SpaceX COTS Demo 2/3 Updates (THREAD 2)

[Comga]

Rehashing the same images they already posted in the update page a week ago.

Agreed

46 days until launch and still so little information and so few images.  No trunk, no closeouts on the Dragon.  I guess it's no longer important to them to show and boast.  Was it two years ago when they posted new images of Falcon 9 at CCAFS every few days?

We've seen the trunk at the launch site:  http://images.spaceref.com/news/2011/ooSpaceXDragon3.jpg

You are correct, of course. 
I still want more, but isn't that always the case?

[apace]

Love to see dragon from station with the solar panels out... will be a nice view.

[mr. mark]

"The EPIC card installation and X2_R10 transition was previously planned for earlier this year, but was affected by the Progress M-12M failure since, in the new utilisation era aboard the station, where research takes priority over other activities, there were not enough crew hours available to devote to troubleshooting issues, due to the reduced onboard crew.

Source information shows that the gradual hardware transition to EPIC cards (new cards will temporarily run in parallel with old cards in order to reduce risk, with all old cards gradually being replaced), plus the subsequent software transition from X2_R9 to X2_R10, will take place from 27th December through to 5th January.

Pending a successful EPIC card installation and software transition to X2_R10, the next software transition will be from X2_R10 to X2_R11, which is required to support the upcoming SpaceX C2/C3 demo flight by, amongst other things, upgrading the station’s robotic Mobile Servicing System (MSS), which will be used in the capture and berthing of Dragon to the station, to software version 7.1. Source information shows that this transition will occur in two stages from 15th January through to 1st February." - nasaspaceflight.com

This is much more important than some new pictures. We'll have to stay posted on the software update progress.

[apace]

This is much more important than some new pictures. We'll have to stay posted on the software update progress.

Are there any detail information available about this updates? Like release notes?

[RocketEconomist327]

And with all of these delays, and lets not kid ourselves, there have been a ^@#$ton of delays, the cost to the American Taxpayer for these delays... $0

Thank you Space Act Agreements.

VR
RE327

PS Not worried about COTS 2/3

[mmeijeri]

Thank you Space Act Agreements.

That has more to do with fixed prices and milestone-based payments, not SAAs per se.

[Nate_Trost]

And with all of these delays, and lets not kid ourselves, there have been a ^@#$ton of delays, the cost to the American Taxpayer for these delays... $0

Actually, between SpaceX and Orbital, the cost has been over $200 million for additional "risk reduction" milestones.

[RocketEconomist327]

And with all of these delays, and lets not kid ourselves, there have been a ^@#$ton of delays, the cost to the American Taxpayer for these delays... $0

Actually, between SpaceX and Orbital, the cost has been over $200 million for additional "risk reduction" milestones.

NASA decided that... Not SpaceX... Not Orbital...

[Nate_Trost]

And with all of these delays, and lets not kid ourselves, there have been a ^@#$ton of delays, the cost to the American Taxpayer for these delays... $0

Actually, between SpaceX and Orbital, the cost has been over $200 million for additional "risk reduction" milestones.

NASA decided that... Not SpaceX... Not Orbital...

1) If they had been on time, it wouldn't have been necessary.
2) SpaceX and Orbital now have NASA in a captive position. SpaceX's finances are opaque, but now that they have over 1,500 people and their burn rate is a heck of a lot more than it used to be, especially for a year in which they didn't actually launch a single rocket. I suspect the cash infusion from additional milestones staved off potential further delays due to cash flow issues from attempting to ramp up to production. Mind you, that's speculation.

If NASA, practically speaking, didn't have a choice, then yeah, in my book that's an extra $200+ million from the taxpayer entirely due to SpaceX and Orbital being late.

[ugordan]

And with all of these delays, and lets not kid ourselves, there have been a ^@#$ton of delays, the cost to the American Taxpayer for these delays... $0

Actually, between SpaceX and Orbital, the cost has been over $200 million for additional "risk reduction" milestones.

NASA decided that... Not SpaceX... Not Orbital...

1) If they had been on time, it wouldn't have been necessary.

Irrelevant. The COTS program was not sold on strict timelines and Lindemoyer is on record saying the proposed milestones were aggressive and very optimistic by NASA's view, but they understood that and accepted it.

2) SpaceX and Orbital now have NASA in a captive position.

This is no fault of either SpaceX or Orbital. It's solely NASA's fault or to be more precise the fault of politics that led to this situation.

[Comga]

Over in this ISS schedule thread anik has pushed back the COTS-2/3 launch date by one day but left the berthing on Feb 10.

February 8 - Dragon (SpX-D) launch 
February 10 - Dragon (SpX-D) capture and berthing (to Harmony nadir) by SSRMS
February 14 - spacewalk (ISS Russian EVA-30) from Pirs airlock [Kononenko, Shkaplerov]
February 23 - Dragon (SpX-D) unberthing (from Harmony nadir) and release by SSRMS

Changes on December 9th
Changes on December 16th
Changes on December 24th

(manual color edits are tough!)
No explanation is given, which is no criticism of anik's authoritative list.

[Space Pete]

Over in this ISS schedule thread anik has pushed back the COTS-2/3 launch date by one day but left the berthing on Feb 10.

I think that's because anik uses GMT, for which the launch will be Feb 8 (Feb 7 using EST).

[manboy]

And with all of these delays, and lets not kid ourselves, there have been a ^@#$ton of delays, the cost to the American Taxpayer for these delays... $0

Actually, between SpaceX and Orbital, the cost has been over $200 million for additional "risk reduction" milestones.

NASA decided that... Not SpaceX... Not Orbital...

1) If they had been on time, it wouldn't have been necessary.

Irrelevant. The COTS program was not sold on strict timelines and Lindemoyer is on record saying the proposed milestones were aggressive and very optimistic by NASA's view, but they understood that and accepted it.

2) SpaceX and Orbital now have NASA in a captive position.

This is no fault of either SpaceX or Orbital. It's solely NASA's fault or to be more precise the fault of politics that led to this situation.

Please move this debate to "SpaceX: General Falcon and Dragon discussion (Thread 4)" and keep this topic reserved for updates.

[Patchouli]

Over in this ISS schedule thread anik has pushed back the COTS-2/3 launch date by one day but left the berthing on Feb 10.

February 8 - Dragon (SpX-D) launch 
February 10 - Dragon (SpX-D) capture and berthing (to Harmony nadir) by SSRMS
February 14 - spacewalk (ISS Russian EVA-30) from Pirs airlock [Kononenko, Shkaplerov]
February 23 - Dragon (SpX-D) unberthing (from Harmony nadir) and release by SSRMS

Changes on December 9th
Changes on December 16th
Changes on December 24th

(manual color edits are tough!)
No explanation is given, which is no criticism of anik's authoritative list.

I am looking forward to watching the capture on NASA TV.

Hopefully this test will go as smoothly as the first and we see them get it crew rated soon.

[Comga]

Over in this ISS schedule thread anik has pushed back the COTS-2/3 launch date by one day but left the berthing on Feb 10.

I think that's because anik uses GMT, for which the launch will be Feb 8 (Feb 7 using EST).

You are correct about anik using UTC, but he used to list the launch date as Feb 7, and just changed it today.  Plus 10-8=2 in any time zone, and two days does not seem sufficient.

[Rocket Guy]

That's because Anik did not know the time until now. It is Feb 7 EST.

[Comga]

Interesting.  Thanks

People here had calculated the launch time a while back.  :-0

It still leaves only two days from launch to berthing, including the abort demonstration.  How could they expect everything to go so quickly?  HTV-1 was berthed seven days after launch. (10Sep09 to 17Sep09)  It wasn't until FD3 that HTV-1 demonstrated proximity operations.

If berthing on the second (or even third) day is really the plan, someone has a jam packed, action filled flight plan!

[Lars_J]

Yes, I really expected to see several days (maybe even more then a week) to fulfill COTS 2 test objectives before a berthing is attempted. That schedule can't be right.

[ChefPat]

I have a bet with the other group members here that there will be 2 weeks of shakedown ops. Seeing two days above was quite a surprise.
Can it be accurate?

[Comga]

FYI, while looking again at the ISS Schedule, (to see how long COTS-2/3 could remain berthed) I see that ATV-3 will take ten days to rendezvous with the ISS.

March 9 - ATV-3 "Edoardo Amaldi" launch
March 16 - Soyuz TMA-22 undocking (from Poisk) and landing
March 19 - ATV-3 "Edoardo Amaldi" docking (to Zvezda)

Two or three days just doesn't make sense. 
ChefPat: What was the other side of the bet?  Three weeks, or just ten days?

PS In that thread anik says "I am waiting for a berthing date in UTC."