Talk:SpaceX Draco

SuperDraco

SpaceX announced today that they have successfully tested the SuperDraco, which will be the engine used in the Dragon's launch escape system. More details here: http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20120201 I will add that to the article later on today, but if someone beats me to it, be my guest. Wingtipvortex (talk) 16:03, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, Awatral. I was editing at the same time you were. I left your text in, mine was as follows: "On February 1st, 2012, SpaceX announced a successful test of a variant of the Draco thruster known as the SuperDraco. Eight SuperDraco thrusters will be used in the Dragon's launch escape system, producing 120,000 pounds of axial thrust. SpaceX plans to use the launch escape system to "to land propulsively on Earth or another planet with pinpoint accuracy.""

References

Are Draco (90 lbf thrust) and SuperDraco (15,000 lbf thrust) really in the same family?

When news reports surfaced of the SuperDraco in February of this year (2012), it was perhaps natural that some might think they are in the same "rocket engine family."

But are they? Do we have a reliable source that indicates SpaceX considers them in the same family?

The Draco has 90 lbf thrust, and is used for reaction control, in space, on both the Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle; the SuperDraco has 15,000 lbf thrust, and is used as a Launch Escape System thruster or for slowing a (no parachute) descent on Mars or Earth, for a different/modified Dragon capsule. The SuperDraco is 170 times more powerful than the Draco.

They clearly are both hypergolic rocket engines, made by the same manufacturer, and both have the name "Draco" buried in there somewhere, but it is beginning to look a bit like original research by Wikipedia editors to have labeled them both in the same "family." N2e (talk) 02:45, 8 December 2012 (UTC)

While thrust alone isn't enough to say if they're related or not, as we've learnt more about these engines it has indeed become less clear than it once seemed whether or not Superdracos are similar enough to Dracos to be considered direct descendents. They could simply be an upgraded, larger version of the Draco, or they could merely a 'Draco inspired design'. We'll have to watch as more information is released, and decide whether a separate article is warranted. If it does turn out that they're more different than it originally appeared, I'll support an split. Especially if we can flesh out these articles with a bit more detail. This is definitely something we'll have to pay attention to as more info about the man rated Dragon is released. — Gopher65_talk 02:33, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

To be really pedantic, is there even an acceptable definition of what a family of rocket engines is? compare: Viking (rocket engine) is a series of engines. these are made by the same company, use the same propellant, and both have multiple restart capability; thrust and Isp depend on hand-wavey things like chamber size and pressure, and expansion ratio. how different do they have to be before we must refuse to let them be called members of the same family? -- Waveguy (talk) 04:19, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

SuperDraco engine testing

• This photo was released by SpaceX today. Caption says "SuperDraco rocket engine fired at full thrust w a printed Inconel chamber. Used for Dragon escape & landing." I'm sure we'll find better sources in the space media over the coming days and weeks, but "printed Inconel chamber" is certainly a new way of building a high-pressure rocket engine chamber, if we can take from the caption that it might mean this kind of additive manufacturing process was used to construct the chamber. N2e (talk) 22:13, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

Good early call! Turns out the SuperDracos are 3D printed. — Gopher65_talk 00:08, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

@Gopher65: Yeah, with the announcement last week at the Dragon V2 unveil, I was quite surprised to find them in the PRODUCTION plan for the engines. I had thought that Musk was just doing some early R&D and playing around with 3D LMDS printing of the combustion chamber last fall, and figured while it might be able to handle the pressures and temps for a short-duration ground test, ...

I have updated the 3D-printed rocket engine section in that article, as well as all the SuperDraco stuff, over the past couple of days. N2e (talk) 13:38, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

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Move discussion in progress

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Move page: should be "Draco", not "SpaceX Draco"

This page is oddly named. Per WP:COMMONNAME, should be "Draco", not "SpaceX Draco". No one calls it, in common usage, SpaceX Draco. It is a rocket engine. It is "Draco". If it needs to be disambiguated, it should be Draco (rocket engine), to disambiguate it from other uses of "Draco" I propose it be renamed to the name it had for many years prior to a rename in recent months, a page that still exists as a redirect. N2e (talk) 03:30, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

@N2e: Maybe - but from what I understand Wikipedia has this naming convention with all (except one, SuperDraco) of SpaceX's engines:

• SpaceX Kestrel
• SpaceX Merlin
• SpaceX Raptor

Also, on the note if the Draco and Superdraco are family, SpaceX says "The SuperDraco is an advanced version of the Draco engines currently used by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to maneuver in orbit and during re-entry." archived here(thanks SpaceX after they updated their website a lot of old links have died). So they do seem to be family. Maybe we could merge this page with the SuperDraco page? They do have different purposes but are still family? Either that or we should shorten what we have here on the SuperDracos.

Its also worth noting that at https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/dragon/, in the "Engines" section of the page, it says "Draco" and then under that it says "Draco" and "SuperDraco" suggesting they are family. OkayKenji ^{(talk page)} 04:41, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

Crew dragon

Where dose the crew dragon have its engine? 2601:199:4300:2A00:D1E9:EFAC:9A2D:9499 (talk) 23:33, 26 April 2022 (UTC)