Don't forget Apollo 13! That also qualifies as an emergency landing. I may be wrong but I seem to rememer hearing that the Russians almost had to make an emergency reentry for medical reasons back in the 1980s. I'm searching the web to see if that is true. There were at least two Soyuz missions that had launch aborts but that's a different matter. Spaceflight is still dangerous and lessons are being learned all of the time.
Using the parafoil, a CRV could ditch pretty easily. Whether it floats very well remains to be seen. The Apollo spacecraft were lousy boats with a tendency to flip upside down.
Gemini 8 was ordered to splashdown on its 7th revolution. It took over 4 hours before the crew was recovered. Back then, Navy ships were deployed around the world to support manned space missions. You can't count on having a ship handy all the time with the ISS. The higher latitudes covered by the ISS means the chances of coming down somewhere bad (like the North Atlantic) are higher than with the Gemini missions.
Space/Science » in reply to Re: CRV or x38
Not exactly
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- Nasa Chief ...."Let's get back to basics"