Q from Marcia Dunn: Timelines for uncrewed and crewed?Kathy: Contracts state end of 2017 for uncrewed for SpaceX and late-2nd quarter '18 for crewed. Lots of work left on this. Will work over next few months to finalize scheduled.For Boeing, May for uncrewed and August for crew.
I wonder if NASA will insist that IDA3 has arrived at the ISS and properly installed, so that any visiting commercial vehicle has a backup docking port for attachment, before this SpX-DM1 flight is allowed to launch. As this flight (or Boeing's first uncrewed test flight) will be the first usage of the new docking standard in space, they may be wary. I believe I've heard that the IDA3 is penciled in for launch on SpaceX flight CRS-12, and that the best guess for CRS-12 is 'late 2017'. After that, IDA3 has to be manually mounted to its PMA by EVAing astronauts. Probably a new set of astronauts will need to be trained in this EVA before then. If all this is true, doesn't it suggest that this mission is more likely to launch around December 2017, and the rest of the Commercial Crew Program will follow in 2018? I hope NASA will allow SpaceX and Boeing to start flights while only IDA2 is operational.
... To my knowledge, NASA has not declared its willingness to allow docking prior to IDA3's presence. ...
Quote from: Hg on 10/26/2017 02:50 pm... To my knowledge, NASA has not declared its willingness to allow docking prior to IDA3's presence. ...Has NASA declared an unwillingness to launch without a backup port? or is this just conjecture?Do crewed launches always have a backup docking port?
During the space shuttle period USOS didn't have an active backup docking port for the shuttle. In case the primary docking port failed it would have required swapping out an entire PMA to have the backup docking port available for the space shuttle.
NASA's preferences for redundancy are well documented. That their original program design and management plan intended to have the 2 IDA installed before manned flights occurred is a fact. That it is important to them is an assumption on my part. It could be that NASA only cares because they want to park two visiting vehicles simultaneously eventually.
station managers are trying to ensure that two adapters will be installed and ready before Commercial Crew flights begin...It’s not required to have both IDAs on orbit prior to the launch of the first Commercial Crew test flight," Shireman told The Verge during a press conference. "But we are actively monitoring the schedules of the Commercial Crew vehicles. We’re planning to launch on SpaceX 16, or a little earlier if we have to.
The most significant item lost during the SPX-7 mishap was a Docking Adapter necessary to supportupcoming commercial crew missions. Although NASA had planned to have two adapters installed on theStation before the first “crewed” commercial crew demonstration mission scheduled for June 2018, it isnow likely there will be only one installed in time for this mission. Having only one adapter means that acommercial crew vehicle will not be able to dock with the ISS if technical issues arise with the singleavailable docking port. ISS Program officials told us they plan to have the second adapter installedbefore regular commercial crew rotations begin in late 2018.