LIVE: SpaceX Falcon 9 (Flight 2) - COTS-1 - Launch Updates - December 8, 2010

[e of pi]

He seems very pleased with himself about the prospect of revealing the "secret payload" tomorrow.

Some reference to Monty Python. I've got no ideas based on that.

Live parrot sketch?

[Robotbeat]

About the secret payload:
Elon: I'll say tomorrow. If you like Monty Python, you'll like it!

Maybe it IS Hirundinidae!

(I'm guessing it's coconuts!!!)

[YesRushGen]

Great answer on the secret payload

Something with Monty Python.

That is so funny... someone here foreshaddowed that with "African or European" earlier in the thread!

[Silmfeanor]

He seems very pleased with himself about the prospect of revealing the "secret payload" tomorrow.

Some reference to Monty Python. I've got no ideas based on that.

a parrot? a killer bunny? a human torso, a la the Black Knight?

[boaorm]

Dang! I was going to suggest spam -> spam in a can!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=anwy2MPT5RE

[tankmodeler]

He seems very pleased with himself about the prospect of revealing the "secret payload" tomorrow.

Some reference to Monty Python. I've got no ideas based on that.

a parrot? a killer bunny? a human torso, a la the Black Knight?

You could actually dress up an instrumented flight dummy as the black knight. That would be funny and useful at the same time...

[Chris Bergin]

Some of Elon's answers are more historic than the mission, imho. Some amazingly impressive stuff.

[joshcryer]

"It does seem like a lot of money to create a capsule. I'm not sure a lot of people realize this but Dragon arguably has more capablity than Orion. It has the same pressurized volume. Basically anything Orion can do, Dragon can do. And some things Dragon can do, Orion can't do."

Sorry, forgot lines, didn't want to paraphrase.

Agreed Chris, the news headlines are going to blow my mind tonight/tomorrow.

[Almurray1958]

anything orion can do, Dragon can do (better)

[SAspacer]

Says a reusable orbital rocket is a fundamental invention for humanity...

Long time lurker from South Africa. GRATZ Spacex you done it!!!

[Robotbeat]

Says Dragon is arguably just as capable as Orion!!!

Says Dragon's heatshield could handle Mars reentry.

Wants Dragon to be considered by NASA for any missions, including ones that Orion would usually do.

Says Dragon could do even more than Orion because of Dragon's superior heatshield.

[clongton]

WOW!!!!

Anything Orion can do Dragon can do, and can do some of them better!
In fact Dragon can do some things that Orion cannot do.

The man has balls!

[racshot65]

Allan

Great day for NASA Space X and commercial space

It is a test flight and he came expecting to talk about the things they learned from problems and is happy not to have to talk about that

Checked off all the mission objectives, looks like it was 100% successful

Only 1/3 new vehicles have 2 successful flights in a row

Space X demonstrated skill in identifying the root cause of the problem found on Monday

NASA kept asking Space X about the nozzle and they kept coming back with answers



Elon Musk

Better than he expected, looking at the data it’s almost too good

Dragon has many redundant systems, but all 18 engines worked fine

They could land with 1 main parachute but all 3 worked

Angle of attack spot on at 12 degrees. Thought there would be as much as 20% dispersion but there was only 2%

Thanks amongst many people, NASA, “wouldn’t be here without them”

“Were only here because we stand on the shoulders of giants”

Restart of second stage went perfectly; second stage went up to 11,000km with shortened nozzle

“If people were in the dragon capsule today they would have had a very nice ride”

Would have experienced 4.5g’s similar to an amusement park  (Me: what amusement park is that ??)

They need a launch escape system, and testing it is difficult

Architecture seen today is similar to Apollo

The crewed dragon will aim to have a propulsive landing with gear. Have parachutes as a back up. Want to land on a helipad, refuel and take off again.

Heat shield performance was spectacular, was designed to handle a off nominal lunar and mars re entry


Gwen

On orbit operations:
Maintained attitude and thermal control
Comms worked perfectly

8 m/s descent speed

Landing Ellipse was 60x20km. Were well within that

Finding the root cause on cracks allowed them to fly a day earlier

Skirt repair was hand cut.

Repaired rapidly but did NOT cut any corners.



Questions


Q: What was it like when you heard the 3 parachutes were deployed? Will the success silence detractors?

A: A moment of elation and great relief. When the main chutes came out it was a done deal. Elon says detractors are fighting on the wrong side of yesterday’s war. Thinks there will still be some negative people but far fewer. Some scepticism was warranted as what there doing is difficult.


Q: What orbital operations did you do?  Given the success of the flight any update on the schedule for the two remaining flights ?

A: Manoeuvres similar to the ones conducted when going the ISS all thrusters worked as expected. Any 2 thrusters can fail and they could still translate and rotate in any direction. Can loose up to 6 depending on which they are.

NASA said if this flight went well they may let them go straight to the ISS on the next mission. Still need to carefully examine data but Elons optimistic next flight will be to the ISS. Need to add solar panels and more redundancy in the flight computer and electronics before going to the ISS. Approx date middle of next year


Q: Did you recover first stage?

A:  Didn’t recover first stage. Notes its very difficult to do wants to recover one in tact in 2-3 years.


Q: The flare at launch?

A: (Speculation) The second stage umbilical check valve didn’t check properly and caught fire. Was a little fire not an explosion


Q:  If you were not selected for funding under a NASA plan how do you go forward?

A: Space X is the most rapid path for an American crew transport system. Notes people would have survived this flight. Thinks there will be 2 -3 commercial crew providers and wants to be one of them


Q: Thoughts on combining COTS 2 and 3?

A: Have increased confidence in Space X. They will consider the proposal and assess the possibility and make sure its technically possible


Q: What’s next for the dragon capsule?

A: TPS on backside showed it was at room temp so doesn’t need 2” of TPS. Purposely added too much TPS to some places for extra margin. Will look at it forensically and see where they can improve


Would be an honour for the capsule to go to Smithsonian


Q: Its amazing you can go in a lop off a piece of the nozzle can you comment on this?

A:  Know the engine so well they really know how they work. 95% sure they could have flown with the cracks. Stresses in that part of the nozzle are really low. Notes the engineer who fixed it is great and if he says you can do it, you can do it. (He’s also terrified of flying). Even though they knew it would be fine they re ran all the simulations and analysis.


Q: Can you recap on where you stand on hardware for upcoming flights?  And future schedule?

A:  Production rate means they could do COTS 2, 3 and CRS next year. They want to go straight to station and notes HTV and ATV did. They can do additional ground simulations of approach and berthing instead of COTS 2. Space X will dock to the ISS it’s a when not if.


Q: Secret payload?

A: Will tell us tomorrow. Concerned what the headlines might be. Monty Python related


Q:. How much did dragon cost to develop? Did the inclusion of the nano sats reduce the cost?

A: Only got a tiny bit of money for 1 of the nano sats. Using the second stage to deploy satellites is a great idea and he wants to continue with it.

Space isn’t an easy place to make money, but Elon has a strong passion for it. Space X wants to further the cause of space. Need to bring in more money than they spend but don’t care about maximising profitability. (He told the investors this)

Orion sounds like it cost a lot of money to make. Dragon has more capability than Orion, the heat shield is more capable. About the same pressurised volume. Anything Orion can do Dragon can do. Orion can’t re enter from Mars velocity dragon can.

[Robotbeat]

Over!

[Ben the Space Brit]

anything orion can do, Dragon can do (better)

There is only one thing I can say to that: This will cause a fire-storm.

[Lars_J]

anything orion can do, Dragon can do (better)

Probably a bit of a stretch/hyperbole, since Orion is not complete - Nor is the current Dragon what a Crew Dragon would be. So one cannot make such comparisons, really.

It would probably be more accurate to say that Dragon could be modified to perform most capabilities of Orion.

[joshcryer]

clongton, he's confident in his system. I don't think he's being ballsy, he's being honest in his beliefs and confidence in his system!

racshot65, thanks.

[Gene DiGennaro]

Says Dragon is arguably just as capable as Orion!!!

Says Dragon's heatshield could handle Mars reentry.

Wants Dragon to be considered by NASA for any missions, including ones that Orion would usually do.

Says Dragon could do even more than Orion because of Dragon's superior heatshield.

SpaceX has to be careful of cocky hyperbole.

[K-P]

Anything is more capable than powerpoint-spaceship...

[nickyp]

He is making a lot of sense too.  If the Dragon really could be capable, it would help build up an arsenal of of spacecraft to be used by NASA.

Is this the Sputnik moment Obama was looking for?