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

[dcporter]

EDIT: corrodedNut image suggests the POV is from the Dragon looking down. We'll know for sure soon.

I see the opposite, am I the only one?  The camera looks to be behind the strut while the gold file moves away from both.

[ugordan]

There was a female voice heard on the SpaceX webcast just before the switch from the video looking back at MVac to that shot saying something like "camera's forward".

[LegendCJS]

EDIT: corrodedNut image suggests the POV is from the Dragon looking down. We'll know for sure soon.

I see the opposite, am I the only one?  The camera looks to be behind the strut while the gold file moves away from both.

Look at Ed Kyle's images again.  The strut is definitely getting smaller and more of it is coming into view in the later frames, suggesting that it is not stationary with respect to the camera viewpoint.

[LegendCJS]

There was a female voice heard on the SpaceX webcast just before the switch from the video looking back at MVac to that shot saying something like "camera's forward".

There was also a female voice exclaiming "Dragon Separation!" at the moment of SECO, then a moment later you can hear her mumble something trying to cover the fact that she jumped the gun.

[corrodedNut]

I'm not sure that picture I posted really settles this one way or another. In a few days this will all be academic. Also, if the camera is on Dragon we'll probably get to see the complete video in the future.

[dcporter]

I see the opposite, am I the only one?  The camera looks to be behind the strut while the gold file moves away from both.

Look at Ed Kyle's images again.  The strut is definitely getting smaller and more of it is coming into view in the later frames, suggesting that it is not stationary with respect to the camera viewpoint.

Uncle. 

[Lars_J]

Yep, that definitely seemed to be an internal shot looking up at the trunk from the 2nd stage.

Why would you think that?  At the instant of separation all wired data links between cameras in the second stage and the video transmitters that would presumably be located on the Dragon would have been severed.  I thinks it is a trunk mounted camera looking back at the second stage.  Otherwise there would be unnecessary duplication of video transmitter equipment.

2nd stage cameras would only have to link to the transmitters on the trunk. Some pretty small wireless cameras would reach a couple hundred feet.

I'm not sure what you are trying to argue. The 2nd stage DOES have independent communications capability. How else do you expect that they have control over the 2nd stage when Dragon has separated? Or when F9 flies without Dragon?

[ugordan]

There was a female voice heard on the SpaceX webcast just before the switch from the video looking back at MVac to that shot saying something like "camera's forward".

There was also a female voice exclaiming "Dragon Separation!" at the moment of SECO, then a moment later you can hear her mumble something trying to cover the fact that she jumped the gun.

I don't hear that, I hear "Dragon's in separation" which someone else shortly repeated as "Dragon's in separation state".

I also believe that's a camera on the 2nd stage as the video switch has that picture jump before the scanlines sync up, as we've seen with Falcon 1 launches during fairing seps. If this were a completely different video feed altogether - from the Dragon - we wouldn't be seeing this artifact.

Doesn't really make sense to put a NTSC video camera on Dragon when you expect a couple of seconds of video at most due to ground station range, and the other cameras (solar array cams) on Dragon seem to be low rate digital with onboard compression.

[Lobo]

Seeing the SpaceX staff crowd cheering when the solar panels deployed was awesome! Politics aside, these young motivated people certainly deserve this mission to be successful.

THey were just happy they still have jobs!

[demorcef]

Seeing the SpaceX staff crowd cheering when the solar panels deployed was awesome! Politics aside, these young motivated people certainly deserve this mission to be successful.

THey were just happy they still have jobs!

Why do I keep hearing about the age of the SpaceX people? Who cares what age they are. We are living longer than ever, but lately in the media / job market it appears that age discrimination is greater than ever before. I am only 34 by the way, but I am really concerned about this trend. We better not be planning to discount / discard our workers in the future just because they are over some arbitrary age limit.

I don't care if the SpaceX guys are 20 or 60 as long as they do a killer job.

[edkyle99]

I see the opposite, am I the only one?  The camera looks to be behind the strut while the gold file moves away from both.

Look at Ed Kyle's images again.  The strut is definitely getting smaller and more of it is coming into view in the later frames, suggesting that it is not stationary with respect to the camera viewpoint.

Uncle. 

Here's a gif made up from a few image captures.  The video started at the 9:58 mark, blanked out at the 10:01 mark, and then briefly reappeared during 10:02.

 - Ed Kyle

[Silmfeanor]

I see the opposite, am I the only one?  The camera looks to be behind the strut while the gold file moves away from both.

Look at Ed Kyle's images again.  The strut is definitely getting smaller and more of it is coming into view in the later frames, suggesting that it is not stationary with respect to the camera viewpoint.

Uncle. 

Here's a gif made up from a few image captures.  The video started at the 9:58 mark, blanked out at the 10:01 mark, and then briefly reappeared during 10:02.

 - Ed Kyle

Thanks. the box in the very lower end of the .gif seems to be one of the boxes in the trunk for solar panel control or thermal loop control. As seen on the stacking images, the upper stage is not covered with mylar.

This leads me to conclude this is the inner trunk of the dragon we see. The rectungular shape of the mylar covering also conforms to earlier pictures of the dragon with a latticework with rectangular holes on top of the trunk, close to the heatshield.
There simply is an added strut in the trunk not seen before - possibly for rigidity?

[Space Junkie]

Why do I keep hearing about the age of the SpaceX people? Who cares what age they are. We are living longer than ever, but lately in the media / job market it appears that age discrimination is greater than ever before. I am only 34 by the way, but I am really concerned about this trend. We better not be planning to discount / discard our workers in the future just because they are over some arbitrary age limit.

I don't care if the SpaceX guys are 20 or 60 as long as they do a killer job.

You hear about it because people notice it. I dragged my 16 year old sister out of bed to watch the launch with me and she mentioned how young many of the employees seemed. She also commented on the general informality of the atmosphere (and dress).

[IRobot]

Seeing the SpaceX staff crowd cheering when the solar panels deployed was awesome! Politics aside, these young motivated people certainly deserve this mission to be successful.

THey were just happy they still have jobs!

Not all people hate their jobs like you. They were happy because they saw the product of their work, not because of their paycheck.

[rcoppola]

Why do I keep hearing about the age of the SpaceX people? Who cares what age they are. We are living longer than ever, but lately in the media / job market it appears that age discrimination is greater than ever before. I am only 34 by the way, but I am really concerned about this trend. We better not be planning to discount / discard our workers in the future just because they are over some arbitrary age limit.

I don't care if the SpaceX guys are 20 or 60 as long as they do a killer job.

You hear about it because people notice it. I dragged my 16 year old sister out of bed to watch the launch with me and she mentioned how young many of the employees seemed. She also commented on the general informality of the atmosphere (and dress).

I take it as extremely positive. All we ever see on TV is the youth as Wall ST occupiers or zoned out console gamers, or shallow FaceBook addicts, or steroid and tanned beach dwellers.

And here we have a group of young talented kids dressed in sneakers doing what very few have done before. And doing it their way. I think we need to show more of this, not less. I was personally incredibly moved and absolutely proud of them.

[Chris Bergin]

To be fair I've heard that too a lot (especially on twitter, mainly in a positive manner), but it's actually not SpaceX specific. I've seen many shots of the OPFs with young people in t-shirts working on the orbiters, or at least we did before the end. I have no doubt it's the same at other places like ULA.

MCC is probably more formal per what you see on TV, but one could say that's respected too, given MOD's history. I kinda want to remember Gene Kranz in a smart white waistcoat and not in a t-shirt However, we've got MOD training videos on L2 where they are all very much young and casual, ironically getting pep talks from Mr Kranz.

And what's not to love about this man:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2010/02/endeavour-on-track-alibaruho-rallies-troops-adama-style-address/

Kwatsi Alibaruho, brilliant Flight Director, quoting BSG. It doesn't get any cooler!

Anyhoooo, let's not get carried away by this topic. As noted, doesn't matter what they look like or how old they are, so long as they are good at their job....and this mission thus far says they are.

[Jim]

I wear jeans and athletic shoes every day (Hawaiian shirts on Friday) except when in the LCC for launch and formal meetings

[kevin-rf]

I wear jeans and athletic shoes every day (Hawaiian shirts on Friday) except when in the LCC for launch and formal meetings

To be part of the hip crowd, you should wear Vibram Five Fingers instead: http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/index.htm

They are so confy...

[Rocket Science]

I didn’t expect to find fashion advice here on NSF, but thanks just the same… 

[Lobo]

Seeing the SpaceX staff crowd cheering when the solar panels deployed was awesome! Politics aside, these young motivated people certainly deserve this mission to be successful.

THey were just happy they still have jobs!

Not all people hate their jobs like you. They were happy because they saw the product of their work, not because of their paycheck.

Huh?  How the heck did you get that I hate -my- job out of that joke??