The number of missions is starting to catch up with the probability of something going wrong with the abort system on the crew dragon. Tomorrow, they are taking crew to the ISS and it is starting to eat at me that 5 years ago I did a blog entry warning of the poorly designed abort system on the Crew Dragon. I updated the entry a couple years later.
June 3, 2023, Update. Kathy now works for SpaceX.
And I am adding these numbers from a Space Review site forum comment:
The single best measure of the effectiveness of an escape system is thrust/weight ratio. This shows how fast the system will get a crew away from an exploding launch vehicle. The only upper limit is what will kill the crew, which is between 65 and 75 Gs. I am guessing that would take over a 20 to 1 thrust weight ratio. Anything under that is what you want. That is how you survive your rocket blowing up. Unless the escape system itself is wrapped around you and it blows up. While that has happened with a hypergolic system it can’t really happen with a solid fuel escape tower.
Thrust/weight:
Orion 17.5
Apollo 11.3
Starliner 5.58
Crew Dragon 4.82
Starship 1.17
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