES OF IMAGES AND VIDEOS
Jenny Hautmann: https://twitter.com/JennyHPhoto
Kiko Dontchev https://x.com/TurkeyBeaver
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What SpaceX Did With Dragon Recovery Shocked NASA!
On December 11, 2022, NASA’s Orion spacecraft made a safe return to Earth, re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean—successfully concluding the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission.
Not long after, a Navy team aboard the USS Portland carried out the capsule’s recovery, bringing it onto the ship’s well deck. The entire operation took about two hours, marking NASA’s first attempt at recovering an Orion spacecraft after an orbital mission.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has been routinely recovering its Dragon capsules from orbital missions for years. And get this—it usually takes them just 60 minutes or less, cutting NASA’s time in half.
But this isn’t just about mission type. The key difference lies in the approach. SpaceX embraces a modern, streamlined recovery process focused on speed and cost-efficiency, whereas NASA continues to rely on a more traditional method.
So, how does SpaceX take NASA’s decades of experience and leap ahead with their own innovative spin?
Let’s dive into that and more in today’s episode of Techmap!
What SpaceX Did With Dragon Recovery Shocked NASA!
SpaceX may have taken a few pages out of NASA’s playbook when it comes to vehicle recovery, but it’s how they adapted and evolved the process that truly sets them apart.
Let’s start with NASA. Before their Orion spacecraft makes a splashdown, the agency deploys a Navy amphibious ship to the site. These ships feature a large open area at the waterline called a well deck, where smaller recovery boats can maneuver alongside. Depending on weather and sea conditions, astronauts can be extracted either directly from the water or from within the ship’s well deck. If recovery happens inside the well deck, a specialized stand is used to safely assist the astronauts once the spacecraft is onboard.
Once Orion is in the ocean, a team of divers and recovery experts sets out in small boats. They secure the spacecraft and use winches and cables to haul it into the well deck. The deck is then closed and drained, creating a stable, dry space to transport the capsule and its crew back to land. It’s a reliable process—tried, tested, and very NASA.
Enter SpaceX.
What SpaceX Did With Dragon Recovery Shocked NASA!
They took inspiration from NASA’s methods but added their own twist. The company acquired a former offshore supply ship—originally built between 2009 and 2010 in Alabama—to support the recovery of their Crew Dragon capsule. This vessel went through several names and owners before being acquired by Guice Offshore in 2014 and rebranded as MV GO Searcher.
In 2016, SpaceX chartered GO Searcher to recover payload fairings from their Falcon 9 launches. The plan? Use parachutes and parafoils to slow the descent of the fairings, catch them at sea, and reuse them to save on production costs. The first few missions didn’t go as planned. It wasn’t until the fourth attempt—during the SES-10 mission—that they managed to haul back large chunks of fairing debris, although not intact fairings. Clearly, there were issues—either with steering the parafoils or with damage upon ocean impact.
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