There's only a small fairing over the top of Dragon which wouldn't
have had any reason to come off if Dragon was still attached. A
fairing would have also left the rocket more or less instantaneously
since it was still under thrust. It's unlikely that the second stage
could support a payload near max-Q if it lost tank pressure. While
they aren't balloon tanks, the pressure inside is still necessary in
flight for structural integrity.
You're going to have to show something in the debris that is
Dragon-sized, i.e. larger than the diameter of the F9, to make the
claim you're making
On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 2:24 PM, Redacted sender JMKrell@xxxxxxx for
DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The cone shaped object in the exhaust plume does not have the mass of the
Dragon. The side torque and sudden drag would have destroyed the Falcon 9
had it been the Dragon. Higher probability that it is half of the launch
aeroshield for the Dragon.
Krell
In a message dated 7/1/2015 10:47:07 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
wikkit@xxxxxxxxx writes:
The fluttering stuff just looks like pieces of tank. The dragon-shaped
and dragon-sized object that can be seen falling away while the first
stage is still running seems more likely to be Dragon.
