LIVE: SpaceX Dragon COTS Demo (C2+) FD2 and FD3 UPDATES

[Chris Bergin]

LIVE UPDATES FOR DRAGON'S FLIGHT (End of FD1 through to the key day for Dragon Berthing).

NSF Resources:

LAUNCH DAY ARTICLE - by William Graham:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacex-falcon-9-send-dragon-to-iss/

POST LAUNCH/FD1+ ARTICLE:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacexs-dragon-achieving-milestones-falcon-9-ride/


SCRUBBED ATTEMPT 1 UPDATES:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28918.0

LAUNCH and FD1 LIVE UPDATES:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28942.0

SpaceX Forum Section:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=45.0 - please use this for general questions, non updates.

SpaceX News Articles from 2006 (Including numerous exclusive Elon interviews):
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=21862.0

SpaceX News Articles (Recent):
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/spacex/

Recent COTS C2+ Specific articles:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/Dragon/


--------------
L2 Members:

L2 SpaceX Section:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=tags&tags=SpaceX

L2 SpaceX Dragon C2/C3 Mission Special (NEW - Exclusively acquired pre-launch and Mission Coverage, Presentations, Graphics, Videos, Updates, NASA/Space industry member comments):
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=54.0

To Join L2: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/

----

This a LIVE UPDATE THREAD. All posts need to be as such. Other posts will be removed.

[corrodedNut]

http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/spacenews/files/spacex_cots2_timeline.html

Can anyone explain what "CE1" is?

With that burn, this about wraps it up for Flight Day 1, right?

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

Minor side note. For those interested in the space weather environment.

A minor solar event has occurred. It's primary effect is some possible degradation in communications.

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html

[kevin-rf]

During solar max, you don't go to the sun, the sun comes to you

Actually looks to be a C2, which is extremely mild compared to M class flares with crackling C class flares of just a few weeks ago. The sun is quite quiet right now. Few major sunspots are on it's face. SpaceX could not have asked for better space weather.

Hope the the Dragon has some sun screen on!

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

During solar max, you don't go to the sun, the sun comes to you

Actually looks to be a C2, which is extremely mild compared to M class flares with crackling C class flares of just a few weeks ago. The sun is quite quiet right now. Few major sunspots are on it's face. SpaceX could not have asked for better space weather.

Hope the the Dragon has some sun screen on!

Friday's prediction is that it will be even milder than it is now.

[drdave]

[snip}...

CE1 first, probably close to a HA1, then there's the CE2 (with HA2) burn pair as part of the major mission burns.

HA is a burn for "Height Adjustment"

[AnalogMan]

Right now (7:58 PM ET) "CE1" is supposed to be happening: http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/spacenews/files/spacex_cots2_timeline.html

Can anyone explain what "CE1" is?

These are the various burns and approximate locations during the fly-under and fly-around phase (one circuit of the "race-track") along with the points at which go/no-go decisions to proceed are made (prior to the burn in question).

Locations are relative to the ISS, with the horizontal axis along its direction of travel around the orbit, and the vertical axis pointing at earth's center.  Click to enlarge.

[Chris Bergin]

Oh there we go! Tell you what, let me heavily edit my last post to create a lead in for the new FD2+ thread (through to Friday's big day) and we'll have a nice set of content to open with.

EDIT: Done.

[Jim]

By the way I forgot to post the weather ob from launch time... The report out of the Shuttle Landing Strip is no longer disseminated, so I grabbed one from Patrick AFB.

METAR KXMR 220755Z AUTO 00000KT 8SM R31/5500VP6000FT CLR 19/19 A2994 RMK AO2 SLP141 T01910190

No clouds at or below 12000ft, winds calm.

That is the Skid strip on CCAFS.  Patrick is KCOF

[rdale]

Thanks for clarifying - I thought the skid strip was part of Patrick AFB. Is it open to the public?

[Antares]

http://www.airnav.com/airport/KXMR

http://www.airnav.com/airport/KCOF

Airnav says they're 14 nautical miles apart, both behind USAF gates.

[sanman]

http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/spacenews/files/spacex_cots2_timeline.html

Can anyone explain what "CE1" is?

With that burn, this about wraps it up for Flight Day 1, right?

The "CE" in "CE1" stands for "co-elliptic" and names like "CE1" refer to the engine burns required to make course adjustments.

Here's a nice article in Wikipedia on the mission, which provides all the explanations you need:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COTS_Demo_Flight_2

May 23 (Flight day 2)
On flight day two, Dragon will begin a series of co-elliptic burns that will place the Dragon into a circular orbit.[24] Engine burns begin to be performed that will raise Dragon's altitude towards that of the ISS.[24]

[cuddihy]

Can anyone explain what's the purpose of FHA2?

Is is just to increase orbital period so they can fall behind ISS faster to phase for the RHA or is there a test associated with it?

[sanman]

Can anyone explain what's the purpose of FHA2?

Is is just to increase orbital period so they can fall behind ISS faster to phase for the RHA or is there a test associated with it?

FHA2 stands for "Flyby Height Adjust burn #2", and it is the second burn of this type required to adjust the Dragon's altitude to move it away from the ISS (the first burn of this type, FHA1 was meant to take it within 2.5 km of ISS).

From what I read here, it's not a test in itself, but just meant to facilitate re-rendezvous:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COTS_Demo_Flight_2#May_24_.28Flight_day_3.29

Once the fly-under is complete, Dragon will fire its engines to begin a loop out in front, above and then behind the station in a racetrack pattern at a distance between 7-10 kilometers (4-6.2 miles).[26] This will set the spacecraft up for a re-rendezvous with the station the next day.[26]

[Rex Chan]

Hey guys!

Not sure if this is old news, but I had NASA TV/Ustream feed of the ISS open. It was just showing the Soyuz (assume Exp 31) and then video of the Earth. Then I heard some radio stuff that seemed relevant: the person (lady on the ground) was talking to Don, and he said a few interesting things

-They're running out of the time allocated to go through some docs for Dragon (CBT), so will use up the rest of the time before lunch
-Afternoon will be robot session
-Talk of not doing the PAO (Don would rather do Dragon than that)
-Talk of maybe needing to reboot for CBT/OBT, having issues with computer stuff it sounded like

I'm new to all this NASA TV stuff, so not sure if live or not, and maybe already covered... I also have no idea what CBT/OBT/PAO/robot is...

Edit: I saw the image go to black, and that coincided with n2yo showing ISS go into darkness

[robertross]

Hey guys!

Not sure if this is old news, but I had NASA TV/Ustream feed of the ISS open. It was just showing the Soyuz (assume Exp 31) and then video of the Earth. Then I heard some radio stuff that seemed relevant: the person (lady on the ground) was talking to Don, and he said a few interesting things

-They're running out of the time allocated to go through some docs for Dragon (CBT), so will use up the rest of the time before lunch
-Afternoon will be robot session
-Talk of not doing the PAO (Don would rather do Dragon than that)
-Talk of maybe needing to reboot for CBT/OBT, having issues with computer stuff it sounded like

I'm new to all this NASA TV stuff, so not sure if live or not, and maybe already covered... I also have no idea what CBT/OBT/PAO/robot is...

INteresting, thanks.
Sounds like robotics training. PAO is Public Affairs Officer.

Edit: OBT is On Board Training

[Rex Chan]

Ok, just heard some more:

the lady (she used Houston/Space to ID herself to Andre) had a chat with another guy Andre (who sounds like he is conducting the stuff on the ISS, or at least in contact with the ISS)

-She confirmed with ANdre that "Dragon training activities" would take longer than planned
-Geo Flow (no idea what is is, but sounded like that) would happen after Dragon stuff finished.
-Robot would take remainder of the arvo

And Andre had a non-American accent.

[pippin]

Sounds like somebody needs a reason not to attend a PAO event

[Bogeyman]

And Andre had a non-American accent.

That is André Kuipers, the ESA-Astronaut on the ISS

[woods170]

Ok, just heard some more:

the lady (she used Houston/Space to ID herself to Andre) had a chat with another guy Andre (who sounds like he is conducting the stuff on the ISS, or at least in contact with the ISS)

-She confirmed with ANdre that "Dragon training activities" would take longer than planned
-Geo Flow (no idea what is is, but sounded like that) would happen after Dragon stuff finished.
-Robot would take remainder of the arvo

And Andre had a non-American accent.

Yes, that would be ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers, from the Netherlands, who currently is on board ISS as part of the Expedition 30/31 crew. He and Don Petit are the two astronauts assigned to the task of capturing and berthing Dragon.