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

[woods170]

...prior to future flights...

Does this mean CRS-2 is off until the investigation is concluded and NASA okays the fix (which might be "do nothing", but has to be approved by a committee)?

We don't know that. Insufficient information in the press release.

[Robotbeat]

Well, thinking about it, NASA may not want to jeopardize equipment if the launch may fail. Then again, Dragon may be able to survive many genuine launch failures (even without real abort thrusters at the moment). It would be fun to see.

[Mader Levap]

We don't know that. Insufficient information in the press release.

Well, I assume January is goner until proven otherwise. I do not believe they can do it (investigate, correct and test) in less than three months. I assume there was no external damage to engine (worst case).

[Comga]

As woods170 said, we don't have sufficient information, and this is an Updates thread.  Guesswork on the luanch date goes elsewhere. 

[Robotbeat]

We don't know that. Insufficient information in the press release.

Well, I assume January is goner until proven otherwise. I do not believe they can do it (investigate, correct and test) in less than three months. I assume there was no external damage to engine (worst case).

Replied here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=29130.msg965919#msg965919

[corrodedNut]

New photos: http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p278054961

[robertross]

Well, thinking about it, NASA may not want to jeopardize equipment if the launch may fail. Then again, Dragon may be able to survive many genuine launch failures (even without real abort thrusters at the moment). It would be fun to see.

Nah..I'd rather have launches no worse than what we've seen so far. That was enough for my liking.

[Nomadd]

Well, thinking about it, NASA may not want to jeopardize equipment if the launch may fail. Then again, Dragon may be able to survive many genuine launch failures (even without real abort thrusters at the moment). It would be fun to see.

 Could the current Dragon separate from the trunk and land if the booster shut down in a fairly benign way, or would the FTS ruin it's day before it had a chance?

[SpacexULA]

Could the current Dragon separate from the trunk and land if the booster shut down in a fairly benign way, or would the FTS ruin it's day before it had a chance?

The current Dragon has 1st generation Draco engines, which do not have nearly the power to pull the capsule away from the 1st stage in atmosphere.

[Lars_J]

New photos: http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p278054961

Maybe I'm just spoiled with the imagery from the C2+ mission, but these latest batch of images (can also be seen here http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-33/inflight/ndxpage9.html ) are all of pretty bad quality... Either they are sharp but very grainy (very high ISO), or they are blurry or smudged due to long exposures. I would expect this from low-light shots, but Dragon is in the sunlight of most of these. Weird.

Hopefully there will be better shots of the departure.

[starsilk]

New photos: http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p278054961

http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p278054961/h46e17df8#h4539f780

this one is a shot of the tail end of the first stage when it was in the hangar. if you download the original, which is actually pretty good resolution, and zoom in on the bottom left engine, there's a label that I *think* reads 'ENGINE 1'.. ie the black sheep of the family.

[pechisbeque]

New photos: http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p278054961

Maybe I'm just spoiled with the imagery from the C2+ mission, but these latest batch of images (can also be seen here http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-33/inflight/ndxpage9.html ) are all of pretty bad quality... Either they are sharp but very grainy (very high ISO), or they are blurry or smudged due to long exposures. I would expect this from low-light shots, but Dragon is in the sunlight of most of these. Weird.

Hopefully there will be better shots of the departure.

That might have to do with the fact that André Kuipers is no longer on the ISS. He is a terrific photographer. Assuming he made the shots that are on his Flickr photostream, if you check the Spacex Dragon set you'll understand what I mean.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/sets/72157629901589668/

[woods170]

New photos: http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/p278054961

Maybe I'm just spoiled with the imagery from the C2+ mission, but these latest batch of images (can also be seen here http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-33/inflight/ndxpage9.html ) are all of pretty bad quality... Either they are sharp but very grainy (very high ISO), or they are blurry or smudged due to long exposures. I would expect this from low-light shots, but Dragon is in the sunlight of most of these. Weird.

Hopefully there will be better shots of the departure.

That might have to do with the fact that André Kuipers is no longer on the ISS. He is a terrific photographer. Assuming he made the shots that are on his Flickr photostream, if you check the Spacex Dragon set you'll understand what I mean.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/sets/72157629901589668/

Slightly OT, but I nice anecdote:
Both Andre and Don Petit are great photographers.
I was at ESTEC in Noordwijk when Andre and Don returned to earth at the end of their mission. We were talked thru landing by Italian ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli. He's the guy who shot the terrific fly-around pictures of ISS and shuttle from Soyuz.
He told the audience that during his 6 month stay aboard ISS that he had shot a total of approximately 25,000 (twenty five thousand) pictures. However, he then proceeded to tell us that Andre and Don shot 25,000 images between them EACH MONTH of their 6 month stay aboard ISS.

Remember some of that night-side imagery (and the mini-movies compiled from those images) released during expedition 30/31? Well, a substantial part of that was done by Andre and Don.

[mr. mark]

Slight o/t but, what is the scheduled date for unberthing? At this point, is all downmass cargo loaded?

[FinalFrontier]

...prior to future flights...

Does this mean CRS-2 is off until the investigation is concluded and NASA okays the fix (which might be "do nothing", but has to be approved by a committee)?

No. Only if PFIB finds the flaw to be serious enough that it may exist in other engines as opposed to being a manufacturing defect existing only in that engine.

Its unlikely we would see much of a delay regardless as this should be easily corrected irrespective of whether it was a design issue or manufacturing defect. But "should be" and will be are two different things.

[Ben the Space Brit]

I posted this question on General Discussion but no-one chose to reply, preferring to speculate, argue and, increasingly, develop deep, personal animosities towards each other regarding the engine #1 early shut-down.  Maybe I'll have more luck here:

I understand that the vehicle will remain berthed until 10/28.  Given the great activity in Harmony and Dragon-1, I would imagine most of the up-mass cargo has been transferred already.  Is the unberth/return date based on traffic control around the station or is it a case that some of the items for return won't be ready for removal from their operational locations and transfer to the Dragon until then?

[mr. mark]

I posted this question on General Discussion but no-one chose to reply, preferring to speculate, argue and, increasingly, develop deep, personal animosities towards each other regarding the engine #1 early shut-down.  Maybe I'll have more luck here:

I understand that the vehicle will remain berthed until 10/28.  Given the great activity in Harmony and Dragon-1, I would imagine most of the up-mass cargo has been transferred already.  Is the unberth/return date based on traffic control around the station or is it a case that some of the items for return won't be ready for removal from their operational locations and transfer to the Dragon until then?

Thanks!

[rickl]

I posted this question on General Discussion but no-one chose to reply, preferring to speculate, argue and, increasingly, develop deep, personal animosities towards each other regarding the engine #1 early shut-down.  Maybe I'll have more luck here:

I understand that the vehicle will remain berthed until 10/28.  Given the great activity in Harmony and Dragon-1, I would imagine most of the up-mass cargo has been transferred already.  Is the unberth/return date based on traffic control around the station or is it a case that some of the items for return won't be ready for removal from their operational locations and transfer to the Dragon until then?

I understand that some of the cargo to be returned is blood and urine samples from the ISS astronauts.  Maybe those samples will be taken over the next couple of weeks.  That's just speculation on my part, though.

[Joffan]

There's a steady trickle of ins and outs for the Dragon
http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/reports/iss_reports/2012/10152012.html

Yuri Malenchenko collected regular air samples for return on Dragon, using a Russian AK-1M absorber in the SM for air & Freon, plus IPD-CO Draeger tubes, on a cartridge belt with a pump, to check the SM cabin air for CO (Carbon Monoxide) and subsequently also for NH3 (Ammonia).

...

Working together, Suni & Aki had ~30 min to transfer DCB (double-cold bagged) biomed samples from ISS-based MELFI (Minus Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS) to GLACIER 2 (General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator 2) on the SpX-1 Dragon capsule, docked at Node-2 nadir.

Later, Sunita performed the periodic status check on the Dragon-based GLACIER, ensuring that the freezer is operational and its temperature is as expected, and then removed cold-storage samples from the GLACIER for transfer to an ISS-based MERLIN (Microgravity Experiment Research Locker Incubator) freezer, afterwards stopping MPC.

...

10/28/12 – SpX-1 Dragon unberthing (?)

And the "(?)" could mean anything from (flexible) to (unconfirmed).

[Ben the Space Brit]

I posted this question on General Discussion but no-one chose to reply, preferring to speculate, argue and, increasingly, develop deep, personal animosities towards each other regarding the engine #1 early shut-down.  Maybe I'll have more luck here:

I understand that the vehicle will remain berthed until 10/28.  Given the great activity in Harmony and Dragon-1, I would imagine most of the up-mass cargo has been transferred already.  Is the unberth/return date based on traffic control around the station or is it a case that some of the items for return won't be ready for removal from their operational locations and transfer to the Dragon until then?

I understand that some of the cargo to be returned is blood and urine samples from the ISS astronauts.  Maybe those samples will be taken over the next couple of weeks.  That's just speculation on my part, though.

Thanks, that's almost certainly it.  As a type-2 diabetic, I know that the scheduling of biological samples can be time-critical if you want certain data.