Thanks for the on-going updates, woods. Good to know what's going on up there.
Glad to see that the crew treated the poster with respect and made sure it was visible in the news events. That is classy and shows their awareness that human spaceflight is a team effort. Way to go Suni.
What would you expect the crew to do otherwise? Shows that the crew has class unlike the poster providers.
Quote from: Jim on 10/11/2012 04:59 pmWhat would you expect the crew to do otherwise? Shows that the crew has class unlike the poster providers.Jim, what is your problem with this poster?You said earlier that it was unprofessional. I'm having trouble seeing how that is the case. If they had sacrificed payloads, or decreased safety, or otherwise affected operational objectives in order to fly the poster, then I would agree. But none of these were affected by flying the poster.The Japanese HTV teams have flown posters in the past, and SSPF workers signed the endcone of the PMM prior to its launch. Is that unprofessional too?
OG2 Prototype Hardware Functionality Verified Prior to DeorbitFort Lee, NJ, October 11, 2012 – ORBCOMM Inc. (Nasdaq: ORBC), a global satellite data communications company focused on two-way Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, today announced that the single prototype of its second generation of satellites (OG2), launched as a secondary mission payload on the Cargo Re-Supply Services (CRS-1) mission of October 7, 2012, verified various functionality checkouts prior to its deorbit. The OG2 prototype was deployed into a lower orbit as the result of a pre-imposed safety check required by NASA. The safety check was designed to protect the International Space Station and its crew. Had ORBCOMM been the primary payload on this mission, as planned for the upcoming launches, we believe the OG2 prototype would have reached the desired orbit.Notwithstanding the shortened life of the OG2 prototype, the OG2 program engineering teams from ORBCOMM, Sierra Nevada Corporation and Boeing made significant strides in testing various hardware components. After telemetry and command capability was established, several critical system verifications were performed. The solar array and communications payload antenna deployments were successful, along with verifying the performance of various components of both the OG2 satellite bus and the communications payload. The OG2 satellite bus systems including power, attitude control, thermal and data handling were also tested to verify proper operation. The unique communications payload, which incorporates a highly reprogrammable software radio with common hardware for both gateway and subscriber messaging, also functioned as expected. These verification successes achieved from the single prototype satellite validate that the innovative OG2 satellite technology operates as designed before launching the full constellation of OG2 satellites. With this verification data, ORBCOMM can focus on completing and launching the OG2 satellites as the primary mission payloads on two planned Falcon 9 launches, the first in mid-2013 and the second in 2014, directly into their operational orbit. “We appreciate the complexity and work that SpaceX put into this launch,” stated Marc Eisenberg, ORBCOMM’s CEO. “SpaceX has been a supportive partner, and we are highly confident in their team and technology.”The Company has filed a notice of claim under its launch insurance policy for a total loss of the OG2 prototype. The maximum amount covered by the policy is $10 million, which would largely offset the expected cost of the OG2 prototype and associated launch services and launch insurance.
Sounds like an awesome deal for orbcomm since they can get the launch and Satellite paid for by insurance, while still getting the testing data that they need out of it. Of course this is at the expense of higher insurance costs for future secondaries on Spacex flights.
Quote from: Robotbeat on 10/11/2012 07:02 pmSounds like an awesome deal for orbcomm since they can get the launch and Satellite paid for by insurance, while still getting the testing data that they need out of it. Of course this is at the expense of higher insurance costs for future secondaries on Spacex flights.Filing a claim does not necessarily equate to getting full payment of said claim.Stating that value was provided by the launch has the goodwill effect of building the relationship with SpaceX, but probably will have the additional effect of lowering the claim payment amount.IMHO.
