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

[swervin]

My favorite part of this press conference is the STARK difference in the NASA 'stiffness' vs the SpaceX energy -- I start laughing every time they come back from Elon to the panel. Sometimes you gotta let your hair down -- hats off to Mr. Lindenmoyer to show some excitement.

Great info none-the-less on both ends!

Nick

[Chris Bergin]

Mike S notes the similar techniques, as they have grown up together with the Russians, Japanese and Europeans. Similar approach with SpaceX, apart from with them being commercial.

Expands on how they got to work with SpaceX.

On SpaceX seeming to have young people working at their place.

Elon: Our average age is 30, so we have as many above 30, and a good mix. I like to mix the experience with the vibrancy. Got a great team at SpaceX, super motivated, feeling super jazzed, super excited

On responding to doubters.

Elon: There was reason to doubt, due to the firsts. They had their reasons. Those reasons no longer remain. I'm hopeful a lot of doubts have been put to rest and we can get their support going forward.

On if they ever got close to calling of it.

Elon: There were times where we could have called for an abort, especially on LIDAR. Solutions worked with NASA and allowed us to go in. Doesn't like saying berthing, as people think he means birthing.

11:40 GMT for hatch opening on Saturday. May do some cargo ops over the weekend. Crew will get some time off. Mon and Tues are big cargo days. 25 hours of cargo ops for this mission.

 

[Chris Bergin]

BBC Radio Devon (!?) But good question on cargo ability.

Mike S: All of the ORUs to ISS will fit inside the Dragon trunk.

Elon: And if it needs to be bigger, we'll make it bigger (the trunk).

On the cheese: The cheese is right here in the SpaceX factory. Was top secret until the mission survived the last flight.

Elon notes no change to the SpaceX IPO timing. Need to be in a steady launch manifest of one per month, then we could go public.

And that's over. Got less surreal near the end!

[FinalFrontier]

I am going to say this (and probably take flak for it).


In my opinon, given the progress we have been shown here, and given that of all commercial providers Spacex has been the first to reach ISS with its own vehicle, it would be a travesty for Spacex not to be selected as the CRS provider in the event we are forced to down-select to one provider.



Its my sincere hope however that we are not forced to down-select to one provider. As that in and of itself would be bad and quite unfair. Heres to hoping.

[racshot65]

Mike

It’s been a long time coming but today Don successfully grabbled the spacecraft and 30 mins ago we finished berthing.
Proud to be a part of this historic moment.  This rates at the top of historic moments I’ve talked about.
Performed nearly flawlessly up to the r-bar  then it gave some challenges that show how good their team are.
Congratulations to the SpaceX team they did a fantastic job and the NASA team


Holly

Had a great day in space, congratulations to the SpaceX team for building a wonderful spacecraft.
11:54pm CDT we began rendezvous process, then through a series of burns ended up on the r bar.
Spent some time on the rbar learning about the new parts of the spacecraft.
Took some time to understand the sensors, the dragon team did a wonderful job of understanding the data they were receiving and working with us to overcome some challenges.
Capture 8:56am CDT
MET – Launch to Capture – 3 days 6 hours 11 mins
Hatch will be opened tomorrow morning at 11:40 GMT
Crew are excited so don’t be excited if they open it early.
Relatively short ISS mission
Departure planned for May 31st 10am GMT


Elon

This is the result of an enormous amount of work by the SpaceX team and NASA
So much could have gone wrong but it went right
Thanks to everyone at NASA and mission control and to Alan.


Alan

6 years ago when we met we knew you had something special going on here.
We were just checking the milestones off and theres only a few left.



Questions

Q: Can you expand on how this is just the beginning?

A: This is the first dragon flight; Cygnus is being built by Orbital. These 2 spacecraft will supply the lion share of cargo for the life of the station.  HTV and ATV come about once a year.


Q: Details about the approach and what occurred that made you hold?

A: At 250 the dragon team was keeping an eye on their new data, they have 2 thermal imagers and looking at that data and where the sun was in relation to dragon. They discussed holding until the sun passed by to give the thermal imagers the best chance of working. Need a certain amount of prox sensors to work and have some redundancy.
LIDAR is looking at the station going back and forth with a laser to a specific point on the station. Hard to hit a single point and sometimes they got some unexpected data back. Probably requires some tuning of the software.  Retreated back to where they got good solid data to check it out. Headed to capture point with 2 lidars, there were some points they had 1 available and others only 2. At the capture point we saw a lidar with enough errors to stop using it.

Elon on the issue

Dragon has lasers that scan the station and one of the lasers wasn’t working well so we had to recalibrate it and tighten the beam
Then it worked and we docked.


Q: Where does this fit into your plans with going to Mars?

A: Need continued advancements in space technology. Need to make rockets more reusable. Working with NASA to add crew capability to dragon. Hopefully we can do it in 3 years. This was a crucial step and it makes the things in the future much more likely.


Q: When will SpaceX be cleared to deliver cargo under CRS?

A: Objective of demo flights was to test the ability of the spacecraft to make it to the ISS safely. Along the way we met the objectives necessary to get to station. Still have objectives for departure and recovery.  Current schedule plans to start CRS flights in September assuming remaining objectives are successful.  Next spacecraft is already being built.


Q: How did you celebrate after berthing?

A: We banned alcohol from the premises because people can get a little crazy.  Will have some champagne and fun now though.


Q: Orbitals schedule?

A: Pad prep is going well, cyro shock tests were done last week. That largely went well had a few minor things that need to be repaired. Test flight in August, demo flight in mid-December. If they do really well with the test flight, we could support mid-October.


Q: What was different about working with a private corporation compared to a government agency?

A: Approach with ESA and JAXA: we provided them with requirements and expected the governments to work with contractors to ensure they met the build to requirements. SpaceX approach didn’t involve a government entity. Engineers would speak to engineers to explain why we do things the way we do. SpaceX would tell us how they would accomplish the same objectives.


Q: Who are you tapping to work for the company, where are they coming from?

A: Average age is around 30. Have a good mixture of experience and new college graduates.


Q: How are you responding to the doubters?

A: There was reason to doubt we would succeed due to the lack of precedent for what we have done.  Those reasons no longer remain. Hopeful lots of people’s doubts will be put to rest and we will have their support going forward.


Q: What did you eat for the last 3 days?

A: Ate erratically, can’t remember. Will have a great dinner tonight.


Q: How much propellant was used?

A: There were some close moments where we could have called an abort. Had to make some last minute adjustments to the LIDAR.


Q: When does the hatch open, what crew members are involved ?

A: Hatch opening 11:40am GMT. A little bit of cargo operations to do over the weekend. Crew will have some time off over the weekend. Big cargo days on Monday and Tuesday. At least one of the crew will be doing cargo opps for all of their work day. Plan to generally only have one person in the dragon. About 25 hours worth of cargo work for this mission.


Q: What size ORUs can Dragon carry ?

A: Dragon is designed to carry the lion share of the ORUs. Can’t think of any that won’t fit. Elon says they will make it bigger if it isn’t big enough.


Q: Where is the cheese from the first dragon mission?

A: Right here in the SpaceX factory. Encased in Lucite.


Q: Will the success of this mission change the planned timing of the IPO?

A: Don’t think so; don’t think we should aim for an IPO it occurs if a company is in a particular position. The stock market is not a big fan of uncertainty.

[Silmfeanor]

NASA TV now showing replay of the capture out from the 10 meter point

[mmeijeri]

BBC Radio Devon (!?) But good question on cargo ability.

Heh, I guess the name BBC worked for him.

[tigerade]

In my opinon, given the progress we have been shown here, and given that of all commercial providers Spacex has been the first to reach ISS with its own vehicle, it would be a travesty for Spacex not to be selected as the CRS provider in the event we are forced to down-select to one provider.

SpaceX is already a CRS provider.    I think you are talking about Commercial Crew.  I am still hoping that there won't be a downselect.  If that happens, we'll take that issue when it comes around.

[Chris Bergin]

Thanks for the big transcript Aaron!

So, 623 posts and 108,000 reads (wowzers) since this thread started this morning, that'll do it for FD4!

New thread for FD5 and the docked phase in the morning.

Article for the day:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacexs-dragon-historic-attempt-berth-with-iss/

Thanks to Ron and Philip, and everyone who joined in.

NTV now doing replays.

I've been Chris, and I'm off to the pub! Will raise one for Dragon.

[robertross]

BBC Radio Devon (!?) But good question on cargo ability.

Mike S: All of the ORUs to ISS will fit inside the Dragon trunk.

Elon: And if it needs to be bigger, we'll make it bigger (the trunk).

On the cheese: The cheese is right here in the SpaceX factory. Was top secret until the mission survived the last flight.

Elon notes no change to the SpaceX IPO timing. Need to be in a steady launch manifest of one per month, then we could go public.

And that's over. Got less surreal near the end!

Thanks Chris.

Thanks to all who contributed to this amazing thread today: it was spectacular.

Congrats SpaceX on one heck of an acheivement. The ISS teams no doubt thank you.

I'm pleased with the comment to make Dragon trunk bigger if they need to for larger ORUs: that could be very important.

Happy Berthday!

[wechose]

Elon was keeping his cool rational head during the presser,then he got all cheesy
On the alcohol ban,what you think Chris should that be extended to posts being given a GO or NO GO on NSF?
What a great day!!!!!

[jacqmans]

RELEASE: 12-172

SPACEX DRAGON ATTACHED TO SPACE STATION IN SPACEFLIGHT FIRST

HOUSTON -- The International Space Station's Expedition 31 crew
grappled and attached SpaceX's Dragon capsule to the space station
Friday. This is the first time a commercial company has accomplished
this type of space operation.

"Today marks another critical step in the future of American
spaceflight," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "Now that a
U.S. company has proven its ability to resupply the space station, it
opens a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space -- and new
job creation opportunities right here in the U.S. By handing off
space station transportation to the private sector, NASA is freed up
to carry out the really hard work of sending astronauts farther into
the solar system than ever before. The Obama Administration has set
us on an ambitious path forward and the NASA and SpaceX teams are
proving they are up to the task."

Following a series of system tests and a successful fly-under of the
space station Thursday, the Dragon capsule was cleared by NASA to
approach the station Friday. Dragon then performed a series of
intricate test maneuvers as it approached the orbiting laboratory.
These maneuvers were required to demonstrate the maneuvering and
abort capability of Dragon prior to approaching and moving into a
65-foot (20-meter) "berthing box" where it was grappled by NASA
astronaut Don Pettit using the station's robotic arm at 9:56 a.m.
EDT.

European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers installed the capsule on
the bottom of the station's Harmony node at 11:52 a.m. NASA astronaut
Joe Acaba completed berthing operations by bolting the Dragon to
Harmony at 12:02 p.m.

"Congratulations to the SpaceX and NASA teams," said William
Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration
and Operations Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in
Washington. "There is no limit to what can be accomplished with hard
work and preparation. This activity will help the space station reach
its full research potential and open up space-based research to a
larger group of researchers. There is still critical work left in
this test flight. Dragon-attached operations and cargo return are
challenging and yet to be accomplished."

The Dragon capsule lifted off Tuesday from the Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The
demonstration mission is the second under NASA's Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services program, which provides investments intended
to lead to regular resupply missions to the space station and
stimulate the commercial space industry in America.

"The investments made by the United States to stimulate the commercial
space industry are paying off," said Philip McAlister, director for
Commercial Spaceflight Development at NASA Headquarters. "SpaceX
achieved what until now was only possible by a few governments, and
the company did it with relatively modest funding from the
government.

The Dragon capsule is delivering 1,014 pounds of supplies to the
station, which includes non-critical experiments, food, clothing and
technology. Crew members will open the hatch to the capsule Saturday
and unload the cargo during a four-day period. Dragon then will be
loaded with 1,367 pounds of hardware and cargo no longer needed
aboard the station in preparation for the spacecraft's return to
Earth. Dragon and station hatches will be closed on May 30.

On May 31, the Expedition 31 crew members will detach Dragon from
Harmony, maneuver it to a 33-foot release point and un-grapple the
capsule. Dragon will deorbit approximately four hours after leaving
the station, taking about 30 minutes to re-enter Earth's atmosphere
and landing in the Pacific Ocean about 250 miles west of southern
California.

For up-to-date SpaceX mission information and a schedule of NASA
Television coverage, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/spacex

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For more information about NASA's commercial space programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial

       
-end-

[FinalFrontier]

Thanks for the big transcript Aaron!

So, 623 posts and 108,000 reads (wowzers) since this thread started this morning, that'll do it for FD4!

New thread for FD5 and the docked phase in the morning.

Article for the day:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/05/spacexs-dragon-historic-attempt-berth-with-iss/

Thanks to Ron and Philip, and everyone who joined in.

NTV now doing replays.

I've been Chris, and I'm off to the pub! Will raise one for Dragon.

Raise one for NSF too eh

Want to thank you and the entire NSF team for fantastic coverage. Can't find coverage like this ANYWHERE ELSE. No-one comes close to NSF. Thanks to all of you guys for a fantastic job on this history making day.

[mgfitter]

Glad the replays gave me a chance to get some hi-res captures.

Here is the "shot of the day" for me.

Tells the whole story.   Great job Space-X & NASA!

-MG.

[jacqmans]

Dragon on board

 
25 May 2012
The first Dragon commercial space ferry was berthed at the International Space Station today. ESA astronaut André Kuipers and his crewmates welcomed the new cargo ship and will start unloading the supplies and scientific experiments tomorrow.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM53OZWD2H_index_0.html

http://www.esa.int/images/iss031e067404_crop.jpg

[brihath]

My favorite part of this press conference is the STARK difference in the NASA 'stiffness' vs the SpaceX energy -- I start laughing every time they come back from Elon to the panel. Sometimes you gotta let your hair down -- hats off to Mr. Lindenmoyer to show some excitement.

Great info none-the-less on both ends!

Nick

I got a kick out of Elon's remark about ORU's and the size of the Trunk, stating that if NASA's needs a bigger trunk on Dragon, they will enlarge it.  I also like his remarks about reuseability on the launch vehicle, saying it can reduce the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100.  We heard that before back in the 1970's, but I feel more confident that it can be pulled off now.   

[Paul Adams]

Very much dragging my feet today, having stayed up to watch the overnight activities.

But boy was it worth it!

History in the making indeed. Well done SpaceX and NASA.

And a special well done to NSF for the excellent coverage (as always).

[jcm]

Musk makes a point of saying that he does know the difference between berthing and docking, but says 'docking' to be more intelligible to the public.  Made me laugh.

Yes, good for him. By any reasonable definition grapple/berthing is a special case of docking - fine to have a specific term of art for that docking technique
versus APAS and probe/drogue but it's not wrong to call it all docking, despite
what standard terminology the ISS partners may prefer.

[John44]

SpaceX/Dragon Mission Status Briefing - May 25
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7605

SpaceX/Dragon ISS Grapple
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7603

SpaceX/Dragon ISS Berthing
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7604

[dsmillman]

Don Pettit just reported a good leak check for the Node 2 nadir/Dragon vestibule.