SpaceX COTS Demo 2/3 Updates (THREAD 2)

[Jim]

I got a screen-grab of the SpaceX control room from the youtube link ugordon provided... Really neat, you can see the levels of the propellants in the different stages on the screen in the foreground, you can see what looks like a timeline with different events on it on the other screens (and later in that video on the foreground viewscreen) and lots of other stuff.


Anyone know what software package that looks like? In-house or some standard software?

Amazing that most of them look like they are fresh out of school. I'm sure that's all cool and funky, but I'd trust Mike Leinbach over the lot of them.

Leinbach doesn't do hands on work so nothing would get done if you had hime

[ugordan]

Amazing that most of them look like they are fresh out of school. I'm sure that's all cool and funky, but I'd trust Mike Leinbach over the lot of them.

We got to the Moon using engineers just as "fresh out of school" as these.

Oh yeah? Um, well... they didn't work for SpaceX so that was, like, totally different...

[Ben the Space Brit]

I notice that the Dragon RV and the front of the trunk are covered in some silver application.  Is that the extra thermal insulation that was referred to somewhere up-thread?

[woods170]

I notice that the Dragon RV and the front of the trunk are covered in some silver application.  Is that the extra thermal insulation that was referred to somewhere up-thread?

No, temporary cover to prevent precipitation contamination.
In other words: it's a raincoat of sorts...

[stockman]

I notice that the Dragon RV and the front of the trunk are covered in some silver application.  Is that the extra thermal insulation that was referred to somewhere up-thread?

No, temporary cover to prevent precipitation contamination.
In other words: it's a raincoat of sorts...

sort of like a Dragon condom?? 

[woods170]

I notice that the Dragon RV and the front of the trunk are covered in some silver application.  Is that the extra thermal insulation that was referred to somewhere up-thread?

No, temporary cover to prevent precipitation contamination.
In other words: it's a raincoat of sorts...

sort of like a Dragon condom?? 

I knew I should have used the word 'umbrella'... 

[subzero788]

Awww the SpaceX folks kindly decided to gift wrap the Dragon before it's sent to the ISS 

[Antares]

Amazing that most of them look like they are fresh out of school. I'm sure that's all cool and funky, but I'd trust Mike Leinbach over the lot of them.

Leinbach doesn't do hands on work so nothing would get done if you had him

  Post of the month.

There's such massive mediocrity and disproportionate incompetence in the civil service.  Give me a contractor launch team any day, especially one that's not cost-plus.  (Cost-plus are just overstaffed not incompetent.)

[Chris Bergin]

I must admit, I did notice how young they looked too. But it's SpaceX and they can do no wrong, so all is well

Meanwhile:

[Prober]

I got a screen-grab of the SpaceX control room from the youtube link ugordon provided... Really neat, you can see the levels of the propellants in the different stages on the screen in the foreground, you can see what looks like a timeline with different events on it on the other screens (and later in that video on the foreground viewscreen) and lots of other stuff.


Anyone know what software package that looks like? In-house or some standard software?

Amazing that most of them look like they are fresh out of school. I'm sure that's all cool and funky, but I'd trust Mike Leinbach over the lot of them.

We got to the Moon using engineers just as "fresh out of school" as these.

Apples vs Oranges, or in this case Nu-space vs Old space (hate this). 

We are talking about Generation differences and attitudes. 

[Comga]

We got to the Moon using engineers just as "fresh out of school" as these.

Apples vs Oranges, or in this case Nu-space vs Old space (hate this). 

We are talking about Generation differences and attitudes. 

No we are not.
The young people we hire are top notch, whip smart, and hard workers.
Enough of this.   It is all predjudice, even my statements.

[cuddihy]

We got to the Moon using engineers just as "fresh out of school" as these.

Apples vs Oranges, or in this case Nu-space vs Old space (hate this). 

We are talking about Generation differences and attitudes. 

No we are not.
The young people we hire are top notch, whip smart, and hard workers.
Enough of this.   It is all predjudice, even my statements.

Agree, and let's not forget the NASA civil service folks who have taken a lot of heat and withstood the fire for supporting the SAA, writing it in a way that a commercial company could bid on it at profit, continuing to support it despite years of delays, adding milestones to effectively support a cost/time overrun, and providing a great deal of flexibility to SpaceX when the easy path, the path Congress would have preferred, would have been at any one of those points to let SpaceX fall on their face. That takes courage and from a civil servant perspective some real risk.

[mr. mark]

Hey, we are getting off track (COTS 2/3), including me. Maybe a little self restraint and hope that the moderator can clean up our mess.

[Robotbeat]

Regardless of the contractual details, I'm sickened by the mistrust of engineers just because they look like they're young. We used to be a nation that relied on young engineers like these to get us to the Moon.

1 Timothy 3:12: "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young..."

Enough of this. I agree, let's get back to the topic.

[Tony Ostinato]

you know im quite old myself so i wanted to say just 3 things:

1.old people have proven they're reliable

2.old people have experience

3. i forget the 3rd one

anyways i hope you have learned your lesson and will from now on stay off of my lawn!!

wtf they changed my cable channels again....

[Comga]

From anik's ISS schedule

March 22/23 - ATV-3 "Edoardo Amaldi" launch
March 27-29 - ATV-3 "Edoardo Amaldi" docking (to Zvezda)
April 4 - ISS orbit's test raising by ATV-3 engines
April 19 - Progress M-14M undocking (from Pirs)
April 20 - Progress M-15M launch
April 22 - Progress M-15M docking (to Pirs)
April 25 - ISS orbit's raising by ATV-3 engines
April - Progress M-14M deorbit
April 30 - Soyuz TMA-22 undocking (from Poisk) and landing [Shkaplerov, Ivanishin, Burbank]
April/May (TBD) - Dragon (SpX-D) launch
April/May (TBD) - Dragon (SpX-D) capture and berthing (to Harmony nadir) by SSRMS
April/May (TBD) - Dragon (SpX-D) unberthing (from Harmony nadir) and release by SSRMS
May 15 - Soyuz TMA-04M launch [Padalka, Revin, Acaba]
May 17 - Soyuz TMA-04M docking (to Poisk)
June 1
June 15
July 1 - Soyuz TMA-03M undocking (from Rassvet) and landing [Kononenko, Kuipers, Pettit]
July 15 - Soyuz TMA-05M launch [Malenchenko, S.Williams, Hoshide]
July 17 - Soyuz TMA-05M docking (to Rassvet)

(extra week dates added)
That to me looks like a late May launch for COTS-2/3.
Full 6 person crew
No other traffic over a 6 week period
Time after the orbit raising to let phasing drift into tolerance
Are these, in fact, signficant scheduling considerations?

[ugordan]

Apples vs Oranges, or in this case Nu-space vs Old space (hate this). 

We are talking about Generation differences and attitudes. 

Oh, you gotta be kidding me. Hey, everyone, let's pray at the altar of STS post-return-to-flight #2, because they know best. Let us sing praise to the managers we all heard about in the press conferences, never mind the actual engineers in the trenches. I mean, who the hell these guys fresh off from college think they are, anyway?

Jesus Christ, this is getting ridiculous.

[mr. mark]

Maybe we should start an old engineers vs. young engineers section so we can get this back to COTS 2/3. 

[ugordan]

Or... delete this whole nonsensical exchange that has nothing to do with C2/C3 updates.

[Prober]

Maybe we should start an old engineers vs. young engineers section so we can get this back to COTS 2/3. 

Ok, I will end this.....let's just not judge, everyone should be happy.  Back to the main topic.