NASASpaceFlight.com Forum
SpaceX Vehicles and Missions => SpaceX Missions Section => Topic started by: Chris Bergin on 05/30/2012 11:57 pm
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LIVE UPDATES FOR DRAGON'S FLIGHT EOM - UNBERTH, ENTRY, SPLASHDOWN.
NSF Resources:
LAUNCH DAY ARTICLE - by William Graham:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacex-falcon-9-send-dragon-to-iss/
POST LAUNCH/FD1+ ARTICLE:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacexs-dragon-achieving-milestones-falcon-9-ride/
FLYUNDER TEST ARTICLE:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/dragon-completes-iss-comm-test-ahead-berthing-opportunity/
BERTHING ARTICLE:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacexs-dragon-historic-attempt-berth-with-iss/
ISS MISSION:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/canadas-dextre-spacexs-dragon-demo-crs-operations/
EOM ARTICLE:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacexs-dragon-unberthing-return-to-earth/
SCRUBBED ATTEMPT 1 UPDATES:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28918.0
LAUNCH and FD1 LIVE UPDATES:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28942.0
FD2-3 UPDATES:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28952.0
FD4 UPDATES (BERTHING DAY):
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28970.0
FD5+ UPDATES (ISS MISSION):
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28991.0
SpaceX Forum Section:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=45.0 - please use this for general questions, non updates.
SpaceX News Articles from 2006 (Including numerous exclusive Elon interviews):
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=21862.0
SpaceX News Articles (Recent):
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/spacex/
Recent COTS C2+ Specific articles:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/Dragon/
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L2 Members:
L2 SpaceX Section:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=tags&tags=SpaceX
L2 SpaceX Dragon C2/C3 Mission Special (Exclusively acquired pre-launch and Mission Coverage, NOW INCLUDES HUNDREDS OF UNRELEASED HI RES IMAGES FROM THE MISSION (over 800mb), Presentations, Graphics, Videos, Updates, NASA/Space industry member comments):
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=54.0
To Join L2: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/
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This a LIVE UPDATE THREAD. All posts need to be as such. Other posts will be removed.
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L2 SpaceX Dragon C2/C3 Mission Special (Exclusively acquired pre-launch and Mission Coverage, NOW INCLUDES HUNDREDS OF UNRELEASED HI RES IMAGES FROM THE MISSION (over 800mb), Presentations, Graphics, Videos, Updates, NASA/Space industry member comments):
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=54.0
It's awesome ;D
Dragon, currently on the ISS stream of NASA tv. Arm attached to its FRGF once again.
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ISS track a.k.a. dragon reentry path from north west to south east.
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Splashdown is off Mexican coast?
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Yes just like COTS 1
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Estimated time of deorbit and splashdown?
Any coverage from the recovery boats?
Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere. There's lots of stuff I haven't had time to go through yet.
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Estimated time of deorbit and splashdown?
Try here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/spacenews/files/spacex_dragon_splashdown_timeline.html
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I just had to look this up, so I figured I'd copy it over from the FD5 thread for folks who are getting caught up here.
Schedule for the morning (as of the MSB yesterday):
01:30 CT Unberthing coverage begins
03:05 CT Unberthing
04:35 CT Release
08:00 CT ISS Update
09:15 CT Reentry coverage begins
09:51 CT Deorbit burn
10:44 CT Splashdown
13:00 CT Mission Status Briefing
Regarding the amount of detail we'll get during reentry, from the MSB:
Three boats for recovery, with fast boats. Dragon gets on dock at port of Los Angeles and then immediately goes to Texas for unloading.
Several GPS systems for tracking and recovery. Have a NASA P3 aircraft to capture Dragon during entry, like they have for shuttle.
Mainly IR views for Dragon. HD video on the recovery boats.
Josh Byerly just emailed me that entry comm will be via a TDRSS link. So Dragon MCC should have good data almost all the way down.
Obviously we don't know how much of that will be relayed real time (I'm guessing none).
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SpaceX added an update with a more specific timeline: http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20120530
Dragon Return Timeline 5/31/12 - (times are approximate and subject to change)
Time (Pacific) - Event
01:05 Dragon uninstalled using station's robotic arm
03:10 Dragon released by the robotic arm
03:11 Dragon's Draco thrusters fire departure burns
04:07 Unlatch/close/latch GNC door holding sensors
07:51 Dragon's Draco thrusters fire deorbit burn
08:09 Dragon's trunk is jettisoned
08:35 Dragon's drogue parachutes are deployed
08:36 Dragon's main parachutes are deployed
08:44 Dragon lands in the Pacific
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Can somebody's map ap plot the NOTAMS points that define the ocean keep-out zone?
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Can somebody's map ap plot the NOTAMS points that define the ocean keep-out zone?
Pete did earlier. (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28991.msg907417#msg907417)
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Are we going to get actual video of the splashdown or is it going to be like COTS-1 with no video and only some pictures?
Orbiter
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Are we going to get actual video of the splashdown or is it going to be like COTS-1 with no video and only some pictures?
I heard hints from the master of video that there may be more :)
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IIRC NASA is dispatching a P3 Orion aircraft to video the splashdown.
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And FYI here is the segment in the presser this morning where SpaceX's John Couluris described what assets they have looking at the entry, descent and splashdown. This URL cues up directly to that segment (embedding suppressed; copy and paste the URL).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIrM2F0k_NE&t=11m29s
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Article on the EOM events:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacexs-dragon-unberthing-return-to-earth/
Will update that as we go.
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IIRC NASA is dispatching a P3 Orion aircraft to video the splashdown.
This can't be right, because surely NASA does not own a P-3 ... but they do! N426NA, a P-3B based out of Wallops no less.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=N426NA
-Alex
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That was mentioned in the previous thread via the media briefing. Common knowledge, covered numerous times, per previous use with Shuttle.
Discussion thread stuff again. This is the update thread.
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Coverage commences
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Current config
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Departure burn a 100 m/sec burn over 9 min followed by trunk jettison
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Vestibule leak checks OK.
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Departure burn a 100 m/sec burn over 9 min followed by trunk jettison
That would be a 9 minute deorbit burn, not the departure burn.
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Some discussion of visibility of reentry trail from the station, probably not visible because will be daylioght. Dragon will be 377 miles (IIRC) ahead of the station when it "really starts to heat up".
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Some hatch closure video from earlier.
Dragon getting ready to fly.
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The arm already positioned.
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Discussion of importance of Dragon and COTS in general to NASA. Some suporting video. Don Pettit likens COTS to wagon trains supplying Government forts out west.
Now back live.
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The "inside view".
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CBM ops holding at step 4 pending vestibule depress.
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Backing off CBM bolts in progress.
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Acaba will have the lead SSRMS role for unberthing, Pettit will have the lead for release.
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First set of bolts (4 of 16) undone and working on the second set of four as the station moves into sunrise
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Everyone seems quite relaxed in the SpaceX control room
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Second set of bolts complete, one has an unusual torque response but this has been seen before with this bolt and there is no concern.
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A period of ratty com is holding up progress, need to wait another 3 minutes or so for solid comms.
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Work on third set of bolts now beginning after wait for good comms to enable proper monitoring.
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THird set of bolts done, beginning on fourth and final set. Then just the latches to go.
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Nice angles -
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Unberthed.
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3:07am Central for unbolting Dragon from ISS.
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Ready to maneuvre Dragon
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Officially demated at 4:07 Eastern
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MET for unberth from Station: 9 days, 23 mins.
Time on Station: 5 days, 16 hours, 5 mins.
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Dragon being moved away.
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No Ku at the moment.
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My apologies for any confusion caused by the png format pictures earlier but my VLC jpg codec had a spasm and I thought something was better than nothng.
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SSRMS in motion.
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Nice!
Josh needs to get them to start playing that epic intro music again! :)
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RWS view
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Josh notes crew is on the timeline.
4:35am Central remains the target for release.
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Remember, two part coverage. Release and burns. Then back for the deorbit burn.
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Dragon solar arrays are moving - have rotated around 180 degrees now.
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The Aussies are getting a pass right now.
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ISS in seven min attitude change for release.
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Less than an hour to release.
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Still slowely moving to the release point.
Splashdown graphic again.
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Go for step five in the demate proc.
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About 10 meters off Station now, as a guestimate on my part.
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Station should be complete with the attitude change.
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Dragon's cool little lights are on.
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All live and all in sequence, but the camera angles are dramatically different:
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Big arm having a good stretch now.
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I know this is about Dragon, but how about that SSRMS. Very cool bit of kit.
I remember when it had Scott Parazynski on the end (although her was also on the end of the OBSS I think) for the Array repair. That was epic.
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35 mins to release.
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Sunrise!
SpaceX update:
SpaceX Mission Update
Dragon has successfully been de-mated from the International Space Station.
We now anticipate that the spacecraft will be released from the station’s robotic arm closer to 2:35 AM Pacific.
Updated Dragon Return Timeline – (times are approximate and subject to change)
Time (Pacific) Event
02:35 Dragon released by the station’s robotic arm
02:36 Dragon’s Draco thrusters fire first departure burn
07:51 Draco thrusters fire deorbit burn
08:09 Dragon’s trunk is jettisoned
08:35 Drogue parachutes are deployed
08:36 Main parachutes are deployed
08:44 Dragon lands in the Pacific
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Dragon's cool little lights are on.
An interesting note; Those lights indicate starboard (green) and port side (red). Traditionally ocean going vessels moor to port on the port side, where passengers later will board. The Dragon is no different, the entrance hatch, where passengers later will board, is on the port side.
This is also the same reason we always board airliners on port side (left side).
(reason for always moor on left side; the steering oar on ancient vessels always was on the right side (starboard), due to the prevalence of right-handedness). It's fun when an old "standard" still lives on in the latest spacecraft. :)
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Good note Malu!
Out of Ku.
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Dragon looking "snow white" as Don Pettit described it during the post-berth presser.
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View becoming more epic by the minute.
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A bit cloudy on Earth today ;D
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There's our favorite console (Shuttle mission fans will get that reference).
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Looks pretty much where it should be for release, based on the grapple views earlier.
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Josh notes this should be the last daylight pass for the Station and Dragon.
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SpaceX about to command Dragon to free drift. This will result in the strobe light turning on.
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Lost Ku, but SpaceX confirm free drift mode.
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Couple of young people in MCC-H ISS FCR (probably under 30 ;) - reference to the SpaceX general thread)
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Go for release delayed by 20 minutes or so to 4:45am Central. That is NOT the release time, release comes a few minutes after the GO. Deorbit time unaffected.
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Into monitoring steps for release.
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Go/No Go polling for release at the ISS FCR.
SpaceX team ready for the full day.
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Atlantic Ocean.
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Go for release is expected in five mins.
SpaceX carrying out one final align of the sensors.
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Strobe flashing away. Passing over the coast of South Africa.
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Elon's home country.
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GO for Dragon release.
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Arm in manual mode.
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DRAGON RELEASED.
4:49am Central.
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First departure burn. Very noticable change of sep rate.
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Could SEE the thrusters firing on the stream - small white dots in the thrusters, a few pulses!
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Could SEE the thrusters firing on the stream - small white dots in the thrusters, a few pulses!
Yes, was great to see, with NO visible plume!
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Second burn.
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Third and final burn next. No Ku.
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Four mins to the final depature burn.
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100 meters distance from Station - down the R-bar.
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Third and final depature burn under way. This will take Dragon outside of the approach ellipsoid.
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Dragon has departed the approach ellipsoid. NASA MCC teams conclude their role.
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MCC-X now in full control.
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NTV coverage concludes until ahead of the deorbit burn.
This thread is still a live update thread. Only update posts. All other posts (questions and such) to go into the C2+ Discussion thread. Everything else into the Party thread.
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Updated article to this point:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacexs-dragon-unberthing-return-to-earth/
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SpaceX/Dragon Unberthing from the ISS
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7623
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GNC bay/grapple door should have closed by now. Will be getting confirmation soon?
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And the visibility of it for us is FAQ #1 today. See first page of thread please.
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ISS update PAO said we will get live video in IR only.
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GNC door closed!
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From http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/7307518886/
Dragon smoothly undocked, moved out, released and on its way home.
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From http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/7307519010/in/photostream/
Job done!
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One hour to deorbit burn.
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SpaceX polled for deorbit burn; all stations gave a go. 56 minutes from now.
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MCC-X already polled and go for the deorbit burn.
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Remaining times till the various events
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This thread is still a live update thread. Only update posts. All other posts (questions and such) to go into the C2+ Discussion thread. Everything else into the Party thread.
Been moving posts for those who can't read simple instructions. From this point onwards, those posts not belonging in here will be deleted as we won't have time to move posts around.
This an update thread. People are coming here for updates, not "I have a question, why is Dragon white??" :D And "Woooooooooooooooopeeeeeeee, Go SpaceX ;D"
The first one can go in the C2+ Discussion thread. The latter can go in the Party thread.
Don't make me get the big stick out. ;)
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Here we go.
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Josh B gets to commentate. Good news.
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View from ISS and splashdown area.
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SpaceX webcast/ustream page is up: http://www.spacex.com/webcast/ but right now it's just a rebroadcast of NASA TV, that may change.
EDIT Also shows Dragon position and SpaceX twitter feed
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The deorbit burn will be a 9 mins 50 seconds, 100m per second, burn.
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Elon Musk @elonmusk
Thrusters will also fire during reentry to adjust touchdown point. Next version will land w helicopter precision
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15 mins to the deorbit burn. NASA TV showing release replays at the moment.
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65 minutes to splashdown.
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Josh notes it's unlikely the crew will be able to see re-entry. 200 miles sep, 375 miles at EI and in daylight, etc. Apparently will try and take pictures if they see something.
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Final checks at MCC-X.
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Dragon attitude change for the burn.
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Burn underway.
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Nominal burn at present.
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MCC-H's data showing everything is green at present.
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Half way through the burn.
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Trunk jettison at 10:09 Central (11 minutes from now).
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Deorbit burn complete!
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Dragon in the correct attitude for Trunk sep.
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Entry Interface scheduled for 10:25 CT (11:25 EDT).
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Successful trunk jettison.
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Josh confirms that any live video from the recovery assets will be fed into NTV.
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10 min. from Entry Interface.
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blackout from 10:27 to 10:33 to be expected
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Blackout in seven minutes.
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Closing in on EI (Entry Interface).
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MCC-H have a green board on the data they are being fed (MCC-X in full control).
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20 minutes to splashdown.
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Dragon at EI (Entry Interface).
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ISS Crew attempt to spot Dragon.
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#SpaceX
During today's descent, dual drogue parachutes will deploy at 45,000 feet to stabilize and slow #Dragon.
http://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/208216874071244802
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Now into the expected blackout. Should regain comms at 33 minutes past the hour.
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Flying assets say they are starting to see peeks of dragon on their instruments - no live coverage yet.
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Observations of Dragon re-entry noted. No video yet.
Telemetry looks good.
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Cargo - 1,014 pounds up, 1,367 pounds down.
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HERE IT IS!!
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Around 1000 SpaceX employees stand behind SpaceX Mission Control waiting for Dragon's return to Earth.
http://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/208218804558372864/photo/1
http://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/208218804558372864/photo/1/large
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Don Pettit asking about Dragon. Gets a good report. Probably means he can't see Dragon from the ISS.
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Higher res
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Drogues out!
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Drouge Chute Deploy.
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View of the drogues now! :)
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main chutes!!!
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3 main parachutes deployed!!!
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Main chutes deploy!
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Six minutes to go!
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Attitude looks good. Recovery assets on station.
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Face full of parachutes!
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Splashdown in 180 seconds! Elon on the front row.
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560 miles off the coast is still predicted for the splashdown.
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Splashdown!!!
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splashdown, now determining the exact location
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CNN went live for a minute.
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Splashdown already! 42 mins past the hour!
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No mass celebrations at MCC-X. Clearly want to get eyes on.
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Splashdown! Welcome home #Dragon!
Splashdown! Welcome home #Dragon!
http://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/208222170491535361
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Two minutes early - does that speak to the reentry accuracy or is this attributable to the parachute deployment altitude?
Two minutes is quite a lot in the first case.
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Splashdown already! 42 mins past the hour!
Splashdown about a miniute early. Still pretty close to the estimate!
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Two minutes early - does that speak to the reentry accuracy or is this attributable to the parachute deployment altitude?
Two minutes is quite a lot in the first case.
I second the premonition. Do we have an MA-7 50th anniversary replay?
We'll know shortly -- with today's comm and nav support, it's very different from 1962.
LATER: Happy to eat my words!!
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Doesn't it have floatation air bags? Was there a call-out for those that I missed?
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And THAT is how you change the World. Congrats SpaceX! How long til we get pictures of the Dragon in the water?
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I think that has to be Elon in the front row.
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That has to be Elon.
Yup, front and center in black
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clouds in the area give planes a challage to spot dragon.
Are these really clouds, or is the dragon alive and hiding in its fumes?
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Re.: early splashdown
That will obviously have to be something that will need to be discussed. No one is going to like an autosequence being out like that. However, I don't think that should detract from getting the capsule back to altitude=0
Lee Jay: I don't think that there are floatation bags; I don't remember any on C1
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Can't spot Dragon yet due to clouds.
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It's Elon.
Splashdown successful!! Sending fast boat to Dragon lat/long provided by P3 tracking planes #Dragon
http://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/208223378782420993
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That has to be Elon.
Yup, front and center in black
You could see him writing his latest tweet :)
@elonmusk "Splashdown successful!! Sending fast boat to Dragon lat/long provided by P3 tracking planes #Dragon"
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Josh says Prelim data is a splashdown was where it should be.
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While we're passing time... I figure just a few seconds in parachute deployment is worth a minute of splash-down time.
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ISS crew wants to watch status briefing later on
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Elon:
P3 planes are meant to track submarines, so should be able to find Dragon either way #Dragon
http://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/208223888876912640
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Two minutes early - does that speak to the reentry accuracy or is this attributable to the parachute deployment altitude?
We don't know about Dragon, but historically, parachute deployment is triggered by pressure-altitude, not timing or any other factor.
They're thinking it's mostly on target, so at least the ground track wasn't way off.
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That ridiculous bank of monitors and he's tweeting on his phone...
It sounds like they're pretty happy with how on target it was. Perhaps the main chutes were released slightly late?
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Parachutes have been spotted, but not Dragon.
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DRAGON SPOTTED!
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27 N.Lat
120 W. Long
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Josh notes the two minutes difference on the splashdown is within family for a water landing.
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Dragon in the water:
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Dragon in the water! (I lost my feed twice.)
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Speculation: Seeing as the parachutes were late, and that the vehicle landed on target, the guidance system on Dragon purposely delayed deployment to improve landing accuracy.
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THE DRAGON HAS (SPLASH) LANDED
SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft Safely Completes Historic Mission to the Space Station
Hawthorne, CA – This morning, at approximately 8:42 AM Pacific/11:42 AM Eastern, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) completed its historic mission when the Dragon spacecraft splashed down safely in the Pacific. The vehicle will now be recovered by boats and start the trip back to land.
At 11:00 AM Pacific/2:00 PM Eastern, SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk will join NASA Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini and NASA COTS Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer for a press conference to discuss today’s exciting events.
Reporters wishing to participate in the event can call in to NASA’s Johnson Space Center Newsroom at 281-483-5111. For NASA TV downlink information or to watch it live visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .
Last week, SpaceX made history when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle in history to successfully attach to the International Space Station. Previously only four governments – the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency – had achieved this challenging technical feat. Dragon departed the space station this morning.
Broadcast quality videos, including footage from the recovery ship will be posted to vimeo.com/spacexlaunch and high-resolution photos will be posted to spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com as soon as they are available.
This is SpaceX's second demonstration flight under a 2006 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with NASA to develop the capability to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station.
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Lee Jay: I don't think that there are floatation bags; I don't remember any on C1
My apologies then. They say the mind in the first thing to go...
AIUI, recovery crew attaches floatation bags, there are none onboard.
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Elon:
P3 planes are meant to track submarines, so should be able to find Dragon either way #Dragon
http://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/208223888876912640
LOL! Not without a sense of humor. :)
You can see Dragon sitting in the water from the P3, though. :)
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What a beautiful sight! Seems to have gone according to plan.
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brief round of applause in MCC-X as parachutes have been detached
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Command sent to detact parachutes - successfully.
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It seemed to be floating a bit on its edge while the chutes were attached and it looks more upright now that they are detached. But it's hard to tell with the video quality.
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Recovery boats now into recovery activities.
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Dragon is "stable one position"
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#Dragon parachutes have been detached
http://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/208226726323552258
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MCC-H updating the ISS crew on Dragon, reporting the good news.
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Elon:
Commanded main chute release pyros and ... looks good #Dragon
http://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/208227219225579520
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They send any helicopters ?
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They send any helicopters ?
The splashdown area is hundreds of miles offshore
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Elon:
Sending command to shutdown Dragon and prep for boat recovery #Dragon
http://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/208228288412397569
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They send any helicopters ?
No choppers. Several fast boats are used for recovery.
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Dragon is "stable one position"
Which means upright. Dragon's shape is not nearly as susceptible to being stable upside-down as the 60-degree cone vehicles (Apollo, Orion, CST).
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Video is still awful, but you can just make Dragon out.
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They send any helicopters ?
The splashdown area is hundreds of miles offshore
Did they send a boat large enough to operate a helicopter from?
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You can see it on the video now (sort of).
Upright and stable looking.
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Video is still awful, but you can just make Dragon out.
You'd think in this day and age they would be able to get better video, especially after spashdown. Pretty crappy.
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A bit better....
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is it my imagination or does it appear to be listing a bit?
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is it my imagination or does it appear to be listing a bit?
Its stable position is somewhat tilted.
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Good pictures for just a minute
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is it my imagination or does it appear to be listing a bit?
Its stable position is somewhat tilted.
Yeah, CoG is off-centre for a ballistic capsule to generate lift (and thus controllability) during re-entry and free-fall descent.
[edit]
Looking at those pictures, she's riding high in the water - looks very, very good.
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Video is still awful, but you can just make Dragon out.
You'd think in this day and age they would be able to get better video, especially after spashdown. Pretty crappy.
Very good for a flying platform from a LONG way away.
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is it my imagination or does it appear to be listing a bit?
Its stable position is somewhat tilted.
Don't forget, there's a large parachute bay on her backside sitting open to the waves.
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Splash (processed)
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I think the aerial long-range shot showed an approaching boat (sorry, didn't screen-cap).
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I think the aerial long-range shot showed an approaching boat.
Yes it did. No way to tell how far it was from Dragon.
Now video is back to the capsule
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9 days, 7 hours, 58 minutes MET for this C2+ mission of dragon!
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Couluris just in shot at MCC-X.
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You'd think in this day and age they would be able to get better video, especially after spashdown. Pretty crappy.
Well consider that
1. This is taken from a long distance from a ship in hazy conditions and
2. The video is probably going through limited bandwidth either over microwave to shore or over telecomunications satellite.
It doesnt seem too bad when you take those points in consideration.
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So, the era of very little ISS downmass lasted precisely 10 months and 10 days. :)
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A few staff are around Elon
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Video is still awful, but you can just make Dragon out.
You'd think in this day and age they would be able to get better video, especially after spashdown. Pretty crappy.
Maybe if they had an aircraft carrier...
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You'd think in this day and age they would be able to get better video, especially after spashdown. Pretty crappy.
Well consider that
1. This is taken from a long distance from a ship in hazy conditions and
2. The video is probably going through limited bandwidth either over microwave to shore or over telecomunications satellite.
It doesnt seem too bad when you take those points in consideration.
And the camera system is IR, not visual, so that is why everything is monochrome.
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Looks like a boat, or maybe not
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Josh on the vid quality (paraphrased):
"remember dragon is 500 miles off shore, it's not like a web cam, these spacecraft are doing a good job of sharing the vid"
ER, I think a P3-Orion isn't a spacecraft. :)
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I'll be very interested to see how the CBM has fared re-entry - my guess is that they'll have to completely replace the berthing collar after each flight. We'll soon see...
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They said they were contracting American Marine didn't they?
http://www.amarinecorp.com/services/vessel_fleet.htm
"fast boats" do about 22 knots.
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NTV coverage has ended.
What a thing. Really was something special to see this mission.
Congratulations to SpaceX and NASA on the close of a succesful mission, can't wait to see up close pictures of her!
HUGE thanks to the entire NSF team especially Chris for fantastic coverage of this mission, can't find that anywhere else. You guys rock!
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I'll be very interested to see how the CBM has fared re-entry - my guess is that they'll have to completely replace the berthing collar after each flight. We'll soon see...
It will be interesting, but this Dragon won't fly again anyway, and NASA's present contract is that they want a new Dragon on each trip, per Elon's interview a few days ago.
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Thats it from NASA TV...
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It will be interesting, but this Dragon won't fly again anyway, and NASA's present contract is that they want a new Dragon on each trip, per Elon's interview a few days ago.
Ah yes, good point. :)
DragonLab could fly without a CBM, so no biggie there either.
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Has SpaceX also ended its webcast?
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I'll be very interested to see how the CBM has fared re-entry - my guess is that they'll have to completely replace the berthing collar after each flight. We'll soon see...
...but this Dragon won't fly again anyway...
Source?
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NTV coverage has ended.
Yep. Amazing how well this all went! Nailed a full C2/C3 mission!
And like the post Berthing success, I'll again allow any member to post a note of congrats on this thread (I know a lot of people like to do that on the main threads of historic events).
Just keep it to one each, don't be silly or swear! ;D
(And thanks again to everyone's patience with this thread. We have to keep them specific and on topic, or all hell breaks loose and everyone starts shouting at me :D)
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I'll be very interested to see how the CBM has fared re-entry - my guess is that they'll have to completely replace the berthing collar after each flight. We'll soon see...
...but this Dragon won't fly again anyway...
Source?
Would SpaceX possibly fly it again on their own? (Just to demonstrate reusability?)
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John Couluris said that this Dragon would be put on display.
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Start to finish. Total kick a**. Way to go SpaceX, Falcon 9 & Dragon.
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Elon Musk:
"Sending command to shutdown Dragon and prep for boat recovery #Dragon"
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[/quote]
Would SpaceX possibly fly it again on their own? (Just to demonstrate reusability?)
[/quote]
Chances are this one is going into a museum , after some engineering analysis
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Chris:
Once again NSF has done a fantastic job. Not only were SpaceX and NASA spot on, so was NSF for its complete coverage. Well done, to all!!!!!
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Well done, SpaceX and their NASA support teams; this is how it is done. Congratulations to all!
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Chris:
Once again NSF has done a fantastic job. Not only were SpaceX and NASA spot on, so was NSF for its complete coverage. Well done, to all!!!!!
Cheers Randy! :)
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Congrats SpaceX from me and the rest of the Altius team! Glad to see that we once again have an American supply ship hauling cargo to and from the ISS, and even more glad that this time it's a commercial company doing the cargo hauling!
~Jon
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I'll be very interested to see how the CBM has fared re-entry - my guess is that they'll have to completely replace the berthing collar after each flight. We'll soon see...
...but this Dragon won't fly again anyway...
Source?
That's what John Couluris from SpaceX said yesterday at the Mission status briefing. He said that it could go to another space station (he meant Bigelow), be used for a crewed flight or be used for DragonLab. But he made it sound that it would likely not be reused and would likely be on display somewhere. He also said that NASA only wanted fresh Dragon spacecrafts for CRS, so it would not be going back to ISS.
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This is the 3rd time I post this I guess (launch, berthing/capture and now splashdown ) - but it's still true!
Thanks NSF for the excellent coverage.
Congratulations SpaceX, NASA and everyone else who worked on this mission.
Hope to see more flights soon ;D
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Congratulations to SpaceX for this historic achievement! May there be many more!
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I'll be very interested to see how the CBM has fared re-entry - my guess is that they'll have to completely replace the berthing collar after each flight. We'll soon see...
...but this Dragon won't fly again anyway...
Source?
Nothing definitive, but yesterday Mr. Couluris noted that NASA purchased new spacecraft for each CRS flight, so none of them will be reflown for that contract (though he did indicate some could be re-used for other applications). That, coupled with the historical significance of this vehicle, makes it an educated guess it will go on permanent display.
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Serious congratulations to SpaceX for achieving the highest level of professionalism, to NASA for the guidance and support, and to NSF for the amazing coverage.
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Congrats SpaceX!
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Chris:
Once again NSF has done a fantastic job. Not only were SpaceX and NASA spot on, so was NSF for its complete coverage. Well done, to all!!!!!
I'll second that !!!! :)
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Woo hoo!
Congratulations SpaceX. Outstanding mission performance.
Now get your butts in gear and get the next one up. :)
Good luck. We need domestic supply and recovery capability to ISS.
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Chris:
Once again NSF has done a fantastic job. Not only were SpaceX and NASA spot on, so was NSF for its complete coverage. Well done, to all!!!!!
I'll second that !!!! :)
Thirds from me - great job Chris / NSF :D
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The Dragon has splashed down… Thanks a lot, I’m breathing again… Epic flight SpaceX, NASA and coverage NSF! :)
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Three entities have flown spacecraft to the ISS and landed them back on Earth: Russia, the United States and Elon Musk.
Tillykke ("Congratulations" in Danish) to SpaceX, NASA, the US and to all who believe in a great future for space flight! Thanks NSF for the coverage.
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Congratulations to SpaceX and NASA on a job well done! It's an impressive achievement and validation of the COTS program. (for reference, the HTV program cost over $600 million and 10+ years of development, and ATV was even more).
And looking forward, good luck to Cygnus!
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Massive congratulations to SpaceX for a superb development and execution of a tough assignment, including pushing NASA to accelerate the acceptance of their fine spacecraft. Significant downmass from ISS is re-established.
And of course a big shout-out to Chris and his team, and all the contributors too, for the great coverage here.
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Congrats SpaceX & NASA!
Went just swimmingly!
A new age in spaceflight has begun! What an historic event to witness!
This what America is all about!
Now just a comment about the historic event to witness...in this age of instant iphone vid and pics shared via facebook,twitter, etc...where was the extended coverage for the splashdown? This moment should of had more live coverage...more fanfare...more color pics..."splashy" so to speak! This is where ppl in the space business fail with the american ppl, they fail to sell themselves or their product. okay enough said...sorry.
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given the number of "firsts" in this mission it went about as perfectly as it possibly could... as frustrating as the waiting has been and the delays I have to say its all worth it now...great mission and great success.. definitely something for all spaceX people to be proud of... well done.
now - when is the next flight... :)
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Congratulation to Space Exploration Technologies. Next stop mars. :D
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SpaceX/Dragon Splashdown
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7625
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Congratulations to all at SpaceX for making it "Look Easy".
Thanks NSF for the excellent coverage.
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Congrats to SpaceX for this great achievement.
Congrats to NASA for choosing the commercial path.
Congrats to Chris and NSF for this excellent coverage.
p.s.
Any news on what the secret payload was?
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First off, congrats to SpaceX. Even though I'm sure they flew COTS 2/3 a few thousand times in the sim, it's still a remarkable achievement that they flew a nearly flawless demo flight.
John Couluris said that this Dragon would be put on display.
Yeah, I think that this Dragon needs to end up at NASM. Even though the Dragon from COTS1 was the first private launch and entry vehicle to orbit the Earth, the COTS2/3 Dragon was the first to operationally visit Station and participate in a NASA activity, which arguably makes it more historically significant.
Since NASM already has a flight article from every spacecraft to fly as in support of NASA's manned spaceflight activities (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Shuttle), it would seem to follow that the Dragon needs to be there to tell "the next chapter" of the story. And hopefully in a few years when SpaceX starts flying astronauts to Station, it'll make even more sense to have Dragon on display there.
-Craig
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Congratulations SpaceX
Your team could have quit at any number of times, you had more excuses than most to be able to walk away with your head held high.
But you didn't, you kept going, no matter how many times you where doubted and nearly insulted by members of the media and the political leadership.
Thank you SpaceX, you have truly burned a path I hope many follow.
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First congratulations to SpaceX for a generally boring mission. Boring is good in spaceflight.
Video is still awful, but you can just make Dragon out.
You'd think in this day and age they would be able to get better video, especially after spashdown. Pretty crappy.
Maybe if they had an aircraft carrier...
No, just need a LST or LPD type amphibious assault ship. Maybe even an offshore oil platform support ship with a helipad.
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Three entities have flown spacecraft to the ISS and landed them back on Earth: Russia, the United States and Elon Musk.
>
Four if you don't count ISS: China's crew spacecraft - Shenzhou
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Well done SpaceX.
Very impressive demonstration of both the Falcon 9 and Dragon.
Congrats to all those that work with ISS, NASA and Canadarm too. Without them this mission wouldn't have been possible.
Also need to give a plug to the L2 special. Incredible coverage, everything you could ever want to know and more. ;D
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CONGRATULATIONS!! To SpaceX, to NASA, to America...You did it, YOU DID IT!
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Twttter/@elonmusk:
"Fast boat approaching spacecraft to attach cables #Dragon"
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Link.
http://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/208240490112487425
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First off, congrats to SpaceX. Even though I'm sure they flew COTS 2/3 a few thousand times in the sim, it's still a remarkable achievement that they flew a nearly flawless demo flight.
John Couluris said that this Dragon would be put on display.
Yeah, I think that this Dragon needs to end up at NASM. Even though the Dragon from COTS1 was the first private launch and entry vehicle to orbit the Earth, the COTS2/3 Dragon was the first to operationally visit Station and participate in a NASA activity, which arguably makes it more historically significant.
Since NASM already has a flight article from every spacecraft to fly as in support of NASA's manned spaceflight activities (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Shuttle), it would seem to follow that the Dragon needs to be there to tell "the next chapter" of the story. And hopefully in a few years when SpaceX starts flying astronauts to Station, it'll make even more sense to have Dragon on display there.
-Craig
Maye we could start a write in campaign to NASM.
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An historic flight, congratulations to all at SpaceX and NASA. For so much to work so well, is simply breathtaking.
Thank you to Chris and all the contributors to NSF, please may I urge those who have not joined L2 to at least try it for a couple of months? The site is so good and represents great value for the amount of resource and insight it offers.
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Wow! Well done to SpaceX. Thanks to NASA and congratulations to everyone involved. Particularly that Mr Musk chap. Enormous achievement. The WHOLE system developed in incredible time and at an unheard of affordable price.
This is history folks.
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So when is the next flight? Can't wait! Congrats to NASA/SpaceX!
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...and BIG thanks to Mr Bergin and team who also clearly work very hard on our behalf.
:)
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This mission exceeded all of my expectations. As for the minor glitzes, the fact that SpaceX and NASA were able to work them out and continue to succeed with milestone after milestone, only makes the mission even more incredable to me.
Congratulations to both SpaceX and NASA for making this a historic mission that we can all be proud of. Go SpaceX!
spelling error corrected.
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So when is the next flight? Can't wait! Congrats to NASA/SpaceX!
No earlier then September.
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Congratulations to SpaceX for the successful flight, to NASA for gaining a cheap resupply capability, and to NSF for the excellent coverage.
And don't forget the guys that designed the canadarm and the CBM.
Everybody who reads this should get a L2 membership right now. I have a feeling there will be many exciting missions in the future.
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Congratulations SpaceX - really excellent job done there with minimal issues.
Looking forward to more in the future.
Also a big thanks to NSF and all the people that helped keep us all up to date with the progress of the mission.
Cheers!
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Congratulations, SpaceX, NASA, and America!
An American spacecraft launching on an American-built rocket with American-built engines berthing to the International Space Station, then returning safely!
This is as safe of a mission as you could possibly hope for. This could've been crewed (obviously would require several modifications and LAS, but the capability has been shown, just like COTS-1). Hopefully, it will be crewed soon! This success couldn't have come at a more pivotal time for the future of the similar CCiCap program, validating that SAAs can be quite effective for proving initial capability (if given adequate funding, of course). ALL of the commercial crew competitors should give SpaceX a huge thank-you today for dramatically increasing the odds of CCiCap going forward with a significant budget.
It has been a LONG time since a new US HSF-related spacecraft went through from conception, development, to success. Decades. AND a new launch vehicle! SpaceX has shown that the US still has its mojo. Orbital, I'm sure, will do quite well. The extra volume Cygnus can provide will come in quite handy. And Orbital must be quite happy, since they know that with another successful launch of Falcon 9, a domestic replacement for Delta II is coming along quite nicely (they'll happily launch their satellites on Falcon 9, and probably make a lot more money on the deal than SpaceX per-flight).
This very public success will light a fire under other companies like PWR, Aerojet, and ULA, as well. It'll be good.
And I'm sure other countries will be more likely to invest in space as well, since they now know that the US has abandoned neither HSF nor the commercial launch market. National pride has always been a great motivator in space, and I do not believe that will stop now that we're learning to better leverage the private sector. Without Sputnik or Gagarin or Salyuz, there wouldn't have been a Mercury or Gemini or Apollo or Skylab or Shuttle or ISS. And it is a far better arena to display national pride than on the battlefield. It'll be better for everyone!
Congratulations, everyone!
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Congratulations SpaceX and thanks for the great coverage by this site.
By the way, where did this amazing photo come from of Dragon with the light effects?
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/
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Well done SpaceX. Proved the doubters wrong! (I was sorta one of them!)
Congratulations SpaceX and thanks for the great coverage by this site.
By the way, where did this amazing photo come from of Dragon with the light effects?
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/
L2's SpaceX Dragon C2+ section, which has been awesome. There's hundreds of high resolution photos in there for this mission. NASA.gov publish one or two per angle. L2 uploads every single one sent down from the ISS as a massive photo dump! 8)
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Great job Chris, and the NSF team, for the outstanding coverage of this amazing mission.
Such an important moment to have the ability to return cargo from the ISS again. Congrats to SpaceX on a fantastic job, and a personal thanks to Elon for making this a reality
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Thank you Chris for the coverage.
And thank you Elon for helping to push down the barriers keeping us from the stars.
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First congratulations to SpaceX for a generally boring mission. Boring is good in spaceflight.
Video is still awful, but you can just make Dragon out.
You'd think in this day and age they would be able to get better video, especially after spashdown. Pretty crappy.
Maybe if they had an aircraft carrier...
No, just need a LST or LPD type amphibious assault ship. Maybe even an offshore oil platform support ship with a helipad.
The image quality is likely bandwidth limited, and degraded by the distance from the camera.
why pay for more satellite use when the low res feed is good enough? , and recordings will likely be made to allow use of higher res video.
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Thanks again guys, although we had the easy job at this end! :)
On that photo, Fred....yeah, as John noted, L2, but we have about 15 in that particular sequence (and I was torn as to which one to use), so let's upload a better res version than that in the article into here for everyone! (I like it as it looked like Dragon was in a sci fi movie :D).
Click to enlarge (or right click, open in new window, or save...etc):
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Presser in 20 mins. Will be both JSC NASA and SpaceX Hawthorne.
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THAT is going to make a great wallpaper
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Some serious Abrams lever specular highlights in that! Nice. :)
Had to delurk, congrats to everyone involved.
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Thank you Chris, the NSF team, NASA, the SpaceX Team and Elon, for a week to remember;
FANTASTIC!!!
Thanks to everyone in the industry who posted with their expert knowledge, opinion, and awesome speculations :D on the Public and L2 side of NSF; and to those that support the L2 side of NSF, that make all this wonderful stuff on here possible;
This Spring and this week we got the momentum we need to push ahead through the inertia of FUD and Gov't naysayers, with the future of HSF, both LEO and BEO, manned and unmanned as the prize worth sacrificing for; What a wonderful first half to 2012 that we can NOW celebrate, and look forward to more and greater things in the near future; Engage Impulse Engines, Mr. Zulu!! Let's have a look at this Solar System ;D
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Photo of Elon Musk on a soapbox outside of MCC-X.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/208249575797030912/photo/1
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The 1PM EDT briefing is about to start.
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Congrats on SpaceX for an incredibly successful mission and thanks to NSF for the excellent coverage of this event.
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SpaceX Dragon Mission Status Briefing starting in 5 minutes
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cut this from the screen in Houston MCC, did a bit of fiddling 8)
I would call this "The Dawn of a Space Faring Species" if I had taken it myself; no idea what they call it :D
Edit, sure would like the sound track to that NASA is using ;) anyone at NASA care to enlighten us as to where to buy it;
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May 31, 2012
Trent J. Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321
[email protected]
Josh Byerly
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
[email protected]
RELEASE: 12-179
SPACEX DRAGON CAPSULE RETURNS TO EARTH AFTER FIRST COMMERCIAL FLIGHT TO SPACE STATION
HOUSTON -- SpaceX's Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean
at 11:42 a.m. EDT a few hundred miles west of Baja California,
Mexico, marking a successful end to the first mission by a commercial
company to resupply the International Space Station.
"Congratulations to the teams at SpaceX and NASA who worked hard to
make this first commercial mission to the International Space Station
an overwhelming success," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.
"This successful splashdown and the many other achievements of this
mission herald a new era in U.S. commercial spaceflight. American
innovation and inspiration have once again shown their great strength
in the design and operation of a new generation of vehicles to carry
cargo to our laboratory in space. Now more than ever we're counting
on the inventiveness of American companies and American workers to
make the International Space Station and other low Earth orbit
destinations accessible to any and all who have dreams of space
travel."
The Dragon capsule will be taken by boat to a port near Los Angeles,
where it will be prepared for a return journey to SpaceX's test
facility in McGregor, Texas, for processing. Some cargo will be
removed at the port in California and returned to NASA within 48
hours. The remainder will be returned to Texas with the capsule.
The capsule delivered to the station 1,014 pounds of supplies
including experiments, food, clothing and technology. On its return
trip to Earth, the capsule carried science experiments that will be
returned to researchers hoping to gain new insights provided by the
unique microgravity environment in the station's laboratories. In
addition to the experiments, Dragon returned a total of 1,367 pounds
of hardware and cargo no longer needed aboard the station.
Dragon's journey to the space station was SpaceX's second
demonstration mission under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation
Services (COTS) Program, which provides investments to stimulate the
commercial space industry in America. The mission began May 22 as the
capsule launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Following a series of tests of its
maneuverability and abort systems, the capsule was grappled and
berthed to the space station by the crew members of Expedition 31
aboard the orbiting complex.
In the next several weeks, NASA will evaluate the Dragon capsule's
mission performance to close out remaining COTS milestones. Once that
work is completed NASA and SpaceX will set the target date for the
company's first full cargo mission.
In addition to fostering the development of new American cargo
vehicles, NASA also is helping spur innovation and development of new
spacecraft and launch vehicles from the commercial industry to
develop safe, reliable and cost-effective capabilities to transport
astronauts to low Earth orbit and the space station.
NASA also is developing the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System
(SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket that will provide an
entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo
missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low Earth
orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.
For SpaceX mission information and a schedule of NASA TV coverage,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/spacex
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For more information about NASA's commercial space programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial
-end-
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Heh! Just Josh!! :)
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Some (construction?) banging noises in the background.
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Over to SpaceX!
Elon: This has been a fantastic day. It really couldn't have gone better. We look forward to doing many more missions and pushing the technology.
Alan: It's a super great day. Talking about COTS. We became your customer today. Believe we're close to CRS. You've returned those hopes into a reality.
Elon: Thanks for placing your faith in SpaceX and helping make our dreams come true.
Both sound very tired, as probably expected!
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Elon has come to life.
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Forgot to thank everyone for the great coverage, and especially Chris for this venue. Watched it live, but when I didn't trust my ears or eyes this was The place to confirm. Like the firing of thrusters; "did I just see that"...checks... Yes I dit. Awesome!
Sorry for the OT.
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Questions.
Boats are with the Dragon - looks really good. Ready to attach the cables.
To politics: It shows commercial space can be successful, in partnership with NASA but in a different way, it shows that different way works and we should reinforce that. Want kids to be inspired, seems to have got their attention. When you have something that works you've got to follow through.
On flawless success: When you are involved with a vehicle, you know what can go wrong. There's a 1000 ways it could fail. So this may sound odd, but when you see it actually work you are surprised. Not to say we didn't expect it to work. You're like "wow, it didn't fail!"
On turnaround to CRS-1: Don't think it's going to take very long. All criteria looks very solid. Only got to recover and access in Texas to complete the formal objectives. Quick look report from SpaceX next week. Final report several weeks later. Don't think it's going to take very long to know this was a very successful mission.
Elon notes the LIDAR issues, not an issue for the future.
Hoping to have good images of Dragon within the hour.
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Elon is expecting the splashdown images will come within an hour.
A lot going on this year and next.
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"Dragon flight 6", what's he talking about?
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"Dragon flight 6", what's he talking about?
6th flight of the falcon 9 -this is the 3rd.
Elon noted that they had LIDARS on for unberthing to test some adjustments they made, and that it worked. Exciting, was wondering about that.
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Hoping to win the Commercial Crew contract. This Dragon will be able to land on land with the accuracy of a helicopter. Next year we'll be launching Falcon Heavy.
Changes to Dragon?: We'll make a series of minor adjustments and improvements, but there's not much to fix. More automation for less MCC-X. Dragon 2 and Dragon 6 will be the upgrades.
Textbook flight, naming Dragons?: It was like a grand slam (baseball term). We need to repeat on future flights. Want the vehicles to be reusable before we give them names.
Inspiring students question: I hope that today's events were really inspiring and will encourage people to go into the space industry and what to study at school. We're at the dawn of a new era with a lot of opportunity.
Was it a bullseye for the splashdown?: It was very accurate. Position when the parachutes opened will come late. Appears we hit within less than a mile of the target.
No surprises for the ISS crew in the Dragon.
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"Dragon flight 6", what's he talking about?
First Dragon flight using Falcon 9 v1.1. Should be capable of more cargo upmass, etc. He might be hinting at a change in Dragon itself, perhaps closer to the crewed version, or perhaps using an extended trunk. I'm betting any newer version of Dragon (other than just an extended trunk) would have a little more propellant capacity.
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Relieved point was when Elon saw all three parachutes open.
On the Apollo heroes doubting SpaceX: It's been a difficult and emotional journey. Early years were very difficult. 2008, when Falcon 1 flight 3 failed, was very tough as we were low on money. Fortunately things have gone extreemly well since F1 flight 4. This is a fantastic day. SpaceX would have died without NASA. Words are not enough.
(He avoided the Apollo astros, but I thought that was respectful - focusing on SpaceX doing well after problems).
On military contracts: SpaceX has done very well in winning customers in many markets. NASA is the main customer. 40 launches under contract, 12 for NASA. Things are going very well. Looking forward to serving the need for defense contracts as soon as possible. Third F9 success in a row will hopefully give them the confidence to open up the contracts for competition.
SpaceX lost the link.
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SpaceX might have had a power outage, or lost the link.
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Dragon picture!!
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Lindonberg talking about how similar partnering with commercial should be looked at post-ISS for beyond-LEO exploration.
(Woot! Of course it should!)
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Dragon looks a lot more burnt then the previous one behind them
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Great ad lib by Alan about SpaceX being useful for things beyond ISS, in helping NASA achieve it's exploration goals.
Congratulations SpaceX, Elon, Alan. Everybody involved. NSF for the great coverage too. And everyone rooting for this.
Hopefully everyone made attempts to share our enthusiasm for what SpaceX is doing with family, friends, and co-workers who perhaps were not in on the loop.
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Link is back.
Looking to build more than the 12 Dragons for CRS?: Alan notes the contract is to 2015 and they will be working on extra requirements very soon. Alan making a case for commercial involvement in exploration.
Alan notes the chances of the first three launches working for a new vehicle is not good historically. So F9 is very reliable. Dragon also performed so solidly. We're looking at a reliable space transportation system here.
No plan for this capsule. Would be cool to send it on a tour of the country for kids and students.
Dragon version two will have prop landing via integrated escape thrusters into the sidewalls. Which is really cool, that's how spaceships land in sci fi movies. It's the way spacecraft should land and it'll add potential missions, such as other places in the solar system. Some prop landing tests later this year. Operational is three years away if things go well. Four to five otherwise.
One of the reporters doesn't know what mute means. It's not the ones asking the question, it's someone else.
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Is it supposed to look like that?
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Is it supposed to look like that?
Yes, the hatch side (opposite) should be less charred.
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Fine completion of fine mission. :)
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The solar array's produced more power than they thought it would.
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Alan notes that the Cargo involves the last two objectives. Officially we'll have success via the post flight data, but Alan's already happy (can't imagine him ever not being overjoyed).
Question about Commercial Crew: If someone had stowed aboard Dragon, we could have taken them to ISS with this cargo version. Wouldn't be the right move as we want the vehicle proven many times over and add launch escape, seats and controls, but if someone had stowed away, they would have been ok. Supports the promotion of commercial crew and hopes it causes congressional support.
Asking Elon about the photo of Dragon in the sea. "Welcome home baby" :D I feel really great. It's like seeing your kid come home.
On Congrats: President called me last week to congratulate everyone associated with the flight, which I very much appreciated. Calls from both sides of Congress/Senate. This is something great for the country, great for the world. This is very much a show of success.
Alan adds it was somewhat of an experiment, sharing costs and sharing risks. Now get to share joy. It is a new way of doing business. It's a model that works and worked very well for us in this case.
On two seconds early splashdown: Always a bit of variation, depending on the winds. If it wasn't for wind drift, we could land it in someone's back yard :D.
Over.
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The Commercial Spaceflight Federation Congratulates SpaceX for the Successful Completion of the COTS Demonstration
Washington D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation congratulates SpaceX for the completion of its Commercial Orbital Transportation System demonstration with the successful splashdown of the Dragon capsule today. Dragon departed the Station this morning and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, carrying over 1,000lbs of cargo from the International Space Station.
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket on May 22 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Once in orbit Dragon spent two days catching up to the ISS, completing multiple milestones along the way. After it was cleared by NASA, Dragon then approached the Space Station, where it was grappled by the Station’s robotic arm and brought in to berth, becoming the first visiting vehicle from a private company. On Saturday, May 26 the Station’s Expedition 31 crew opened the hatch to the capsule and began unloading the cargo.
CSF President, Michael Lopez-Alegria said in a statement, “This is an incredible achievement for SpaceX and NASA. Since the retirement of the Shuttle there has been no ability to return a significant amount of cargo aboard any vehicle. Having the capability to ferry payloads to low Earth orbit is essential; having the ability to bring useful cargo such as scientific samples back to Earth will dramatically increase the research capacity of the ISS. CSF commends SpaceX and NASA for the completion of the COTS demonstration, proving that NASA’s use of commercial providers to develop vehicles for the ISS has been a success. NASA and congress should build on this success by robustly funding a competitive commercial crew program that will reduce our dependence on aging Russian infrastructure, ensure the success of the Space Station and keep high-tech jobs here in America.”
CSF Chairman Eric Anderson stated, “The successful return of the Dragon capsule to Earth ends a historic mission for SpaceX, but opens a new chapter of 21st century access to space. The utilization of commercial services for cargo resupply to the International Space Station has now been validated. This success should be viewed as a stepping stone for the industry, and for NASA’s future plans to fly crew to-and-from the space station on commercial vehicles. It’s a seminal moment for the U.S. as a nation, and indeed for the world.”
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I am eager to see the other side of the capsule, cause damn the side showing got really burnt looking
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I am eager to see the other side of the capsule, cause damn the side showing got really burnt looking
The other one looked a lot like that, too, before they cleaned it off.
The capsule floats, so the cargo will be fine.
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Success is so sweet! Thanks to all the love and support here, thanks to Chris and the site and L2 and the forums! The future is now!
ONWARDS!!
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I am eager to see the other side of the capsule, cause damn the side showing got really burnt looking
IIRC, that side of C1 was pretty badly cooked too. That's why the sides of the capsule are insulated too. With any spacecraft, the objective is to get the payload down on the ground in one piece. That's TBD but the fact that C2+ is stable in the water certainly suggests the hull integrity is good.
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Capsules tend to look a little toasty after reentry. Take a look at Apollo ect.
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Congratulations to SpaceX and the COTS 2/3 team.
Looking forward later this year to the CRS 1.
Thanks to everyone hear for the coverage and updates for this mission.
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Success is so sweet! Thanks to all the love and support here, thanks to Chris and the site and L2 and the forums! The future is now!
Please pass our congratuations to all your colleagues!
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Congrats MS and the other (there's a good number!) SpaceX people on site.
So that does it for the mission.
Thanks to everyone who came to the site for the mission events.
Updated article:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacexs-dragon-unberthing-return-to-earth/
We'll continue with post flight!
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Capsules tend to look a little toasty after reentry. Take a look at Apollo ect.
And Soyuz. Excellent conclusion to the mission, by the way.
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I am eager to see the other side of the capsule, cause damn the side showing got really burnt looking
One side gets burned more - by design. The other side, with the hatch, will look much cleaner. C1 Dragon looked the same.
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SpaceX Dragon Post-Splashdown Briefing
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7628
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Although a big fan of SpaceX, I'm a bit more reserved than many on this thread. Rather than saying that this is THE future of spaceflight, I'd rather think of it as a whole new chapter in the spaceflight story- a REALLY fun to watch and exciting chapter that reflects back at the grand old golden era of spaceflight with all liquid fueled boosters launching from Cape Canaveral, going into orbit and then splashing down to be recovered. It's something that some of us who grew up with Mercury and Gemini and Apollo have always longed to sort of see "come back" in some form.
With the shuttle now gone, this makes a great chapter to "get into" and follow and cheer for. It's also the excitement of vehicle development. I love it!
Personally, I cannot wait for the next step, the next glitch, the next fix and the next success. KEEP GOING SpaceX, keep going.
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Congratulations SpaceX! Very well done.
Amazing given the number of firsts for this mission.
Looking forward to more.
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Success is so sweet! Thanks to all the love and support here, thanks to Chris and the site and L2 and the forums! The future is now!
ONWARDS!!
Could not be more excited for you guys, a million congratulations and hope to see many more flights soon!!
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Congrats to SpaceX and their NASA team! A big "Thank You!" to Chris and team for the best coverage of the mission. Although I am a very poor man, I have just busted open the piggy bank and signed up for a year of L2!
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Some quick after party analysis. Does it seem that the main parachute deploy went well? Seems as if there is some slight damage to the upper part of the spacecraft related to the deployment.
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Congratulations SpaceX! Mission accomplished!
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Congrats to SpaceX and their NASA team! A big "Thank You!" to Chris and team for the best coverage of the mission. Although I am a very poor man, I have just busted open the piggy bank and signed up for a year of L2!
God bless you! :) Saw it come in and you're upgraded (check your Messages) on the top bar. Really appreciated, as the hosting bandwidth for this month was Shuttle mission level (if not above, need to check the numbers, but our servers coped, because we have great servers thanks to people like Darkenfast. L2 pays for ALL of the site. We all work for free here, L2 is just to pay the hosting costs, and we would not be around without it as my overdraft wouldn't be able to self fund this monster ;D).
Oooh, and just had a little moment there. Site's in year eight of operations and look what we've witnessed already. Who says space flight isn't interesting? Really looking forward to:
"LIVE: Mars Mission Flight Day 182 Updates - July 23, 203(X)" :)
(Don't moderate me, moderators, I'm having a moment :D)
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I am eager to see the other side of the capsule, cause damn the side showing got really burnt looking
The other one looked a lot like that, too, before they cleaned it off.
The capsule floats, so the cargo will be fine.
I agree. I wouldn't concern myself with lack of aesthetics. The thing is, Dragon did it's job right.
However! Someone said that the next Dragon mission will start "routine"
cargo flights to and from the ISS. Can they really use the word "routine"?
IMHO none of the Dragon missions in the future will be 'routine' until you get no "LIVE" threads on this forum.
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Congrats to SpaceX and their NASA team! A big "Thank You!" to Chris and team for the best coverage of the mission. Although I am a very poor man, I have just busted open the piggy bank and signed up for a year of L2!
God bless you! :) Saw it come in and you're upgraded (check your Messages) on the top bar. Really appreciated, as the hosting bandwidth for this month was Shuttle mission level (if not above, need to check the numbers, but our servers coped, because we have great servers thanks to people like Darkenfast. L2 pays for ALL of the site. We all work for free here, L2 is just to pay the hosting costs, and we would not be around without it as my overdraft wouldn't be able to self fund this monster ;D).
Oooh, and just had a little moment there. Site's in year eight of operations and look what we've witnessed already. Who says space flight isn't interesting? Really looking forward to:
"LIVE: Mars Mission Flight Day 182 Updates - July 23, 203(X)" :)
(Don't moderate me, moderators, I'm having a moment :D)
Tempting! ;)
Great to follow this mission. Felt a bit like a Shuttle mission and we've missed those. Congratulations SpaceX!
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Via FB
SpaceX
Dragon is on the barge and heading home. Great job by the recovery crew.
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Congratulations to the SpaceX team! Awesome work!
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To celebrate such historic moment I'm preparing a presentation about the Dragon and its flight, with my own drawings.
I will post it in the next days. ;)
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That was awesome.
Chris, are you developing relationships with Spacex similar to those in NASA? They always seemed a bit wary of the press.
These guys are going to be worth watching!
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Dragon picture!!
Wow, the CBM has fared better than I thought - the seals are even still there!
Looks to be a serious piece of missing panel on the top-left hand side though! :o
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Looks to be a serious piece of missing panel on the top-left hand side though! :o
Perhaps this part was cut after they ignited the separation from the parachutes?
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Dragon picture!!
Wow, the CBM has fared better than I thought - the seals are even still there!
Looks to be a serious piece of missing panel on the top-left hand side though! :o
No, that panel covered the chute attachment point - it either came off at chute deploy or when the chutes were separated.
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Looks to be a serious piece of missing panel on the top-left hand side though! :o
Perhaps this part was cut after they ignited the separation from the parachutes?
I surmised that it was broken off by the parachute rigging that suffered from increased velocity as the result of late deployment. I like your idea better.
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I registered on this forum just to congratulate SpaceX and all personnel involved in such a wonderful mission. GREAT JOB!!!!!
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Just want to add my congrats to SpaceX for getting her safely back down to sea level, and another well-targetted landing.
cheers, Martin
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That was awesome.
Chris, are you developing relationships with Spacex similar to those in NASA? They always seemed a bit wary of the press.
These guys are going to be worth watching!
Yep.
Remember, we were one of the first sites to cover them, from the first year of this site (2005), including exclusive Elon interviews
Some of the older articles, slightly out of order, but oldest last.
Space X’s Falcon I launch success on fourth attempt
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2008/09/live-space-xs-falcon-i-to-make-fourth-attempt-for-success/
SpaceX Falcon I fails during first stage flight
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2008/08/spacex-falcon-i-fails-during-first-stage-flight/
Elon Musk Q and A – Updates SpaceX status on Falcon and Dragon
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2007/09/elon-musk-q-and-a-updates-spacex-status-on-falcon-and-dragon/
Falcon I flight – preliminary assessment positive for SpaceX
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2007/03/falcon-i-flight-preliminary-assessment-positive-for-spacex/
A night of high drama for SpaceX success
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2007/03/a-night-of-high-drama-for-spacex-success/
Falcon I launches, fails to reach orbit – but SpaceX claim success
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2007/03/falcon-i-launches-fails-to-reach-orbit-but-spacex-claim-success/
SpaceX has magical goals for Falcon 9
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2006/08/spacex-has-magical-goals-for-falcon-9/
SpaceX: Come Hell or High Water
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2006/03/spacex-come-hell-or-high-water/
SpaceX’s Musk and Thompson Q and A
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2006/01/spacexs-musk-and-thompson-q-and-a/
SPACEX set maiden flight – goals
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2005/11/spacex-set-maiden-flight-goals/
SpaceX reveals Falcon 1 Halloween date
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2005/10/spacex-reveals-falcon-1-halloween-date/
When they started to get bigger, they were concentrating more on mass media and it was harder to get through to them. You'd have to be a wacky blogger with Wired to stand a chance, as opposed to real space flight media (other space flight sites were saying they had the same problem). But then they got in touch WITH US again (out of the blue) and now they are very helpful again. Plus we've got a good number of SpaceX people on here, most don't make it obvious, but the ones I've talked to are cool.
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Looks to be a serious piece of missing panel on the top-left hand side though! :o
Perhaps this part was cut after they ignited the separation from the parachutes?
Upon further review of photos, I have determined that this panel is actually supposed to jettison somehow - so it's all good. My bad. :)
I think there is just a small part of it that hasn't jettisoned (the small part in the top-right corner in this photo), but that's not really an issue.
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The SpaceX photo gallery (the zenfolio one...is it ok to post links?) has a couple more pics of the splashdown (#'s 2,3,25).
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I just had a neat thought. I wonder how many years it will be before we see used, de-certified dragon capsules for sale on Ebay. Would make a great conversation piece.
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Another splashdown photo.
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I just had a neat thought. I wonder how many years it will be before we see used, de-certified dragon capsules for sale on Ebay. Would make a great conversation piece.
Heck! It would make a good play-house for the kids! ;D
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I just had a neat thought. I wonder how many years it will be before we see used, de-certified dragon capsules for sale on Ebay. Would make a great conversation piece.
If the winning bidder paid with PayPal, it would also have a strangely appropriate relationship to the flow of events that brought us SpaceX...
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Here is a quick video of the C2 Dragon bobbing up and down in the ocean:
http://vimeo.com/43203563
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Space Pete -
Does this photo mean the splash down was so accurate that they were able to get a photo from the barge or boat? If so, wouldn't this indicate that SpaceX has a good handle to accurate landings? There was concern earlier in this thread about the timing being off for the landing.
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Does this photo mean the splash down was so accurate that they were able to get a photo from the barge or boat? If so, wouldn't this indicate that SpaceX has a good handle to accurate landings?
In the news conference afterwards Elon said that if it wasn't for the wind-drift they could land it in someone's backyard. (I don't know about that...)
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Does this photo mean the splash down was so accurate that they were able to get a photo from the barge or boat? If so, wouldn't this indicate that SpaceX has a good handle to accurate landings? There was concern earlier in this thread about the timing being off for the landing.
Elon seemed pretty happy with the accuracy of the landing. He mentioned that wind drift is the principal reason for variations in the timing.
I also thought that the expansion and contraction of the upper atmosphere (due to space weather effects for example) can result in variations in the reentry interface timing, which would in turn affect the splashdown timing.
I presume those who are familiar with Soyuz landings could tell us more.
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Congrats! :)
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Looking at AIS tracking, M/V American Champion and M/V American Islander are onscene doing the recovery ops...you can track them at marinetraffic dot com.
WTG SPACEX!
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I just don't understand it. Everyone is going gaga over such an obvious hoax. The capsule burnt up during re-entry, so Elon's gang quick threw some garbage quality live video on the web until they could pitch the backup capsule that was being carried on the recovery boat into the water, back off and take some good quality pictures.
The proof is the quality of that fake live video stream. It was worse than the quality of the moon landing videos 40 years ago and it was supposed to be coming from Baja, not another planet (though if you've been to Baja you might not agree).
OK, joke's over. Seriously now, it was fun to see a new American spacecraft make its cargo-running debut. I just had to beat the conspiracy nuts to the fake landing story so that it'd be too ridiculous for them to repeat. Congrats SpaceX. Now hurry up with the manned version.
Laszlo
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Space Pete -
Does this photo mean the splash down was so accurate that they were able to get a photo from the barge or boat? If so, wouldn't this indicate that SpaceX has a good handle to accurate landings? There was concern earlier in this thread about the timing being off for the landing.
According to the Exif data on the photo it was taken with a nice Olympus and a 300mm lens. It's relatively close but probably not as close as it would appear to most folks. Just being near enough to see it is pretty amazing in my book.
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In the news conference afterwards Elon said that if it wasn't for the wind-drift they could land it in someone's backyard. (I don't know about that...)
Yes, but he didn't say they would know who's :D
Adding my one permitted congratulation posting on this thread; have been following the unberthing and splashdown surreptitiously from work; reaaly hard to hide the grin!
Spaceflight just got interesting again after going backwards for too long. Thanks to NSF for the great coverage.
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Congratulation to SpaceX, NASA and of course NSF!
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Dragon on a barge! :)
This new picture appeared in the SpaceX COTS 2 image account:
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Looks good!! Just needs a good wash and a fill up… ;D
Thanks!
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Dragon on a barge! :)
This new picture appeared in the SpaceX COTS 2 image account:
Love the American Flag in the picture. 'Merika.... F yea.
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Dragon on a barge! :)
This new picture appeared in the SpaceX COTS 2 image account:
It looks a lot more charred than the COTS 1 Dragon. And what is that open panel on the far right?
Nonetheless, I'd also like to add my congratulations to SpaceX, NASA, Chris, and the rest of the people responsible for NSF.com. This whole flight has been a blast.
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Dragon on a barge! :)
This new picture appeared in the SpaceX COTS 2 image account:
Love the American Flag in the picture. 'Merika.... F yea.
A good day, but the above is, with respect, ridiculously overplaying it to the point of embarrassment.
America, the most powerful country in the world, has short changed its space program, given up on three amazing space shuttles that were the pride of the world, is paying the Russians for taxi rides, but has sent one small private capsule to to the Space Station.
There's no America, F yeah, yet.
It's a good sign for the future, when hopefully these are common place, you have capsules and DreamChasers everywhere and SLS is launching missions to deep space, but until then, a burnt capsule on a barge just doesn't impress other than this actual success for Elon and his investors.
A good day, but don't overplay this. The space program is still much, much weaker than a year ago.
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And what is that open panel on the far right?
isn't that where the parachutes were?
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It looks a lot more charred than the COTS 1 Dragon. And what is that open panel on the far right?
Nonetheless, I'd also like to add my congratulations to SpaceX, NASA, Chris, and the rest of the people responsible for NSF.com. This whole flight has been a blast.
The open panel on the far right is the part of dragon where the main chutes deploy - it's removed when they deploy. Totally nominal. The drogue chutes are to the left and right of this main chute partition of the non-pressurized part of dragon.
( by non-pressurized I mean parts not lying within the main pressure vessel like the RCS, LIDARS and parachutes )
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I know where you are coming from Paul, but we can't bring Shuttle back now. We have to embrace and push forward with the future and this flight was one small part of getting to where you want us to get to.
Well done also to Chris and the team here for another astonishingly good coverage of a mission. I'd hate to think what space flight would be like on the internet without this site.
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A good day, but don't overplay this. The space program is still much, much weaker than a year ago.
It's a awesome day for those of us who believe that space should be entirely private.
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It looks a lot more charred than the COTS 1 Dragon. And what is that open panel on the far right?
Nonetheless, I'd also like to add my congratulations to SpaceX, NASA, Chris, and the rest of the people responsible for NSF.com. This whole flight has been a blast.
The open panel on the far right is the part of dragon where the main chutes deploy - it's removed when they deploy. Totally nominal. The drogue chutes are to the left and right of this main chute partition of the non-pressurized part of dragon.
( by non-pressurized I mean parts not lying within the main pressure vessel like the RCS, LIDARS and parachutes )
OK. I thought the parachutes came from the smaller oval-shaped panels like the one at the left, where you said the drogues came from.
I guess I'm a little unclear exactly how the parachutes deploy. The shroud lines sort of tear through the diagonal coverings on the external skin. But I thought those were for the mains.
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Dragon on a barge! :)
This new picture appeared in the SpaceX COTS 2 image account:
Love the American Flag in the picture. 'Merika.... F yea.
A good day, but the above is, with respect, ridiculously overplaying it to the point of embarrassment.
America, the most powerful country in the world, has short changed its space program, given up on three amazing space shuttles that were the pride of the world, is paying the Russians for taxi rides, but has sent one small private capsule to to the Space Station.
There's no America, F yeah, yet.
It's a good sign for the future, when hopefully these are common place, you have capsules and DreamChasers everywhere and SLS is launching missions to deep space, but until then, a burnt capsule on a barge just doesn't impress other than this actual success for Elon and his investors.
A good day, but don't overplay this. The space program is still much, much weaker than a year ago.
OK OK, relax Mr. Howard, just showing my excitement!! How about, "Spaceflight, F yea!" Remember, as someone else exclaimed, spaceflight has often been fueled by national pride (paraphrase).
Congrats and thanks to all!!
Nick
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Don't pick on the patriots please my Australian brothers.
National pride is very much deserved here.
The American taxpayers can enjoy this one, they paid for it and it was executed with mostly US citizens and technology made in the USA.
I am happy when the Americans that love space flight are happy for they are the ones that make it possible. The more they get involved and demand NASA to evolve the closer the dreams of becoming a true space faring species can be realised.
One day our ancestors might be able to look back at those that flew the stars and stripes with pride knowing what they gave the species that has spread throughout this solar system.
Sorry Chris just had to have a moment too :D
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It looks a lot more charred than the COTS 1 Dragon. And what is that open panel on the far right?
Nonetheless, I'd also like to add my congratulations to SpaceX, NASA, Chris, and the rest of the people responsible for NSF.com. This whole flight has been a blast.
The open panel on the far right is the part of dragon where the main chutes deploy - it's removed when they deploy. Totally nominal. The drogue chutes are to the left and right of this main chute partition of the non-pressurized part of dragon.
( by non-pressurized I mean parts not lying within the main pressure vessel like the RCS, LIDARS and parachutes )
OK. I thought the parachutes came from the smaller oval-shaped panels like the one at the left, where you said the drogues came from.
I guess I'm a little unclear exactly how the parachutes deploy. The shroud lines sort of tear through the diagonal coverings on the external skin. But I thought those were for the mains.
The following thread goes more into the Dragon Parachutes and has a photo of other side of the Dragon where the second of the two main parachutes come from.
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27716.0
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America may have her faults, but there aren't too many other places in the world where a citizen can launch his own space program with a bunch of other civilians on his own dime.
America, F yeah. Space X, double F yeah!!!
Respectfully,
Steve
(sorry, Chris)
OK guys, appreciate the support, sorry to take things off track!! Lets get back on topic.
Question: What do ya'll suppose the US Congress will now do in terms of funding for commercial crew? I think the excitement generated from this mission and the public support for it may overturn their initial axing of the comm crew budget.
Heck, national news went LIVE for a splashdown! The nation and the world have taken notice.
Nick
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It looks a lot more charred than the COTS 1 Dragon. And what is that open panel on the far right?
Nonetheless, I'd also like to add my congratulations to SpaceX, NASA, Chris, and the rest of the people responsible for NSF.com. This whole flight has been a blast.
The open panel on the far right is the part of dragon where the main chutes deploy - it's removed when they deploy. Totally nominal. The drogue chutes are to the left and right of this main chute partition of the non-pressurized part of dragon.
( by non-pressurized I mean parts not lying within the main pressure vessel like the RCS, LIDARS and parachutes )
OK. I thought the parachutes came from the smaller oval-shaped panels like the one at the left, where you said the drogues came from.
I guess I'm a little unclear exactly how the parachutes deploy. The shroud lines sort of tear through the diagonal coverings on the external skin. But I thought those were for the mains.
The following thread goes more into the Dragon Parachutes and has a photo of other side of the Dragon where the second of the two main parachutes come from.
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27716.0
That's a good thread. I'd forgotten about Gemini's "bridle". (I never knew it was called that.)
So if the drogues come out the sides and tear through the diagonal strips (how, exactly?), then how do they deploy the mains from the big center compartment?
My earlier comment and this discussion may need to be moved to that other thread.
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And Elon is the quintessential American. He's an immigrant came with very little and achieved so much. There's nowhere else he could've done what he's done.
Also I think swervin was playing on "Team America" the movie. A joke :)
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Dragon on a barge! :)
This new picture appeared in the SpaceX COTS 2 image account:
It looks a lot more charred than the COTS 1 Dragon. And what is that open panel on the far right?
I think the COTS 1 Dragon was charred about the same - but most photos were of the "good" side. I have attached a comparison: (see below - and note that the C1 dragon as been 'cleaned/scrubbed' above the chutes compartment)
As for the open panel - as someone already wrote - that is the main parachutes compartment. To get an idea for how the drogue/chute system works on the Dragon, you can look at this parachute drop test video: http://www.spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=5&cat=recent
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The heat shield seems to be a different shape on C2. Rounder and protruding more.
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I was out at ATK watching the GEM-60 test. Congratulations SpaceX on a flight well done, congratulations on a great job! Now keep it up! The most important flight is the next one. And then the next one. And so on. ISS and our human spaceflight program, our country, humanity itself needs you and the rest of the commercial sector to come through.
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I think the COTS 1 Dragon was charred about the same - but most photos were of the "good" side. I have attached a comparison: (see below - and note that the C1 dragon as been 'cleaned/scrubbed' above the chutes compartment)
It looks as if the RCS arrangement has been changed. Interesting.
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The heat shield seems to be a different shape on C2. Rounder and protruding more.
And the diagonal "tear strips", or whatever they're called, are a whole lot thinner.
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I think the COTS 1 Dragon was charred about the same - but most photos were of the "good" side. I have attached a comparison: (see below - and note that the C1 dragon as been 'cleaned/scrubbed' above the chutes compartment)
It looks as if the RCS arrangement has been changed. Interesting.
Keep in mind that the picture of C1 is mirrored.
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The heat shield seems to be a different shape on C2. Rounder and protruding more.
No, I think that is an illusion caused by the extreme wide angle lens of the C2 shot.
I think the COTS 1 Dragon was charred about the same - but most photos were of the "good" side. I have attached a comparison: (see below - and note that the C1 dragon as been 'cleaned/scrubbed' above the chutes compartment)
It looks as if the RCS arrangement has been changed. Interesting.
No - I mirrored a view of the opposite side.
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Dragon on a barge! :)
This new picture appeared in the SpaceX COTS 2 image account:
Love the American Flag in the picture. 'Merika.... F yea.
A good day, but the above is, with respect, ridiculously overplaying it to the point of embarrassment.
America, the most powerful country in the world, has short changed its space program, given up on three amazing space shuttles that were the pride of the world, is paying the Russians for taxi rides, but has sent one small private capsule to to the Space Station.
There's no America, F yeah, yet.
It's a good sign for the future, when hopefully these are common place, you have capsules and DreamChasers everywhere and SLS is launching missions to deep space, but until then, a burnt capsule on a barge just doesn't impress other than this actual success for Elon and his investors.
A good day, but don't overplay this. The space program is still much, much weaker than a year ago.
Fantastic effort SpaceX. Looking forward to all the future flights and developments.
Now have to disagree re: the U.S. space program. STS was a deadend. Could only just make leo. No development path. SpaceX have development paths for the launch vehicles and their capsule. SpaceX also providing additional capability to the ISS. So no deadend program.
NASA SLS and MPCV are too expensive to survive. Commercial is really the only way forward if the U.S. HSF program is going to continue. Think trillion dollar deficits and no real relief in sight.
Cheers.
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I am eager to see the other side of the capsule, cause damn the side showing got really burnt looking
The other one looked a lot like that, too, before they cleaned it off.
The capsule floats, so the cargo will be fine.
I agree. I wouldn't concern myself with lack of aesthetics. The thing is, Dragon did it's job right.
However! Someone said that the next Dragon mission will start "routine"
cargo flights to and from the ISS. Can they really use the word "routine"?
IMHO none of the Dragon missions in the future will be 'routine' until you get no "LIVE" threads on this forum.
Alan Lindenmoyer said routine flights but then corrected himself and said "regular" flights to the ISS.
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Dragon version two will have prop landing via integrated escape thrusters into the sidewalls. Which is really cool, that's how spaceships land in sci fi movies. It's the way spacecraft should land and it'll add potential missions, such as other places in the solar system. Some prop landing tests later this year. Operational is three years away if things go well. Four to five otherwise.
3 years means that the first crewed Dragon would likely land propulsively. That would kind of make sense. It would not make sense to have two different crewed Dragon versions.
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Quick trim and time to get this back on track now. Everyone was allowed to post once noting congrats, not bang on about politics and post about things that really should be in the general C2+ thread.
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Quick trim and time to get this back on track now. Everyone was allowed to post once noting congrats, not bang on about politics and post about things that really should be in the general C2+ thread.
Yes. Thanks for that. You arrived in the nick of time. ;)
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Story of my life mate ;)
However, that does remind me, we need to keep this thread going for the 48 hour cargo removal (the late stow items) SpaceX were talking about. 48 hours from Splashdown to removal in Texas. Rest of the cargo has two week timeline I think I recall.
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Story of my life mate ;)
However, that does remind me, we need to keep this thread going for the 48 hour cargo removal (the late stow items) SpaceX were talking about. 48 hours from Splashdown to removal in Texas. Rest of the cargo has two week timeline I think I recall.
Chris,
Do we know if the added costs of transporting the late stow items to NASA Center X within 48 hours is part of the CRS agreement? Is being done on a private jet? If so, that is $$... FedEX? Do we know these details?
Also, sorry to drop a forum bomb in here earlier, was not my intention.
Nick
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Your post was fine!
No, we don't know the costs. And if there's one thing we've learnt about commercial, it's one will never get to know costs (bar the CRS awards for CCDev2 as a bulk figure). After that, not a hope. Too sensitive.
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Success is so sweet! Thanks to all the love and support here, thanks to Chris and the site and L2 and the forums! The future is now!
ONWARDS!!
Congrats to you guys, you have earned it.
Fantastic job on this monumental achievement, was more then 6 years in the making but it was well worth the wait.
Keep up the fantastic work.
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The heat shield seems to be a different shape on C2. Rounder and protruding more.
I think it's an optical illusion based on two differences: in the C1 image, there is some fabric covering the lower portion of the heat shield that makes it look shorter, and the sidewall insulation of the capsule appears to have been thinned out (see for example here--most visible around the thrusters and the parachute riser tracks: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27716.0) which makes the heat shield appear to protrude further.
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I think the COTS 1 Dragon was charred about the same - but most photos were of the "good" side. I have attached a comparison: (see below - and note that the C1 dragon as been 'cleaned/scrubbed' above the chutes compartment)
It looks as if the RCS arrangement has been changed. Interesting.
Keep in mind that the picture of C1 is mirrored.
The Dragon has 18 Draco thrusters. Two groups of five and two groups of four, with like groupings on opposite sides of the capsule. Thus one of the drogue chute compartments is near a cluster of four thrusters, and one is near a cluster of five. Because the C1 image is mirrored, you are seeing both in the two images.
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It's a tired horse at this point, but I would like to add a note of congratulations to the employees of SpaceX and NASA for their long hours and hard work to produce such an amazingly successful mission. It sure has been a wild ride.
Also to NSF, for the great coverage, informed commentary, and being a wonderful place for space enthusiasts to hang out.
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Congrats to all the NASA, Space X, SSP, Canadarm and Energia teams around the world for being part of something very very big, the ISS. The ISS program really has carved out a piece of existence for all of these excellent teams and pices of hardware.
If only the ISS would be used for what it was originally sold to the public as being for, 1) if a platform for doing near zero gravity science
and
2) being a stepping stone to the Moon and Mars and other no LEO destinations.
Congrats all of the above, I look forward to the other COTS players demonstrations this year as well. Best of luck to all, and may all future endeavours be safe for all.
It still amazes me that there are almost 1,000,000 pounds of manmade space station circling the Earth every 90 minutes that has been maintained as inhabitable for up to 6 people for a cumulative crew time of 4228 days 21hours 3minutes and 50 seconds.
With the station being ion orbit for 4942 days, 1 hour 7 minutes and 40 seconds.
Simply amazing, I bet they sure are glad they flew STS-135/ULF7
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Congrats SpaceX, NASA and ISS!
Any downstream processing / diagnostic info from the SpaceX engineers? Or are we going to have to wait for another day+ for that to start?
It's always fun to bat against nature's curveballs :)
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Story of my life mate ;)
However, that does remind me, we need to keep this thread going for the 48 hour cargo removal (the late stow items) SpaceX were talking about. 48 hours from Splashdown to removal in Texas. Rest of the cargo has two week timeline I think I recall.
Chris,
Do we know if the added costs of transporting the late stow items to NASA Center X within 48 hours is part of the CRS agreement? Is being done on a private jet? If so, that is $$... FedEX? Do we know these details?
No, we don't know the costs. And if there's one thing we've learnt about commercial, it's one will never get to know costs (bar the CRS awards for CCDev2 as a bulk figure). After that, not a hope. Too sensitive.
But, swervin has a point - does the COTS contract (public) specify that NASA should travel to the unloading point (McGreggor) at their own expense, or does SpaceX need to forward the items on to a NASA centre, or similar. The former would seem to make sense, but...
The costs might not be in the contract, but I suspect the delivery point for late stow items might be (am at work, so can't check the contracts myself for now).
cheers, Martin
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The heat shield seems to be a different shape on C2. Rounder and protruding more.
And the diagonal "tear strips", or whatever they're called, are a whole lot thinner.
Looking in the images, it would appear that the parts where the parachute deploys are made of foam. I think that C1 has been cleaned of the foam, showing the structural parts, while C2 still has most of it left. I think we should wait until they clean up C2 to make comparisons.
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A good day, but the above is, with respect, ridiculously overplaying it to the point of embarrassment.
America, the most powerful country in the world, has short changed its space program, given up on three amazing space shuttles that were the pride of the world, is paying the Russians for taxi rides, but has sent one small private capsule to to the Space Station.
...
A good day, but don't overplay this. The space program is still much, much weaker than a year ago.
The Taj Mahal or Versailles are amazing and are the pride of the World. Still, if you think of it, they are basically a big house which is too expensive to live in (i know Taj it is a mausoleum). What do you do with it? Show it to tourists. Same with the Shuttle.
At the end of the day, it is all about money.
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Do we know if the added costs of transporting the late stow items to NASA Center X within 48 hours is part of the CRS agreement? Is being done on a private jet? If so, that is $$... FedEX?
I'm sure FedEx or UPS would happily cover the costs for the advertising opportunity. "Delivering worldwide... and beyond".
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Been offline for a couple of days but was able to follow this elsewhere.
Awesome job! Fantastic.
Biggest congrats possible to SpaceX!
Great coverage Chris, as always - thanks.
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I'd like to throw in my "one allotted congrats" in this thread...
As a public high school science teacher (Earth Science and Astronomy), I often use this site for research on topics to discuss with my class. My classes have certainly gotten excited about this mission, and will continue to follow and be inspired by the influx of private companies into the space arena!
Mr. Musk, thank you for being a leader in the private space race and for being an inspiring figure for my students!
NSF folks... as always, thanks for the great job of reporting and the always "interesting" discussions that follow!
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Congratulations SpaceX and NASA on a fantastic flawless first flight of Dragon to the ISS! I can't wait to see humans fly on the back of a Dragon!
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My classes have certainly gotten excited about this mission, and will continue to follow and be inspired by the influx of private companies into the space arena!
Mr. Musk, thank you for being a leader in the private space race and for being an inspiring figure for my students!
I'll burn my one allotted congrats post quoting SpaceRock's post as crucial. Congratulations SpaceX, NASA & NSF, good show all around!
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I've been following NSF daily and relentlessly since May 19, and the coverage has been simply excellent. So I'll un-lurk for a moment to congratulate all involved...SpaceX, NASA and NSF.
This is certainly not the greatest technological leap in spaceflight's last 55 years...not even close. But it will be recorded, I believe, as a watershed event, like the first mail plane or the first commercial airline flight. Celebrating this takes absolutely nothing away from NASA (who contributed funding and in many other ways); for now, only NASA could do an MSL mission, whose culmination in a couple of months I eagerly await.
Great job by all involved.
By the way, was there any final, precise info on the difference between targeted and actual splashdown point? I've heard "less than a mile," but is there anything authoritative?
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This is certainly not the greatest technological leap in spaceflight's last 55 years...not even close. But it will be recorded, I believe, as a watershed event, like the first mail plane or the first commercial airline flight.
Great analogy
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Congratulations SpaceX and NASA on a fantastic flawless first flight of Dragon to the ISS! I can't wait to see humans fly on the back of a Dragon!
they might prefer to travel on the inside. To each his own.
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This is certainly not the greatest technological leap in spaceflight's last 55 years...not even close. But it will be recorded, I believe, as a watershed event, like the first mail plane or the first commercial airline flight.
Great analogy
I think that 'mail plane' is the closest anology. Basically, we're seeing a private operator being given what is essentially a contract to run what would normally be a USG service as a 'anchor tenant' to get them off the ground. IIRC, Pan-Am started as mail plane service providers. Maybe that's why the SFX team at MGM chose to make the commercial ETO passenger shuttle a Pan-Am vehicle.
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While the flight has gone well, the mission is not over just yet. Off loading of cargo still needs to be accomplished. Let's hope Chris keeps this thread open so that we can see updates.
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While the flight has gone well, the mission is not over just yet. Off loading of cargo still needs to be accomplished. Let's hope Chris keeps this thread open so that we can see updates.
+1
It's not over till its over. ;D
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During the re-entry of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, NASA and the United States Navy flew a P-3 Orion Cast Glance aircraft to capture airborne views of the spacecraft's descent.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=145209661
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Chase Plane Video Of Historic SpaceX Splashdown
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7629
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This is certainly not the greatest technological leap in spaceflight's last 55 years...not even close. But it will be recorded, I believe, as a watershed event, like the first mail plane or the first commercial airline flight.
Great analogy
I think that 'mail plane' is the closest anology. Basically, we're seeing a private operator being given what is essentially a contract to run what would normally be a USG service as a 'anchor tenant' to get them off the ground. IIRC, Pan-Am started as mail plane service providers. Maybe that's why the SFX team at MGM chose to make the commercial ETO passenger shuttle a Pan-Am vehicle.
In a lot of ways, this is not significantly different than in the past. NASA still paid money for the vehicle development. NASA still paid for the mission. NASA will still pay for future missions as a service too.
What is different is the level of oversight and control NASA has over the vehicle, Dragon or others. But in every program leading up to this, the vast majority of work was always done by corporations and the private sector in service to the government. It was just NASA has/had ultimate authority, even though many lower levels were delegated to the respective company. Even here NASA still has insight and can block a flight if they feel something is not up to specs.
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Chase Plane Video Of Historic SpaceX Splashdown
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7629
WOW, that is some great footage, far better than we saw during the live coverage.
And I see why they had to detach the chutes - they were pulling the capsule quite a bit in the wind.
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In that video you can see only one side of the capsule is charred. Great video.
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Chase Plane Video Of Historic SpaceX Splashdown
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7629
WOW, that is some great footage, far better than we saw during the live coverage.
And I see why they had to detach the chutes - they were pulling the capsule quite a bit in the wind.
Beautiful! I assume they recover the mains, what about the drogues? If they have a few small boats, it seems they could assign one to keep an eye on the drogues and pick them up.
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I think the wide-angle view in there has a messed-up aspect ratio, but other than that it's a neat video. Is it me or can you see the parachute lines being cut at 4:17 into the video?
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Chase Plane Video Of Historic SpaceX Splashdown
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7629
WOW, that is some great footage, far better than we saw during the live coverage.
And I see why they had to detach the chutes - they were pulling the capsule quite a bit in the wind.
Beautiful! I assume they recover the mains, what about the drogues? If they have a few small boats, it seems they could assign one to keep an eye on the drogues and pick them up.
There we go thanks for posting that its what I was looking for.
Quite a few people on the other threads talking about how the vehicle looks more charred than c1, but in this video we get to see the clean side which looks about the same as the clean side on c1. Perfectly nominal operation :)
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Chase Plane Video Of Historic SpaceX Splashdown
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7629
now the real good stuff is coming out......keep it going!!
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When will they release pictures showing the front side of Dragon (The side with less burn to it)
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When will they release pictures showing the front side of Dragon (The side with less burn to it)
It can be clearly seen in the video posted above. Will probably be a while before official closeups are available so thats your best bet.
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One thing I noticed from that video: One of the main 'chutes initially only partially opened, remaining collapsed on one side. After a while, it fully inflated but it might explain some issues with off-schedule or off-course splash-down.
[edit]
Also, it might be a good idea to add 'parachute release' to the auto-sequence on the next flight.
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One thing I noticed from that video: One of the main 'chutes initially only partially opened, remaining collapsed on one side. After a while, it fully inflated but it might explain some issues with off-schedule or off-course splash-down.
That may be by design, some chutes are designed to do that so they do not inflate fast and shred. A chute suddenly opening fast can put a fair amount of force on the fabric, lines, and payload.
Though it is odd only one did that, you would expect all three to behave the same way.
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One thing I noticed from that video: One of the main 'chutes initially only partially opened, remaining collapsed on one side. After a while, it fully inflated but it might explain some issues with off-schedule or off-course splash-down.
I'm no expert, but it didn't look unusual. It takes a while - by design - for the main chutes to open. All of them open slowly, although we cannot see the other side of the other ones. The original drop test showed a very similar chute deployment: http://www.spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=5&cat=recent
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The turbulence from Dragon isn't going to be identical at all three chutes. There's no reason to expect them to open exactly the same. I'm not sure why people keep looking for something wrong. Normal variations in the upper atmosphere are enough to keep you from pinpoint landings.
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The turbulence from Dragon isn't going to be identical at all three chutes. There's no reason to expect them to open exactly the same. I'm not sure why people keep looking for something wrong. Normal variations in the upper atmosphere are enough to keep you from pinpoint landings.
Agree, the mission so far has been a complete success. No need to look for small things that most likely are not there. Once again, this mission is not complete until NASA picks up it's cargo and the reports are in.
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I am so sick and tired of people always trying to find something to gripe about. These people are worst. If there was something wrong, we would know about it.
People have no clue.
The mission was a 100% success. There were a few "funnies" that will work itself out ie LIDAR. Actually, Elon said they fixed the LIDAR for unberthing and decent and that it worked.
This was a good mission and I look forward to seeing the data on re-entry.
VR
RE327
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I am so sick and tired of people always trying to find something to gripe about. These people are worst. If there was something wrong, we would know about it.
People have no clue.
The mission was a 100% success. There were a few "funnies" that will work itself out ie LIDAR. Actually, Elon said they fixed the LIDAR for unberthing and decent and that it worked.
This was a good mission and I look forward to seeing the data on re-entry.
VR
RE327
RE: issues such as the LIDAR issue: these kinds of things are the reason they fly test flights. That's not a failure, they just needed to do some "fine tuning" to get it to work right (as proved by the unberthing success). I've heard of an RCS restart being needed, and maybe another anomaly or two. The mission was a success. Elon himself said (during the post mission briefing) that Dragon was designed with more backups than they needed. Quite frankly, I hope they don't reduce them, as this will help with Dragonrider.
Multiple redundancies aren't a problem, so long as they don't interfere with normal operation or capacity of the vessel.
This mission looked like a resounding success, with a few noted anomalies. And even with those anomalies, they managed to carry out the mission well and with a certain amount of grace and professionalism. I see no reason to take that away from them.
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Is it me or can you see the parachute lines being cut at 4:17 into the video?
I have it at about 4:26, Dragon rights itself right before the camera pans over to the deflating mains.
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I'm not sure why people keep looking for something wrong.
Because that's how you find little issues that could lead to big failures if circumstances are less favorable. I don't know if these partial chute collapses are little issues or if they are "as designed", but I do know that chutes can and do fail, even when they have worked many times before. The slow, staged disreefing is definitely "as designed" and the chutes would certainly fail if they didn't do that so that's for sure not a problem. As you may recall, two of the three chutes failed during the Ares-IX test. The second of the two failures started with a partial collapse, though I don't know if that was a cause or not.
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I am so sick and tired of people always trying to find something to gripe about. These people are worst. If there was something wrong, we would know about it.
People have no clue.
The mission was a 100% success. There were a few "funnies" that will work itself out ie LIDAR. Actually, Elon said they fixed the LIDAR for unberthing and decent and that it worked.
This was a good mission and I look forward to seeing the data on re-entry.
VR
RE327
RE: issues such as the LIDAR issue: these kinds of things are the reason they fly test flights. That's not a failure, they just needed to do some "fine tuning" to get it to work right (as proved by the unberthing success). I've heard of an RCS restart being needed, and maybe another anomaly or two. The mission was a success. Elon himself said (during the post mission briefing) that Dragon was designed with more backups than they needed. Quite frankly, I hope they don't reduce them, as this will help with Dragonrider.
Multiple redundancies aren't a problem, so long as they don't interfere with normal operation or capacity of the vessel...
As I noted earlier, it's unhelpful to assess SpaceX's reliability by how many non-critical glitches they have. Adding redundancy always means more non-critical glitches, though it improves reliability. If they went with single-string or with less redundancy, you wouldn't be seeing as many glitches. But you also would have less overall mission reliability and the few glitches you would have would put the mission in much, much more danger.
Getting your underwear in a bundle about non-critical glitches in a redundant system (versus fewer in a single-string) is like saying a motorcycle is safer than a car because there are fewer wheels to have problems with.
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I am so sick and tired of people always trying to find something to gripe about. These people are worst. If there was something wrong, we would know about it.
People have no clue.
The mission was a 100% success. There were a few "funnies" that will work itself out ie LIDAR. Actually, Elon said they fixed the LIDAR for unberthing and decent and that it worked.
This was a good mission and I look forward to seeing the data on re-entry.
VR
RE327
Where did this rant even come from?
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Hi-res unberthing and SSRMS release images now posted.
http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-31/inflight/ndxpage12.html
http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-31/inflight/ndxpage13.html
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New recovery pics appearing on NASA's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150972465716772.434533.54971236771&type=1
Here's One:
Notice the "toasted marshmallow effect" has little effect on the hatch side, thus ending speculation about the new thermal material's abilities...
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Man! You really need someone standing on it to really appreciate how big it is. :o
And please... no "that's what she said" jokes.
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New recovery pics appearing on NASA's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150972465716772.434533.54971236771&type=1
Here's One:
Notice the "toasted marshmallow effect" has little effect on the hatch side, thus ending speculation about the new thermal material's abilities...
Looks like we had a stowaway! ;)
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Hi-res unberthing and SSRMS release images now posted.
http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-31/inflight/ndxpage12.html
http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-31/inflight/ndxpage13.html
It's infinitely more impressive seeing a capsule recovered by a work barge than a battleship.
Makes me feel like this might one day not be a big deal anymore... which would be a huge deal.
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To answer a question above, back when the helicopter drop tests took place, you could see that when the drogues pull out the mains, they take the chute container hatch cover with them. They then come down on their own and I believe are also recovered.
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New recovery pics appearing on NASA's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150972465716772.434533.54971236771&type=1
Here's One:
Notice the "toasted marshmallow effect" has little effect on the hatch side, thus ending speculation about the new thermal material's abilities...
They are all originally from SpaceX's Zenfolio gallery:
http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p208064181
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I am so sick and tired of people always trying to find something to gripe about. These people are worst. If there was something wrong, we would know about it.
People have no clue.
The mission was a 100% success. There were a few "funnies" that will work itself out ie LIDAR. Actually, Elon said they fixed the LIDAR for unberthing and decent and that it worked.
This was a good mission and I look forward to seeing the data on re-entry.
VR
RE327
I think it's more the "pinch myself, I must be dreaming" effect.
This mission was more perfect than anybody had a right to expect. The whole point of a test flight is to find problems that need fixing. There were so few problems that people have to go out of their way to look for them! ;D
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Man! You really need someone standing on it to really appreciate how big it is. :o
I've never seen a graphic comparing Dragon to the Apollo command module. Anyone have a link? It would be useful for impressing people who haven't been following this.
When you see them floating in the ocean they look about the same. And they both came down on three parachutes. I think most people would assume that they're equivalent.
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Apollo fit three, Dragon fits seven, that's already an impressive fact to mention, when you want to tell people about the differences.
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Apollo fit three, Dragon fits seven, that's already an impressive fact to mention, when you want to tell people about the differences.
Nope. This Dragon is cargo dragon and can carry exactly zero people.
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Is it me or can you see the parachute lines being cut at 4:17 into the video?
I have it at about 4:26, Dragon rights itself right before the camera pans over to the deflating mains.
Look closely at 4:17, there's a splash of water and you can see a cable/line moving away from Dragon and the capsule immediately starts to right itself up and stops being dragged through the water. At 4:26 I think it's just a wave that brings the capsule upright.
The youtube video shows it more clearly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbHj4P81voA&hd=1
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Apollo fit three, Dragon fits seven, that's already an impressive fact to mention, when you want to tell people about the differences.
Nope. This Dragon is cargo dragon and can carry exactly zero people.
He said fits, not carries. Obviously, the discussion is about comparative size, not current capability.
Thanks for pointing that fact out, though, lest we forget.
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Thanks for pointing that fact out, though, lest we forget.
I am pointing out that currently Dragon does not compare favourably with Apollo capsule. Not surprising considering what each of them are capable for.
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Thanks for pointing that fact out, though, lest we forget.
I am pointing out that currently Dragon does not compare favourably with Apollo capsule. Not surprising considering what each of them are capable for.
Erm... ???
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Approximate Sizes
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Apollo fit three, Dragon fits seven
Apologies for the question, but I'm not following every tiny detail of SpaceX's planning; but have they actually done some sort of mockup (even if only in a CAD system) to make sure they can fit 7 acceleration couches, etc?
The thing is that they are roughly the same size: Dragon 12 foot diameter, 245 cubic feet; Apollo 13 foot diameter, 218 cubic feet. (So Apollo's base is slightly larger even, which is the important number, for the number of acceleration couches it can hold.)
You couldn't put a lot more people in an Apollo (at least, for takeoff/reentry, where they had to be lying down - in zero or one gee, you could obviously fit a lot more - I remember being surprised the first time I saw an actual Apollo capsule at how roomy it was, at least compared to Gemini and Mercury), which is why I'm wondering about that Dragon number.
Noel
PS: Sorry, hadn't seen the images in the next two posts in the thread - I was reading them via 'Recent Posts' (an easier way to keep up, rather than reading a bunch of threads), not in the thread itself, so I hadn't seen the images. But I'll leave this post as-is, because it has the numbers.
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Apollo fit three, Dragon fits seven
Apologies for the question, but I'm not following every tiny detail of SpaceX's planning; but have they actually done some sort of mockup (even if only in a CAD system) to make sure they can fit 7 acceleration couches, etc?
Noel
Look at the picture two posts above with seven people, that would be the actual Dragon mock-up :)
See: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28829.0 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28829.0)
-- Edit: Added NSF thread reference
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Look at the picture two posts above with seven people
Bit hard for me to work out what I'm seeing there - it looks like they have them in two layers, with 4 on the top, and three below? (Two layers would make sense, given that the sides on Dragon don't have as steep a pitch, so it has more room 'above'.)
(Like I said, I hadn't seen the picture when I made my previous post, because 'Recent Posts' doesn't show inclusions.)
Noel
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Yes that's the mockup Dragon Crew on the inside. 7 persons with all their gear apparently including controls and so on have been created with NASA astronaut input.
You also might like to take a look at the Dragon Cargo which even with all the boxes and so on in place, looked pretty roomy when they were unloading her at the ISS.
So it's not unrealistic. CST-100 also fits 7 if I'm not mistaken.
Mader, there's no need to jump down other poster's throats. You seem a very touchy poster and it's bordering on the impolite - just an observation.
Cheers.
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I'm not sure why people keep looking for something wrong.
Because that's how you find little issues that could lead to big failures if circumstances are less favorable. I don't know if these partial chute collapses are little issues or if they are "as designed", but I do know that chutes can and do fail, even when they have worked many times before. The slow, staged disreefing is definitely "as designed" and the chutes would certainly fail if they didn't do that so that's for sure not a problem. As you may recall, two of the three chutes failed during the Ares-IX test. The second of the two failures started with a partial collapse, though I don't know if that was a cause or not.
Poorly worded gripe on my part Lee Jay. Of course, you always look for flaws that can be fixed or procedures that can be improved. I was whining more about inventing problems that don't exist. Even some of the more respected members who don't like SpaceX have a habit of that.
I know that in a field where they can predict how a butterfly sneezing will effect your position a thousand miles away chute deployment can be a rear art form. Lots of unpredictables.
Those four folks across in Dragon always looked a little tight to me. I take it they're squeezing seven in because ISS might go to 7 when the Russians get Nauka up.
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Apollo fit three, Dragon fits seven
Apologies for the question, but I'm not following every tiny detail of SpaceX's planning; but have they actually done some sort of mockup (even if only in a CAD system) to make sure they can fit 7 acceleration couches, etc?
Is 7 person capacity reallly a critical path for launch/ascent? Or is it a desire to demonstrate capacity for re-entry? Especially given a Design Reference Mission for current capabilities like ISS. Think lifeboat if something were to happen where Soyuz could not undock, be unsafe for re-entry, or the crew could not access thru the modules where Soyuz could be ingressed.
I think four person for the ride uphill is more of an optium number; in addition to an actual demonstration of crew inside a Dragon for launch, pre-berthing ops, and re-entry. SpaceX will also have to demonstrate loiter time on station in weeks & months, not days; when that happens you can begin to plan seven person crew ops for the ISS (One Dragon berthed, One Soyuz docked) thus reaching further full utilization of ISS.
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I can't see how any of this discussion on crew size has anything to do with this thread people...
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I'm not sure why people keep looking for something wrong.
Because that's how you find little issues that could lead to big failures if circumstances are less favorable. I don't know if these partial chute collapses are little issues or if they are "as designed", but I do know that chutes can and do fail, even when they have worked many times before. The slow, staged disreefing is definitely "as designed" and the chutes would certainly fail if they didn't do that so that's for sure not a problem. As you may recall, two of the three chutes failed during the Ares-IX test. The second of the two failures started with a partial collapse, though I don't know if that was a cause or not.
Poorly worded gripe on my part Lee Jay. Of course, you always look for flaws that can be fixed or procedures that can be improved. I was whining more about inventing problems that don't exist. Even some of the more respected members who don't like SpaceX have a habit of that.
I know that in a field where they can predict how a butterfly sneezing will effect your position a thousand miles away chute deployment can be a rear art form. Lots of unpredictables.
Those four folks across in Dragon always looked a little tight to me. I take it they're squeezing seven in because ISS might go to 7 when the Russians get Nauka up.
Dout it, I think they will carry 3 and the rest will be supplies. The 7 places configuration will be for Bigelow, otherwise it won't be profitable.
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Any reports available on the arrival of the Dragon barge to a port in California?
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Any reports available on the arrival of the Dragon barge to a port in California?
I'm sure SpaceX will say. Kinda don't want to bother their PAO until next week as I know they'll be catching up on sleep! :)
Dragon should be in Texas by now anyway. They wanted that 48 hour destow test.
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Chris: I thought I read somewhere that the 48-hour stuff would be unloaded prior to the Texas trip? Would appreciate confirmation either way.
Mader: THAT'S WHAT WE'RE DOING. Nobody is touting this particular Dragon as superior to Apollo. The words we're using and the points you're making differ by semantics at most. Please lay off the grouchiness for it's own sake.
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I'm not sure why people keep looking for something wrong.
Because that's how you find little issues that could lead to big failures if circumstances are less favorable. I don't know if these partial chute collapses are little issues or if they are "as designed", but I do know that chutes can and do fail, even when they have worked many times before. The slow, staged disreefing is definitely "as designed" and the chutes would certainly fail if they didn't do that so that's for sure not a problem. As you may recall, two of the three chutes failed during the Ares-IX test. The second of the two failures started with a partial collapse, though I don't know if that was a cause or not.
Poorly worded gripe on my part Lee Jay. Of course, you always look for flaws that can be fixed or procedures that can be improved. I was whining more about inventing problems that don't exist. Even some of the more respected members who don't like SpaceX have a habit of that.
I know that in a field where they can predict how a butterfly sneezing will effect your position a thousand miles away chute deployment can be a rear art form. Lots of unpredictables.
Those four folks across in Dragon always looked a little tight to me. I take it they're squeezing seven in because ISS might go to 7 when the Russians get Nauka up.
Dout it, I think they will carry 3 and the rest will be supplies. The 7 places configuration will be for Bigelow, otherwise it won't be profitable.
Requirement is to carry 4 to ISS and cargo.
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Any reports available on the arrival of the Dragon barge to a port in California?
I'm sure SpaceX will say. Kinda don't want to bother their PAO until next week as I know they'll be catching up on sleep! :)
Dragon should be in Texas by now anyway. They wanted that 48 hour destow test.
Dragon is on the barge heading for the Port of Los Angeles. It's being towed at a speed of 10 knots, so it will arrive June 6. You can track the tug, American Champion, on any ship-tracking site. If they did the 48 hour destow, they must have removed the items by helicopter.
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Any reports available on the arrival of the Dragon barge to a port in California?
I'm sure SpaceX will say. Kinda don't want to bother their PAO until next week as I know they'll be catching up on sleep! :)
Dragon should be in Texas by now anyway. They wanted that 48 hour destow test.
Dragon is on the barge heading for the Port of Los Angeles. It's being towed at a speed of 10 knots, so it will arrive June 6. You can track the tug, American Champion, on any ship-tracking site. If they did the 48 hour destow, they must have removed the items by helicopter.
Traveling at 10 knots and splashdown being only about 500 miles from LA it should be arriving in LA either today or tomorrow. The 6 June date is probably arrival in Texas.
If the distance is about 500 miles and the speed is enough then arrival in LA Harbor could be done in just less than 48 hours from spashdown.
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http://www.spacex.com/updates.php
SpaceX update, we have seen most these images, but they are all in 1 place now. Great update :)
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The tracking site http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/
shows American Champion about 30 miles off Huntington Beach inbound.
Should arrive in daylight I believe, hopefully some photographers in the area.
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Does Cargo from the ISS need to clear U.S. Customs? Is it considered "diplomatic" cargo?
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Does Cargo from the ISS need to clear U.S. Customs? Is it considered "diplomatic" cargo?
no, because it is from a US "territory"
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Does Cargo from the ISS need to clear U.S. Customs? Is it considered "diplomatic" cargo?
no, because it is from a US "territory"
So does it has to clear customs when being moved from the Russian to the US segment on ISS? ;)
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Marinetraffic.com now reporting American Champion is in port.
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American Champion now in port:
Mode Edit: Do not embed images
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I think American Islander is the one pulling the barge, she's only making 3-4 knots and still a few days out...
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Barge work is slow work, and sadly since SpaceX plans to phase out water recovery they're probably not motivated to find/construct a superior recovery vessel.
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how will dragon be transferred to Texas Truck? no problems with it loaded with hyperbols?
jb
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how will dragon be transferred to Texas Truck? no problems with it loaded with hyperbols?
jb
They'll stop at SeaLaunch's facility first; they'll drain the tanks before the s/c is trucked to McGreggor for unpacking.
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EDIT: Moved my off-topic comments to the general discussion thread
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Why does SpaceX plan to unload Dragon in Texas?
Why not in Hawthorne, which is only a few miles from the dock, or even dockside in a portable clean tent?
Even trucking Dragon to KSC or JSFC seems more efficient.
edit: I had equated "Texas" with "McGregor". Has SpaceX ever had a Dragon in McGregor?
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Does Cargo from the ISS need to clear U.S. Customs? Is it considered "diplomatic" cargo?
no, because it is from a US "territory"
Dragon was fished out of international waters, I would imagine that the boat carrying Dragon will have to go through port security and customs.
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Does Cargo from the ISS need to clear U.S. Customs? Is it considered "diplomatic" cargo?
no, because it is from a US "territory"
Dragon was fished out of Mexican territorial waters, I would imagine that the boat carrying Dragon will have to go through port security and customs.
"Territorial waters" extend only 12 miles from the mean low water mark of any coastline. As long as the barge didn't stop in a Mexican port for some reason, I don't think they would have to bother with customs.
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Yes, I know. I edited my post shortly before you posted in order to change it to international waters. But I think that the boat would still have to go through port security and customs since it left the United States.
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Mexico can also claim a 200 mile commercial exclusion zone, but IIRC the recovery zone was beyond that too.
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Does Cargo from the ISS need to clear U.S. Customs? Is it considered "diplomatic" cargo?
no, because it is from a US "territory"
Dragon was fished out of Mexican territorial waters, I would imagine that the boat carrying Dragon will have to go through port security and customs.
I am not sure what sort of laws and inspections boats have to go through when they arrive at a port. The whole recovery operation was outside of any nation's territorial waters though. Territorial waters are considered to be 12 nautical miles from the coast. There is what is called the exclusive economic zone, that extends out to a maximum of 200 nautical miles. Dragon's splashdown zone was over 500 miles from the Mexican coast.
Edit: I guess I should have typed faster haha
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Yes I actually knew that and edited my post to change it to international waters but the fact remains that the boat left the United States.
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http://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/209051385084379137
"@SpaceX SpaceX has delivered early Cargo to NASA."
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http://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/209051385084379137
"@SpaceX SpaceX has delivered early Cargo to NASA."
I was wondering if they had transferred the time critical cargo to the American Champion which docked earlier today... my guess is that they did so.
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Chase plane video of the 'chutes
Enhanced version - the original video had inconsistent exposures and looked muddy, so it was processed and filtered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78l4bs7hxkQ
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how will dragon be transferred to Texas Truck? no problems with it loaded with hyperbols?
They'll stop at SeaLaunch's facility first; they'll drain the tanks before the s/c is trucked to McGreggor for unpacking.
Do you have a source for this assertion? The PAO said the hypergolics will be drained at McGreggor.
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how will dragon be transferred to Texas Truck? no problems with it loaded with hyperbols?
They'll stop at SeaLaunch's facility first; they'll drain the tanks before the s/c is trucked to McGreggor for unpacking.
Do you have a source for this assertion? The PAO said the hypergolics will be drained at McGreggor.
It's what lots of people up-thread were saying; I can't claim to have any personal knowledge other than the comments of people who seem authoratative on this forum.
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how will dragon be transferred to Texas Truck? no problems with it loaded with hyperbols?
They'll stop at SeaLaunch's facility first; they'll drain the tanks before the s/c is trucked to McGreggor for unpacking.
Do you have a source for this assertion? The PAO said the hypergolics will be drained at McGreggor.
It's what lots of people up-thread were saying; I can't claim to have any personal knowledge other than the comments of people who seem authoratative on this forum.
It's what Jim kept insisting.
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how will dragon be transferred to Texas Truck? no problems with it loaded with hyperbols?
They'll stop at SeaLaunch's facility first; they'll drain the tanks before the s/c is trucked to McGreggor for unpacking.
Do you have a source for this assertion? The PAO said the hypergolics will be drained at McGreggor.
It's what lots of people up-thread were saying; I can't claim to have any personal knowledge other than the comments of people who seem authoratative on this forum.
It's what Jim kept insisting.
With Jim being someone 'in the know', and PAO being someone 'official' I will stick with official for now. Unless confirmed otherwise the Dragon will be drained at McGreggor, per the PAO.
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It's what Jim kept insisting.
No he didn't. He simply stated that such facility existed.. in a response to the claim that none did.
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It's what Jim kept insisting.
No he didn't. He simply stated that such facility existed.. in a response to the claim that none did.
That was my read as well, that he thought it would make sense for them to do it, not that they were actually doing it. I believe all official word indicates that they're shipping it back to TX.
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I wonder if they didn't do *something* to safe the vehicle on the recovery barge. In the attached photos, there is a small rectangular panel near each thruster quad. Note the labeled, colored caps. I can't say for certain, but these panels appear to be for loading and deloading the propellant and or propellant pressurant gases. The panel cover has been removed in the recent post-recovery photo. Also, to the left and behind Dragon, note the small diameter hoses (probably not used for water on a seagoing vessel), and the sprinkler head atop a blue stanchon. AIUI, saltwater neutralizes hypergolic fuel, which is handy, as these sprinklers are positioned around the Dragon on the barge, they maybe be there in case of a spill or leak.
Aren't most spacecraft that use hypergols safed ASAP after recovery?
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PAO did say hyper offload was in Texas, but the timing from the arrival in Los Angeles and the confirmation of late stow offload suggests a change in how they did this, so I'll see if I can find out officially.
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Aren't most spacecraft that use hypergols safed ASAP after recovery?
This is probably a hare-brained idea, but I wonder if they could ditch the hypergolics before landing? (Proably just before the chutes are popped, you wouldn't want to take a chance on damaging them, but after they're sure they don't need to do any more attitude changes, etc,)
Tp avoid the need for extra plumbing, they could just pick a pair of opposing control jets (i.e. no net force), and fire them both at the same time until they run the hypergolic fuel dry? (Although I guess if one ran dry before the other, you'd get an unintended control action, probably not good.)
I know, probably not a good idea, but maybe?
Noel
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PAO did say hyper offload was in Texas, but the timing from the arrival in Los Angeles and the confirmation of late stow offload suggests a change in how they did this, so I'll see if I can find out officially.
Maybe the hypergolic propellants was offload on the barge from the Dragon and with final disposal at McGregor. It makes little sense to haul the Dragon cross country with volatile & hazardous hypergolics aboard.
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Aren't most spacecraft that use hypergols safed ASAP after recovery?
This is probably a hare-brained idea, but I wonder if they could ditch the hypergolics before landing? (Proably just before the chutes are popped, you wouldn't want to take a chance on damaging them, but after they're sure they don't need to do any more attitude changes, etc,)
Tp avoid the need for extra plumbing, they could just pick a pair of opposing control jets (i.e. no net force), and fire them both at the same time until they run the hypergolic fuel dry? (Although I guess if one ran dry before the other, you'd get an unintended control action, probably not good.)
I know, probably not a good idea, but maybe?
Noel
You still have residue hypergolic propellants that have to be flushed out for making safe.
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PAO did say hyper offload was in Texas, but the timing from the arrival in Los Angeles and the confirmation of late stow offload suggests a change in how they did this, so I'll see if I can find out officially.
Maybe the hypergolic propellants was offload on the barge from the Dragon and with final disposal at McGregor. It makes little sense to haul the Dragon cross country with volatile & hazardous hypergolics aboard.
agreed, this is good for review in how it could/should be done ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTxMbda-j4Q
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http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/120605port/
Demo Dragon is back in port. I still cannot believe that American Marine risk venturing 500 nm out in the sea in a dinky tub like that. It's crazy.
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North Atlantic and Alaskan fishermen are ROTFL'ing at that comment.
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http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/120605port/
Demo Dragon is back in port. I still cannot believe that American Marine risk venturing 500 nm out in the sea in a dinky tub like that. It's crazy.
"Five days after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft arrived at the Port of Los Angeles early Tuesday aboard a recovery barge. Workers lifted the capsule from the ship to a trailer for transport to SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas"
Ok, now I'm real confused.....can we get an update and some answers on this?
What happend with the 48 hr stuff? They open dragon and transfer to another boat or something?
What about the fuel off loading?
Chris how about another article?
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They open dragon and transfer to another boat or something?
Yes
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What happend with the 48 hr stuff? They open dragon and transfer to another boat or something?
According to Flight Aware, NASA 932 left LGB for EFD on Sat June 2 about 2:39 PM. Probably with the time critical cargo off the Dragon.
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In the pics you posted
Those are SpaceX employees?
LA Longshoremen?
I'm sorry if I offend anyone; but I have some real questions that need real answers.
Where is the employee protection?
Do these people working on the Dragon know about the toxic chemicals inside?
To NASA: you think its responsible to open up the dragon 500 miles off shore, and expose the contents to ocean air etc?
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PAO did say hyper offload was in Texas.
Isn't the hypergolic fuel already safely stored for transport in an extremely well-engineered pressure vessel that can withstand high temperatures and the impulse shock of splashdown (or falling off the back of a truck)? If the facility for safely offloading the hypergolics is in Texas, the risk of leakage during Dragon trucking is likely minimal.
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In the pics you posted
Those are SpaceX employees?
LA Longshoremen?
I'm sorry if I offend anyone; but I have some real questions that need real answers.
Where is the employee protection?
Do these people working on the Dragon know about the toxic chemicals inside?
To NASA: you think its responsible to open up the dragon 500 miles off shore, and expose the contents to ocean air etc?
Is this the future?
This is what we replaced our shuttle program with?
I have many more questions that center around the issue of "cheap" vs safety.
I'm sorry if I must speak my mind on this; but SpaceX the more you operate the more I ask why you act like a Mickey Mouse Operation?
Edit: new thread opened http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=29095.0
More likely is that the people in the above posts are correct and the capsule was safed enroute. It will be nice to get confirmation on that though.
Still, why in your opinion would they do something as foolish as endangering the recovery people? Do you really think this would be a cost saving measure?
It's sure ok to wonder, but your post is more of a statement than it is a question. In Jim's words - unsubstantiated.
EDIT- I looked for the forum you linked to - it is either missing or restricted - is that an L2 thing?
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Man! You really need someone standing on it to really appreciate how big it is. :o
I've never seen a graphic comparing Dragon to the Apollo command module. Anyone have a link? It would be useful for impressing people who haven't been following this.
When you see them floating in the ocean they look about the same. And they both came down on three parachutes. I think most people would assume that they're equivalent.
I only saw one person respond with a quick CAD drawing but here's a nifty Space.com infographic showing relative sizes of MPCV/Orion versus other "popular" past/present/future spacecraft, including Dragon:
http://www.space.com/11777-nasa-deep-space-multi-purpose-crew-vehicle-infographic.html
Edit: attached graphic as well
Second edit: I realize the graphic has unrealistic "first crewed flight" dates, but at least shows the relative size differences (they appear accurate to me).
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Looks like hardhats and taglines are in use, nobody standing under the load, people backing up the guy on the ladder to unhook the block, load griped down for transport...all in all, appears to be a safe & squared away operation being conducted.
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Apollo dumped the RCS propellant after main chutes were open, would there be a reason Dragon doesn't do the same, or at least dump the helium and depressurize the system?
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In the pics you posted
Those are SpaceX employees?
LA Longshoremen?
I'm sorry if I offend anyone; but I have some real questions that need real answers.
Where is the employee protection?
Do these people working on the Dragon know about the toxic chemicals inside?
To NASA: you think its responsible to open up the dragon 500 miles off shore, and expose the contents to ocean air etc?
If you look at the photos, you can see that most of the personnel unloading the spacecraft are wearing SpaceX shirts. I seriously doubt they are anybody but the SpaceX recovery team. Once spaceraft are loaded with hypergols, people are allowed around them. Dragon was loaded in advance of the launch operations, erected and lowered, etc. w/o everyone being in SCAPE suits. So was Shuttle (at the pad, but days in advance), and a lot of other spacecraft. The barge and tug look like typical commercial marine vessels. If it was neccessary to protect the interior of Dragon when opening the hatch on the barge, they would use a portable enclosure, similar to the one they used for the Late Load test. Since they are demonstating all this to NASA to complete the COTS contract and move on to CRS, how stupid do you think everyone involved is? Take a good look at the whole mission, how it happened, how SpaceX and NASA control centers worked together, and tell me how "mickey mouse" this all is.
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Since they are demonstating all this to NASA to complete the COTS contract and move on to CRS, how stupid do you think everyone involved is?
Stupider than your typical armchair engineer.
I wonder if it's a testament to the smoothness of the overall mission when some people actively look for things to complain about.
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A new image appeared in the NASA expedition 31 gallery: http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-31/html/iss031e084464.html
It shows Dragon (pre-grapple), illuminated by ISS and its strobe+red+green light:
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They open dragon and transfer to another boat or something?
Yes
Yes, it looks from the second photo that the side hatch has been opened.
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Isn't the hypergolic fuel already safely stored for transport in an extremely well-engineered pressure vessel that can withstand high temperatures and the impulse shock of splashdown (or falling off the back of a truck)? If the facility for safely offloading the hypergolics is in Texas, the risk of leakage during Dragon trucking is likely minimal.
No, not for road travel per DOT standards.
Also, thrusters can and do leak.
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USSTRATCOM elsets of the 3 remaining catalogued objects in orbit indicate that they all will decay before the end of June:
ID initial current dh [km]
B/38349 F9 st. 2 271 x 331 256 x 301 -23
C/38350 cover 305 x 339 220 x 229 -97
D/38351 cover 305 x 344 253 x 269 -63
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http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/120605port/
Demo Dragon is back in port.
On the backside of the Dragon, the soot deposited during re-entry seems to rub off easily. In the pictures, the original surface is visible in many places. So there seems to have been little or no charring.
Aameise
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Wonder how permanent is the soot on the Dragon exterior. Can it be mostly be wash off?
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Wonder how permanent is the soot on the Dragon exterior. Can it be mostly be wash off?
Seems like it is a foam. Easy to reapply.
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Apollo dumped the RCS propellant after main chutes were open, would there be a reason Dragon doesn't do the same, or at least dump the helium and depressurize the system?
I imagine that the eventual land landing future for Dragon meant that dumping excess toxic propellent after chutes opened was only ever going to be a short term solution, and SpaceX decided to not go that route to make their lives easier later, and prevent habitual nitpickers from having another hook to pry.
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Wonder how permanent is the soot on the Dragon exterior. Can it be mostly be wash off?
Seems like it is a foam. Easy to reapply
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28006.msg909415#msg909415 (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28006.msg909415#msg909415)
C1 Dragon was covered in ACUSIL, a TPS manufactured by ITT.
C2 Dragon was covered in SPAM (SpaceX Proprietary Ablative Material).
One more thing that SpaceX brought in-house.
ITT-Aerotherm's ACUSIL is a silicone foam TPS.
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C1 Dragon was covered in ACUSIL, a TPS manufactured by ITT.
C2 Dragon was covered in SPAM (SpaceX Proprietary Ablative Material).
One more thing that SpaceX brought in-house.
ITT-Aerotherm's Acusil II is a silicone foam TPS.
[/quote]
Ahh, finally the C2+ secret cargo is exposed: C1 carried cheese, C2 carried SPAM. Hidden in plain sight, non the less!
Someone important within SpaceX must be a hardcore Monthy Python fan...
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Someone important within SpaceX must be a hardcore Monthy Python fan...
Pretty sure it's the CTO.
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North Atlantic and Alaskan fishermen are ROTFL'ing at that comment.
Actually, those fishing boats seem to have a much larger hull, or at least you see more steel between the fishermen and the water line. It seems the deck of this barge would be constantly washed with waves in anything but the calmest of seas.
Did it appear that the capsule was wrapped in some protective material for the trip ?
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North Atlantic and Alaskan fishermen are ROTFL'ing at that comment.
Actually, those fishing boats seem to have a much larger hull, or at least you see more steel between the fishermen and the water line. It seems the deck of this barge would be constantly washed with waves in anything but the calmest of seas.
Did it appear that the capsule was wrapped in some protective material for the trip ?
Those fishing boats aren't work barges, for crane work, the low sides are an advantage when loading cargo. As long as the fixtures for dragon are made to hold it if waves wash over it, there shouldn't be a problem.
Barges travel long distances at sea fairly frequently, Crowley runs a regular barge service from Florida to puerto rico, and strings of barges routinely are moved along the Atlantic coast.
In many respects, being far offshore is safer, because of the greatly reduced risk of grounding/collisions with structures.
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"Looks like the astronauts left a little surprise inside Dragon after it left the station " ;D
http://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson
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"Looks like the astronauts left a little surprise inside Dragon after it left the station " ;D
http://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson
Okay, that's officially awesome. ;D
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"Looks like the astronauts left a little surprise inside Dragon after it left the station " ;D
http://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson
Okay, that's officially awesome. ;D
That is pretty neat! Will make a great souvenir in Hawthorne.
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"Looks like the astronauts left a little surprise inside Dragon after it left the station " ;D
http://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson
Is that picture on L2?
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"Looks like the astronauts left a little surprise inside Dragon after it left the station " ;D
http://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson
The inkjet printer on the ISS needs some serious maintenance ;-)
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The inkjet printer on the ISS needs some serious maintenance ;-)
I bet it's a ribbon printer, the thought of a leaky ink cartridge in space.....
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JSC2012-E-064354 (31 May 2012) --- An autographed photo of the Expedition 31 crew was found by the SpaceX ground teams as they recovered the Dragon spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean after splashdown on May 31, 2012. Photo credit: SpaceX
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JSC2012-E-064354 (31 May 2012) --- An autographed photo of the Expedition 31 crew was found by the SpaceX ground teams as they recovered the Dragon spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean after splashdown on May 31, 2012. Photo credit: SpaceX
This IS great, and a bit amusing.
If SpaceX's COTS-3 milestones had included one to "Transport photgraphic acknolwedgement of ISS commander, astronaut, and cosmonaut enthusiasm." they would have had to design an aerospace quality frame and latching mechanism. Instead, the astronauts taped a photo to the inside, and it survived the reentry and descent quite well. Sometimes it is not rocket science.
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That pic is worth a fortune.
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JSC2012-E-064354 (31 May 2012) --- An autographed photo of the Expedition 31 crew was found by the SpaceX ground teams as they recovered the Dragon spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean after splashdown on May 31, 2012. Photo credit: SpaceX
This IS great, and a bit amusing.
If SpaceX's COTS-3 milestones had included one to "Transport photgraphic acknolwedgement of ISS commander, astronaut, and cosmonaut enthusiasm." they would have had to design an aerospace quality frame and latching mechanism. Instead, the astronauts taped a photo to the inside, and it survived the reentry and descent quite well. Sometimes it is not rocket science.
Indeed. Has the original photo been linked anywhere? I've been hoping to see photos of all six of them inside Dragon.
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I don't know. I didn't find the landing of the dragon into the ocean that exciting. Maybe its just me. I'll wait until they have landing boosters before I can get really excited. But falling into the ocean, its just so old and archaic!
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I don't know. I didn't find the landing of the dragon into the ocean that exciting. Maybe its just me. I'll wait until they have landing boosters before I can get really excited. But falling into the ocean, its just so old and archaic!
I liked it. It brought back memories of my childhood.
I especially liked the fact that their "recovery force" consisted of a commercial salvage barge, two rubber boats, and a NASA P-3 Orion. No aircraft carrier task force necessary. :)
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Indeed. Has the original photo been linked anywhere? I've been hoping to see photos of all six of them inside Dragon.
A similar one (showing all six crewmembers inside Dragon) is on L2. ;)
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I don't know. I didn't find the landing of the dragon into the ocean that exciting. Maybe its just me. I'll wait until they have landing boosters before I can get really excited. But falling into the ocean, its just so old and archaic!
Exact Oposite for me, gliding in from orbit in a vehicle with less thrust and a worse glide ratio than a Wright Flyer does not seem more advanced than returning like a capsule from the Apollo program.
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Is there any information on where the the Trunk reentered, and where the debris fell if any survived? Do we even know where the reentry point was?
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Trunk sep was AFTER the re-entry engine burn, so it reentered at the same time as Dragon.
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I'm really curious to find out what the G-loads were in the C2 Dragon reentry. Does anyone know of any official data from SpaceX on the subject?
People keep guessing 4-5 G's (certainly plausible), so some hard facts would be useful.
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Trunk sep was AFTER the re-entry engine burn, so it reentered at the same time as Dragon.
That was assumed, seeing that the Trunk doesn't have it's own deorbit thrusters.
So, where was the entry point for Dragon? What is the distance from atmospheric entry to splash-down?
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I bet it's a ribbon printer, the thought of a leaky ink cartridge in space.....
Would an injet using liquid ink actually work in micro gravity? I suspect it needs gravity to feed the nozzles.
Keith
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I bet it's a ribbon printer, the thought of a leaky ink cartridge in space.....
Would an injet using liquid ink actually work in micro gravity? I suspect it needs gravity to feed the nozzles.
Keith
Color ink-jet printers were used on shuttle orbiters - I think they were Epson (in the early days they used teleprinters and thermal impulse printers). In recent times printers were occasionally swapped between orbiter and ISS, so the ISS also uses ink-jets.
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I bet it's a ribbon printer, the thought of a leaky ink cartridge in space.....
Would an injet using liquid ink actually work in micro gravity? I suspect it needs gravity to feed the nozzles.
Keith
I suspect capillary action plays a more significant role...
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I bet it's a ribbon printer, the thought of a leaky ink cartridge in space.....
Would an injet using liquid ink actually work in micro gravity? I suspect it needs gravity to feed the nozzles.
Keith
There are three main technologies (HP, Epson and Canon). One has a jet that strikes the paper directly (HP), the other uses magnetic ink that's deviated and reused magnetically, but then it's let go when it has to print (Epson) and the third uses a bubble that's heated and sort of burst to send the ink (Canon). It would seem that the Epson process would be the most applicable to microgravity, since it's based on magnets and not on gravity. Incidentally, you can make a device to capture air borne ink with magnetic polarity. Thus, I suspect that the Epson system is somehow enhanced with stray ink capture mechanism.
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Video linked by SpaceX via FB
New video from the American Museum of Natural History shows historic Dragon mission milestones.
Science Bulletins: SpaceX Dragon Succeeds in Historic Mission
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilY3cjGiXMQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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here are three main technologies (HP, Epson and Canon). One has a jet that strikes the paper directly (HP), the other uses magnetic ink that's deviated and reused magnetically, but then it's let go when it has to print (Epson) and the third uses a bubble that's heated and sort of burst to send the ink (Canon). It would seem that the Epson process would be the most applicable to microgravity, since it's based on magnets and not on gravity. Incidentally, you can make a device to capture air borne ink with magnetic polarity. Thus, I suspect that the Epson system is somehow enhanced with stray ink capture mechanism.
Thanks for that. Very interesting. Capillary action too.
Keith
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Post flight photos! :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/sets/72157630058400635/
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Can anyone state the offset distance of the landing location from the target?
It was said that COTS-1 landes within 800 meters of the target. That was a small fraction of the 10.7 km median offset for Soyuz, but COTS-2 is a much better comparision, having returned from the ISS.
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There are three main technologies (HP, Epson and Canon). One has a jet that strikes the paper directly (HP), the other uses magnetic ink that's deviated and reused magnetically, but then it's let go when it has to print (Epson) and the third uses a bubble that's heated and sort of burst to send the ink (Canon). It would seem that the Epson process would be the most applicable to microgravity, since it's based on magnets and not on gravity. Incidentally, you can make a device to capture air borne ink with magnetic polarity. Thus, I suspect that the Epson system is somehow enhanced with stray ink capture mechanism.
Epson uses a piezoelectric system to create and propel droplets, there's no magnetic system involved. I believe that was a very old technology that never went anywhere.
In many Epson printers the cartridges are pressurized, but I believe still rely on gravity to get the ink down to the pickup tube. I doubt any would work in microgravity.
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There are three main technologies (HP, Epson and Canon). One has a jet that strikes the paper directly (HP), the other uses magnetic ink that's deviated and reused magnetically, but then it's let go when it has to print (Epson) and the third uses a bubble that's heated and sort of burst to send the ink (Canon). It would seem that the Epson process would be the most applicable to microgravity, since it's based on magnets and not on gravity. Incidentally, you can make a device to capture air borne ink with magnetic polarity. Thus, I suspect that the Epson system is somehow enhanced with stray ink capture mechanism.
Epson uses a piezoelectric system to create and propel droplets, there's no magnetic system involved. I believe that was a very old technology that never went anywhere.
In many Epson printers the cartridges are pressurized, but I believe still rely on gravity to get the ink down to the pickup tube. I doubt any would work in microgravity.
the magnetic was a dry powder to paper system it was manufactured and failed. The Epson should work "propel droplets" is the key. Only issue might be to change the gap from nozzles to paper with some form of cover so it doesn't spray into the atmosphere.
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The Epson should work "propel droplets" is the key. Only issue might be to change the gap from nozzles to paper with some form of cover so it doesn't spray into the atmosphere.
The ink has to get picked up by the feed channels in the cartridge. In some cartridges pressure forces the ink up the feed against gravity, in others that feed from the bottom, gravity does the job. In both cases though, gravity is needed to keep the ink in a pool at the bottom of the cartridge. I don't think there are any printers that use a closed completely collapsing bag for the ink or anything like that.
Of course the printer could be fitted with small ullage motors and just fly about the interior while printing. ;D
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I finally did some research on this. Apparently they flew an Epson Stylus 800 with some modifications on the Shuttle, but I couldn't find any mention of modifications to the ink feed so presumably it was the stock system. That printer uses a sponge inside the cartridge to prevent sloshing and bubbles as the head moves, so apparently it also works as a capillary medium to feed ink to the head pickup as well.
I'm actually amazed that works. The suction of the print head must be enough to pull the ink out of the sponge and something like the wetting of the sponge is enough to keep air from getting through. I'm guessing that the ink is its own seal to keep the bubble of ink around the output port. It might run out faster than on Earth if an air channel opened up inside the sponge.
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There are three main technologies (HP, Epson and Canon). One has a jet that strikes the paper directly (HP), the other uses magnetic ink that's deviated and reused magnetically, but then it's let go when it has to print (Epson) and the third uses a bubble that's heated and sort of burst to send the ink (Canon). It would seem that the Epson process would be the most applicable to microgravity, since it's based on magnets and not on gravity. Incidentally, you can make a device to capture air borne ink with magnetic polarity. Thus, I suspect that the Epson system is somehow enhanced with stray ink capture mechanism.
Epson uses a piezoelectric system to create and propel droplets, there's no magnetic system involved. I believe that was a very old technology that never went anywhere.
In many Epson printers the cartridges are pressurized, but I believe still rely on gravity to get the ink down to the pickup tube. I doubt any would work in microgravity.
the magnetic was a dry powder to paper system it was manufactured and failed. The Epson should work "propel droplets" is the key. Only issue might be to change the gap from nozzles to paper with some form of cover so it doesn't spray into the atmosphere.
That "dry powder to paper" bit sounds like how a laser printer works.
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I especially liked the fact that their "recovery force" consisted of a commercial salvage barge, two rubber boats, and a NASA P-3 Orion. No aircraft carrier task force necessary. :)
And that also make the greeting parade of vehicles for the shuttle seem extravagant. However things might get a little more involved if and when there is crew coming back in the Dragon.
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However things might get a little more involved if and when there is crew coming back in the Dragon.
Hopefully by then they'll be landing on a big red X in Elon's back yard.
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I especially liked the fact that their "recovery force" consisted of a commercial salvage barge, two rubber boats, and a NASA P-3 Orion. No aircraft carrier task force necessary. :)
And that also make the greeting parade of vehicles for the shuttle seem extravagant. However things might get a little more involved if and when there is crew coming back in the Dragon.
Based on your knowledge, what vehicles were "extravagant"? How would SpaceX land a 122 foot long winged orbiter capable of carrying 7 and several Dragons back in its a payload bay?
For the love of goodness what *would* Elon do in this case so that we all know? ;)
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For the love of goodness what *would* Elon do in this case so that we all know? ;)
He would land it during peak hours at LAX and complain that it had to circle the airport for 45 minutes waiting for the runway of course!
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SpaceX vs Shuttle is silly and oh so OT.
Anyone have an answer to my simple question about landing offset distance?
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SpaceX vs Shuttle is silly and oh so OT.
Anyone have an answer to my simple question about landing offset distance?
I think you're probably either going to have to contact SpaceX or wait for the CRS-1 press conference to ask.
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This should probably be linked in this thread:
Not sure if that one been posted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwDCWTqNceQ&feature=g-all-u
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Dragon C2+ in Washington D.C., although for some reason I couldn't find any news on this event.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/7602853192/in/photostream/
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Dragon C2+ in Washington D.C., although for some reason I couldn't find any news on this event.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/7602853192/in/photostream/
Incredibly little mention in the press. All I can find is
http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1995086/spacex_displays_dragon_spacecraft_in_washington_dc/
I believe it's located at 1050 K Street Northwest, Washington, DC, about a kilometer northeast of the White House.
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Dragon C2+ in Washington D.C., although for some reason I couldn't find any news on this event.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/7602853192/in/photostream/
Looks like the traveling PR tour they were talking about.
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Dragon C2+ in Washington D.C., although for some reason I couldn't find any news on this event.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/7602853192/in/photostream/
Incredibly little mention in the press. All I can find is
http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1995086/spacex_displays_dragon_spacecraft_in_washington_dc/
That was Dragon C1.
I believe it's located at 1050 K Street Northwest, Washington, DC, about a kilometer northeast of the White House.
Close but its actually in front of the Historical Society of Washington building. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Society_of_Washington,_D.C.)
Google street view (https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1050+K+Street+Northwest,+Washington,+DC&hl=en&ll=38.902138,-77.023129&spn=0.009101,0.021136&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs&hnear=1050+K+St+NW,+Washington,+District+of+Columbia+20001&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=38.902098,-77.023129&panoid=cvGYenAKdDTydSQWYo1JSw&cbp=12,18.55,,0,0.82)
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Dragon C2+ in Washington D.C., although for some reason I couldn't find any news on this event.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/7602853192/in/photostream/
Here is one of the shots of the Dragon from that flickr series without the "mood lighting" ;D - I tried to brighten and enhance it a little bit:
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Does anyone know how long it will be there and if it is open to the public? Might be worth trekking to DC after work..
-R C
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Does anyone know how long it will be there and if it is open to the public? Might be worth trekking to DC after work..
-R C
Well according to SilentOatmeal
"The guy said that only congressional people will get to see it and it won't be open to the public."
https://twitter.com/SilentOatmeal/status/225436656315015171
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Thanks, saves me a trip through the DC beltway. Even against traffic it's a pain.
-R C
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Some newly released (this past week) images of the entire Expedition 31 crew inside Dragon during its flight:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-31/ndxpage59.html
Also, here's a new post-splashdown photo:
http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p208064181/h3af4ad49#h3af4ad49
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Also, here's a new post-splashdown photo:
http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p208064181/h3af4ad49#h3af4ad49
The guy on top of Dragon in that photo is wearing a hard hat. That seems odd. Did he swim over to Dragon from the barge hat in hand, so to speak, then put it on, or was he lowered onto Dragon from a crane wearing the hard hat?
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Also, here's a new post-splashdown photo:
http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p208064181/h3af4ad49#h3af4ad49
The guy on top of Dragon in that photo is wearing a hard hat. That seems odd. Did he swim over to Dragon from the barge hat in hand, so to speak, then put it on, or was he lowered onto Dragon from a crane wearing the hard hat?
I think he came from the small boat (off camera) and climbed up Dragon. He appears to be wearing a wet suit.
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Also, here's a new post-splashdown photo:
http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p208064181/h3af4ad49#h3af4ad49
Think the guy climb on top of the capsule using the parachute risers? Or are there handholds on the capsule exterior?
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Pretty sure he rode in from orbit.
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Here is a July 24th presentation by Alan Lindenmoyer which provides a mission summary of the SpaceX COTS C2+ flight:
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/672215main_1-SpaceX%20C2_Summary_NAC_20120724_508.pdf
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Here is a July 24th presentation by Alan Lindenmoyer which provides a mission summary of the SpaceX COTS C2+ flight:
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/672215main_1-SpaceX%20C2_Summary_NAC_20120724_508.pdf
That's very interesting.
There's not much mention of the Lidar spurious reflection problem during approach, which means that it was pretty insignificant.
Revised mortar shock collar appears to have performed much better than C1
I'm not sure what that means exactly.
It appears that CRS-1 has slipped to October.
All in all, it looks like the COTS 2+ mission was a resounding success, just as it appeared to be.
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Here is a July 24th presentation by Alan Lindenmoyer which provides a mission summary of the SpaceX COTS C2+ flight:
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/672215main_1-SpaceX%20C2_Summary_NAC_20120724_508.pdf
"Well within landing ellipse, 8 km from the expected landing location"
Question: what does this mean exactly:
* Orbital insertion of 297 x 346.5 km
[POST model 310x345]
It appears that CRS-1 has slipped to October.
Been that way for quite some time, although seeing how the SLC-40 hangar still had construction on it going on a week ago, I wonder if early October is doable, and even that's neglecting any possible Dragon delays.
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Thanks, but I already knew it was a piece of software, it was occasionally mentioned around here. My question is more about what that line is supposed to tell us? That the vehicle delivered Dragon to a 13 km lower perigee than expected?
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Two previously unseen Dragon hatch opening images I found on the Roscosmos website.
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Pictures from post-flight analysis.
www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/7978144836/
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Pictures from post-flight analysis.
www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/7978144836/
Any idea what post flight analysis actually entails ?
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Pictures from post-flight analysis.
www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/7978144836/
Any idea what post flight analysis actually entails ?
I can only assume that they are inspecting the Dragon to see how well it held up, either for later re-use purposes (not for this capsule) or to see if the design for anything needs to be tweaked.
Although it would be kind of interesting if they re-used a Draco for a later mission to see how re-usable they really are.
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Although it would be kind of interesting if they re-used a Draco for a later mission to see how re-usable they really are.
I think SpaceX plans to reuse some of the COTS/CRS Dragons for DragonLab.
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On the subject of Dragon splashdown, I came across this earlier today and just had to post it. :D
Credit: http://www.toonpool.com/user/5624/files/spacex_dragon_1696715.jpg
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Ralf Vandebergh took some ground based photo's of the 2nd stage in orbit.
http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/2012/10/22/dragon/
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On the subject of Dragon splashdown, I came across this earlier today and just had to post it. :D
Credit: http://www.toonpool.com/user/5624/files/spacex_dragon_1696715.jpg
Classic...LOL
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Thanks to Lars_J:
You all probably remember that some cargo was taken off the C2+ Dragon while she was still on the barge en-route back to port.
The video below (posted by SpaceX) contains sped-up footage of the opening of the side-hatch on-board the barge. The clip is only 5 seconds long, between 1:13 and 1:19
A mission update video from SpaceX:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qv7UUVIZYI
It also contains some new footage from the C2+ mission, including opening the hatch on the barge for early cargo unload. (@ 1:13)
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https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1531693704322248704
Today marks the 10th anniversary of completion of the COTS Demo Flight 2 (COTS 2) – Dragon’s first mission to and from the @Space_Station