LIVE: SpaceX Dragon CRS-1 (SpX-1) RNDZ, Capture, Berthing to ISS & Hatch Opening

[Garrett]

Sunita saying that Dragon is nice and clean, no dust, and very bright thanks to the LEDs

[Garrett]

Aki is taking survey photos of Dragon to document its arrival state.

[Garrett]

Akihiko Hoshide

[jacqmans]

RELEASE: 12-357

SPACEX'S DRAGON CARRYING NASA CARGO RESUPPLIES SPACE STATION

HOUSTON -- The Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Dragon
spacecraft was berthed to the International Space Station at 8:03
a.m. CDT Wednesday, a key milestone in a new era of commercial
spaceflight. The delivery flight is the first contracted resupply
mission by the company under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services
contract.

"I want to congratulate SpaceX and the NASA team that worked alongside
them to make this happen, and salute the astronauts aboard the space
station who successfully captured the Dragon capsule," NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden said. "This marks the start of a new era
of exploration for the United States, one where we will reduce the
cost of missions to low-Earth orbit so we can focus our resources on
deep space human missions back around the moon, to an asteroid and
eventually to Mars."

Space station Expedition 33 crew members Aki Hoshide of the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency and Sunita Williams of NASA used the
station's robotic arm to successfully capture Dragon at 5:56 a.m. The
capture came 2 days, 10 hours, 21 minutes and after the mission's
launch. The station was 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean, just west
of Baja California.

Following its capture, the spacecraft was attached to the Earth-facing
port of the Harmony node. The station crew could open the hatch to
Dragon as early as Wednesday afternoon to begin unloading its cargo.
The capsule is scheduled to spend 18 days attached to the station
before returning for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the
Southern California coast.

Dragon delivered 882 pounds of supplies to the orbiting laboratory,
including 260 pounds of crew supplies, 390 pounds of scientific
research, 225 pounds of hardware and several pounds of other
supplies. Dragon will return a total of 1,673 pounds, including 163
pounds of crew supplies, 866 pounds of scientific research, and 518
pounds of vehicle hardware and other hardware.

Dragon's capability to return cargo from the station is critical for
supporting scientific research in the orbiting laboratory's unique
microgravity environment, which enables important benefits for
humanity and increases understanding of how humans can safely work,
live and thrive in space for long periods. The ability to return
frozen samples is a first for this flight and will be very helpful to
the station's research community. Not since the space shuttle have
NASA and its international partners been able to return considerable
amounts of research and samples for analysis.

The Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
in Florida at 8:35 p.m. EDT Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The mission was the first of at least 12 Space X cargo resupply
missions to the space station through 2016. The resupply contract
with NASA is worth $1.6 billion.

"Under President Obama's leadership, the nation is embarking on an
ambitious space program that is bringing critical launches back to
the United States, in-sourcing American jobs, and keeping the nation
on the cutting edge of technology development and innovation, all the
while, maintaining America's world leadership and dominance in space
exploration," Bolden said.

SpaceX is one of two companies that built and tested new cargo
spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
(COTS) program. SpaceX completed its final demonstration test in May
when it launched a Dragon capsule to the station and performed a
series of checkout maneuvers, before Dragon was grappled by the
station crew and installed on the orbiting laboratory.

Orbital Sciences is the other company participating in COTS. Orbital's
Antares launch vehicle is on the launch pad at Wallops Flight
Facility in Virginia. The rocket and pad will undergo a series of
fueling tests that will take about three weeks. After the tests are
completed, a hot fire test of the Antares first-stage engines will be
conducted. A flight test of the Antares with a simulated Cygnus
spacecraft will be flown in late 2012. A demonstration flight of
Cygnus to the space station is planned in early 2013.

NASA initiatives like COTS and the agency's Commercial Crew Program
are helping develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation
industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective
transportation to and from the space station and low-Earth orbit. In
addition to cargo flights, NASA's commercial space partners are
making progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the
next 5 years.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

[jacqmans]

SPACEX DRAGON SUCCESSFULLY ATTACHES TO SPACE STATION

October 10, 2012

 

Hawthorne, CA -- For the second time this year, a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is at the International Space Station. Expedition 33 crew members Akihiko Hoshide and Sunita Williams today grappled Dragon and attached it to the station, completing a critical stage of the SpaceX CRS-1 cargo resupply mission.

Hoshide used the station’s robotic arm to capture Dragon and guide it to the station’s Harmony module, and then Expedition 33 Commander Williams installed Dragon to Harmony’s common berthing mechanism, enabling it to be bolted in place for an expected 18-day stay at the station.

Upon capture, Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of NASA remarked, “Looks like we’ve tamed the Dragon.”

Grappling was complete at 6:56AM ET, and at 9:03AM ET Dragon was attached to the space station.

“This is a big moment in the course of this mission and for commercial spaceflight,” said SpaceX CEO and Chief Technical Officer Elon Musk. “We are pleased that Dragon is now ready to deliver its cargo to the International Space Station.”

Next, the station crew will pressurize the vestibule between the station and Dragon and open the hatch that leads to the forward bulkhead of the spacecraft. The crew will then begin unloading Dragon’s cargo, which includes crew supplies, vehicle hardware, experiments, and an ultra-cold freezer for storing scientific samples.

The mission, designated SpaceX CRS-1, is the first of at least 12 that SpaceX will perform under NASA’s $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract. Only SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is capable of both carrying significant amounts of cargo to the station and returning cargo to Earth.

Dragon is expected to be released from the space station on October 28 with return cargo that will include used station hardware and more than a ton of scientific samples. Splashdown and recovery in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California will follow the same day.

[Space Pete]

A poster retrieved from inside Dragon!

[Garrett]

Little present from the folks at SpaceX

[Dappa]

They just got a whole lot of new friends on station.

[Space Pete]

As is visible, the VBA is now installed.

[Chris Bergin]

SpaceX:

Update on SpaceX CRS-1 Mission: October 10

 

The SpaceX CRS-1 mission reached a critical milestone today, October 10, with the Dragon spacecraft successfully attaching to the space station.

 

The mission, the first of at least 12 to the International Space Station under the company’s cargo resupply contract with NASA, began with a Sunday, October 7 launch from Cape Canaveral, FL. As a result of shutting down one of its nine engines early shortly after the launch, the Falcon 9 rocket used slightly more fuel and oxygen to reach the target orbit for Dragon. For the protection of the space station mission, NASA had required that a restart of the upper stage only occur if there was a very high probability (over 99%) of fully completing the second burn. While there was sufficient fuel on board to do so, the liquid oxygen on board was only enough to achieve a roughly 95% likelihood of completing the second burn, so Falcon 9 did not attempt a restart. Although the secondary payload, the Orbcomm satellite, was still deployed to orbit by Falcon 9, it was done so at the lower altitude used by Dragon in order to optimize the safety of the space station mission.

 

SpaceX and NASA are working closely together to review all flight data so that we can understand what happened with the engine, and we will apply those lessons to future flights. We have achieved our goal of repeatedly getting into orbit by creating a careful, methodical and pragmatic approach to the design, testing and launch of our space vehicles. We will approach our analysis in the same manner, with a careful examination of what went wrong and how to best address it.  Additional information will be provided as it is available.

 

###

[olbob]

Sorry if OT...

Suni mentioned that the Dragon was clean. The previous visiting Dragon was also described as clean. Is this just a comment on the Dragon's "new car" feel? Or are there some vehicles that don't arrive as clean? If so, what constitutes "not clean?"

[Lars_J]

Sorry if OT...

Suni mentioned that the Dragon was clean. The previous visiting Dragon was also described as clean. Is this just a comment on the Dragon's "new car" feel? Or are there some vehicles that don't arrive as clean? If so, what constitutes "not clean?"

Here are some comparisons of other visiting craft, in order:
 - Progress (to be fair this is taken halfway through unpacking - I couldn't find a pic of how it looked when they opened it)
 - ATV
 - HTV

[Joffan]

Interesting that they could get rid of the masks in about an hour. That must be one of the quickest timelines from berth/dock to full access.

[ugordan]

One of the objects catalogued after launch reentered on 10th October, 2012 @ 06:19 GMT ± 2 minutes. It's not 100% clear at this point if it was Orbcomm or perhaps one of the solar panel covers.

Doesn't really belong to the Dragon thread, but launch updates thread was locked.

[JBF]

Interesting that they could get rid of the masks in about an hour. That must be one of the quickest timelines from berth/dock to full access.

The power of ice cream.

[Remes]

Sorry if OT...

Suni mentioned that the Dragon was clean. The previous visiting Dragon was also described as clean. Is this just a comment on the Dragon's "new car" feel? Or are there some vehicles that don't arrive as clean? If so, what constitutes "not clean?"

Just a few examples, which can go wrong and cause a "non clean" state:
- electric defects -> smoke
- leaky system, hydrazine inside the capsule
- some liquid/gaseous cargo floats araound from broken containers
- ...



Great mission! Great accomplishement!

[Remes]

SpaceX:
[...]
While there was sufficient fuel on board to do so, the liquid oxygen on board was only enough to achieve a roughly 95% likelihood of completing the second burn

So they are talking about measurement uncertainties of remaining oxygen, variations/uncertainties in the burn/combustion, other variations, etc, and if they calculate the final probability, they only reach 95%? Sounds to me a little bit like there is plenty of oxydizer, but not plenty enough.

But okay, it's the ISS with people on it. Just wanted to mention, that it seems to me, there was only a very small piece missing to fully accomplish the mission.

[Comga]

LIDAR behaved too it seems.

I heard them say earlier that the Japanese module was blocked off from its view, or inhibited somehow.

SpaceX narrowed the field of view of the LIDAR to prevent a repeat of the troubles encountered on C2+

Do you know this for a fact or is this a logical deduction, based on statements from COTS-2+?

The actual Field of View of the ASC DragonEye lidar cannot be changed.  I was told that they couldn't limit the active area, electronically reducing the active FOV, but they could have this capability, either inherent or through modification, either at ASC or at SpaceX.

Could that blocking of the retros on the JEM have been mechanical, say with the JEMRMS? That's physically possible although Houston "doesn't like" to ask partners for that kind of help.  (I tried that once.  Ouch!)  This seems unlikely.

edit: typos

[mtakala24]

SpaceX narrowed the field of view of the LIDAR to prevent a repeat of the troubles encountered on C2+

Do you know this for a fact or is this a logical deduction, based on statements from COTS-2+?

It was said in either the pre-launch or post-launch press briefing by a SpaceX representative, but I don't know if it was physical or software field of view that was changed. Software might be easier? I remember reading or hearing from somewhere that they had inaccurate model of ISS in simulations and some reflection(s) from JEM were unexpectedly bright.

[Herb Schaltegger]

Just a few examples, which can go wrong and cause a "non clean" state:
- electric defects -> smoke
- leaky system, hydrazine inside the capsule

... which is why every visiting vehicle and/or new module is chemically sampled through feedthrough fittings at the vestibule before opening the hatch and crew entry.

Actually, the entire atmospheric environment of the U.S./European/Japanese segments is sampled routinely anyone but that's generally an automate process that shouldn't require much (if any) crew interaction under normal circumstances.