SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon COTS Demo (C2+) GENERAL DISCUSSION

[Lars_J]

This is a pleasant surprise, I didn't think that SpaceX would get this far this year.

Did you really expect them to be on the launch pad for the next 7 months? Time to give them some credit!

In some circles credit is in short supply.

[spectre9]

Justifies all the waiting to see a successful launch of the Falcon 9 and Dragon in orbit.

So when does this become C3?

[tigerade]

Justifies all the waiting to see a successful launch of the Falcon 9 and Dragon in orbit.

So when does this become C3?

It'll become C3 once all C2 objectives are completed, hopefully in the coming days.

[cro-magnon gramps]

in the updates thread, Chris talks about a briefing at 1 pm ET, but Ugordon and I can't find it listed, and NASA TV isn't broadcasting it;
    not to clutter the Updates thread, does anyone here have any information


ok, the schedule page just updated, must be my slow connection ;( have broadband unlimited, but sometimes the owner of the lines that my ISP uses, throttles the connection; come the revolution...... nuff said!!

[Retired Downrange]

In "just" ten years...

In 2002, (the year SpaceX was founded), who here would have predicted the scenes we saw in the control rooms and on the pad this morning.

I expect such a prediction would have been derided by most.

I stretch my mind to guess what we will see ten years from now.

Godspeed to all those involved!

[FinalFrontier]

1) Is it likely the mixture-adjustment hardware could compensate for a LOX-rich bias in an engine, at least to carry it through the first seconds of flight until the point where the Falcon can struggle on with eight engines? I'm guessing not, as I assume the actual adjustment range would be quite small.

2) Also, how does the stage determine the remaining prop levels - does it just integrate the flow levels? If so, would the flow be measured per-engine or before the octopus? If flow is measured per-engine, I guess that would be a useful indication to the engine controller of a problem.

1) Hard to say.  If there's closed-loop engine control, maybe.  Too many branches of the fault tree to say for sure.  Not sure it's even desirable to try and fly through it.  Abort may be the better choice.

2) Tank bottom pressure.  Flight computer solves for h in P_b = P_ull + rho*g*h.  There are patents on it that are available with a web search.

During launch we heard "stage one propellant utilization is active", and same for stage 2.

I presume that would be the start of monitoring in preparation for mixture adjustment?

cheers, Martin

Edit: lunch? Pchaw.

Yes this is correct.


Wanted to say this on the live thread but its not really an update so I'll say it here.

Want to congratulate spacex on a flawless start to this mission, and a beautiful launch.  Didn't get to see it live but I have seen the replays, and it was fantastic. Was very inspiring to hear all those people in Hawthorne cheering when the arrays deployed.

Now comes the "hardest" part, as it were: Docking to ISS. I wish the team at Spacex luck in this ongoing mission. Can't wait to see it all work.

[Rocket Science]

in the updates thread, Chris talks about a briefing at 1 pm ET, but Ugordon and I can't find it listed, and NASA TV isn't broadcasting it;
    not to clutter the Updates thread, does anyone here have any information


ok, the schedule page just updated, must be my slow connection ;( have broadband unlimited, but sometimes the owner of the lines that my ISP uses, throttles the connection; come the revolution...... nuff said!!

No joy yet Gramps, maybe 2pm??

~Robert

[aquanaut99]

Belated congrats to SpaceX! Glad to see I was wrong.

[spectre9]

Justifies all the waiting to see a successful launch of the Falcon 9 and Dragon in orbit.

So when does this become C3?

It'll become C3 once all C2 objectives are completed, hopefully in the coming days.

I'm just reading the press kit now lol

I should've checked it before I posted. RTFPK (read the  press kit)

It's FD-4 that the good stuff happens. All just flying around saying hello before that. Still gotta hope that all goes well so Dragon can get authorisation to approach and berth to the station.

Hoping for live coverage of the capture operations from ISS. As much as is possible anyway.

[mrmandias]

Any word on the abort trial?  Could be completed by now.

[cro-magnon gramps]

in the updates thread, Chris talks about a briefing at 1 pm ET, but Ugordon and I can't find it listed, and NASA TV isn't broadcasting it;
    not to clutter the Updates thread, does anyone here have any information


ok, the schedule page just updated, must be my slow connection ;( have broadband unlimited, but sometimes the owner of the lines that my ISP uses, throttles the connection; come the revolution...... nuff said!!

No joy yet Gramps, maybe 2pm??

~Robert

Thanks Robert, perhaps it is the sleep deprivation what with two schedules, and multiple time zones, wonder that anyone knows which way is up 

for me at least, the big part is the approval of the ISS Partners for Go to COTS 3, that is when we know we are going where no private organization has gone before: it means SpaceX has been voted in as an equal member of a select club in the Exploration of Space;

Gramps

[FinalFrontier]

Any word on the abort trial?  Could be completed by now.

No word on that. May be on the MSU coming up at 1.

Strike that not sure if there is an MSU today or not.

[schaban]

Should have completed full abort, pulsed abort, and gone into free drift over an hour ago, by my watch...also no updates on SFN in over 8 hours...worrisome...

Is it possible to detect those operations through orbit’s changes? I would imagine abort would slow Dragon down and drift would lower orbit, no?

[Callezetter]

Watching http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544|38348 over the last
hour or so, i clearly noticed that dragon was loosing altitude half an hour ago. Then about 15min ago it gained speed again and gaining alitude.

[MP99]

AIUI, NASA will be reviewing the various milestones.

I don't see any advantage to SpaceX announcing success in a milestone if NASA might later find some issue with it. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if announcements are delayed until NASA has had time to review any data.

cheers, Martin

[just-nick]

Watching http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544|38348 over the last
hour or so, i clearly noticed that dragon was loosing altitude half an hour ago. Then about 15min ago it gained speed again and gaining alitude.

Assuming their information is coming from NORAD TLEs, I don't think their trajectory information is refreshing frequently enough to draw any conclusions. You are probably just looking at orbital dynamics in action.

Cheers,

--N

[jcm]

Watching http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544|38348 over the last
hour or so, i clearly noticed that dragon was loosing altitude half an hour ago. Then about 15min ago it gained speed again and gaining alitude.

I think you mean 'losing' not 'loosing'.
That's just the elliptical Keplerian orbit that it's in, and doesn't reflect the maneuvers.

[Prober]

Here's one from flickr taken on the 18th.

Thought they might go with a taller bldg.   If I'm right the rest of the building will be made to that height.    They will stack the sections horz.

[corrodedNut]

Ah, didn't realize they were one sided. silly me.

Now you can see what the other side looks like!

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28942.msg902362#msg902362

[corrodedNut]

Earlier, I wondered why Dragon didn't jettison the solar array covers sooner in flight, in order to save weight and prevent debris. I had assumed that arrays and their panels were secured for flight by separate means, but that is not the case. The covers are an all-in-one solution, they secure the arrays and protect them from aerodynamic forces at the same time. As we heard on webcast, "solar array jettison triggers automatic deployment".