LIVE: SpaceX Dragon COTS Demo (C2+) FD4 UPDATES

[mgfitter]

Dragon was "puffing" away quite merrily there once the Earth got dark behind it! The ACS/RCS is quite an active little system, doing small thrusts every second or so.

I don't see that.  Are you mistaking the strobe for thruster firings?

The strobe is pretty clear and the puffs were not in time with the regular pulsing of the light.

They were also clearly heading away from the vehicle in different directions. They looked quite similar to Shuttle RCS, just quite a bit more of them here. CorrodedNut commented on it before I did, so I'm not alone in seeing them

I'm watching the HD UStream feed on my 50" plasma TV. Right now the Dragon is about 2" across on the screen so perhaps I'm getting to see a little more detail.

-MG.

[psloss]

Going to proceed to 200m to get better data from the Dragon rendezvous sensors.  (The thermal imagers.)

Andre will issue the hold when range gets to 200m.

Standing by for MCC-X to issue resume command.

[Ronsmytheiii]

ground calling up that lidar radar looks good, want to move Dragon closer to work thermal imagers.  Want crew to halt dragon at 200 meters

[Chris Bergin]

Let's keep this on updates, not what it looks like on your telly

Dragon needs to be a bit closer for thermal imagers.

[Ronsmytheiii]

Starting approach to 200 meters

[butters]

So we're at least 40 minutes behind the timeline?

[corrodedNut]

When is the next orbital sunrise?

[psloss]

When is the next orbital sunrise?

Pretty soon...map attached.

[Rex Chan]

On the overlay in the ISS "VV to ISS Rng and Rate", the Sec distance reading is a lot less than the Pri - 194 vs. 225m.

They were very close previously.

[rickl]

Dragon needs to be a bit closer for thermal imagers.

That's good to hear, because I was just about to comment on a call that I interpreted as indicating a problem with Dragon's thermal imagers.

[psloss]

So we're at least 40 minutes behind the timeline?

Perhaps; but they're going to stop again at the 200 meter range (which wasn't necessarily the plan) and hard to say how long that will be.

(There's lots of time and a few minutes off the planned timeline isn't a big deal.)

[Ronsmytheiii]

[psloss]

Daylight approaching.

[Ronsmytheiii]

mcc performing go/no go to enter keep out sphere

[Chris Bergin]

Josh doing a good job reminding people the timeline is prelim, as this is a test flight.

[Ronsmytheiii]

[Ronsmytheiii]

cool thruster firings once again

[Chris Bergin]

SpaceX tweet what the Themal Imager is currently seeing:

[Ronsmytheiii]

range 200 rate 0

[Ronsmytheiii]