Author Topic: LIVE: SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 - CRS-3 Dragon - ATTEMPT 2 UPDATES (Read 240435 times)

NovaSilisko · « **Reply #400 on:** 04/20/2014 12:15 am »

For those wanting to watch out for dragon, it looks here like it's ahead of the ISS, not behind: http://www.n2yo.com/?s=39680|25544

edit: fixed link, formatting doesn't like |s

Lar · « **Reply #401 on:** 04/20/2014 12:17 am »

Quote from: Astrosurf on 04/20/2014 12:05 am

Who said anything about puting it on the vessel?
they could just take a rope and tie it to the first stage and attach some bags to the stage and just drag the thing back to port

Why send an LSV? Use a regular tug that can make way a lot faster than 11 knots.

DanielW · « **Reply #402 on:** 04/20/2014 12:30 am »

Quote from: Lar on 04/20/2014 12:17 am

Quote from: Astrosurf on 04/20/2014 12:05 am
Who said anything about puting it on the vessel?
they could just take a rope and tie it to the first stage and attach some bags to the stage and just drag the thing back to port
Why send an LSV? Use a regular tug that can make way a lot faster than 11 knots.

Perhaps it is not all in one nice tow-able piece?

Mongo62 · « **Reply #403 on:** 04/20/2014 12:57 am »

Quote from: Lar on 04/19/2014 11:47 pm

Why did they wait till today if that's what they are doing? Wouldn't it have made more sense to sail as soon as the rocket cleared the tower? Or even, if budget and schedule allowed, be stationed not too far away for each attempt.

I would think the stage, if still floating, will be somewhat worse for being in heavy seas for more than 24 hours.

My guess would be that the wave heights were only predicted to reach safe levels for recovery at whatever time tomorrow the vessel is expected to arrive. There would be no point in leaving harbor earlier than it did, it would not be able to do anything once it arrived on site until then anyways. 6m waves are much too large for a safe recovery.

As far as the condition of the booster itself, I don't see that it would be in any worse condition (aside from possible seawater corrosion) than if it were to be secured within a few hours of touchdown. Unless the propellant tanks and piping were breached, it would stay afloat almost indefinitely (ships do this all the time). Given its shape and lack of maneuvering ability in the water, it would quickly turn abeam to the waves, so all it would do in heavy waves would be to roll on its axis, like a rolling pin, as it moved up and down with the waves (although the deployed legs are likely to reduce or stop this rolling). So I would expect that sometime tomorrow, Elon will tweet that the booster has been secured and is being towed back to harbor.

Which leaves the question, what is to be done with the booster (if it did survive touchdown)? I am sure that it will be very carefully examined by SpaceX engineers, but after this, is it likely to be reassembled for eventual display in a "SpaceX Museum"? It would go well with the original Grasshopper test vehicle, the first Dragon to reach orbit, and the first Dragon to deliver cargo to the ISS and return (just to name some other already-existing items).

Rocket Science · « **Reply #404 on:** 04/20/2014 01:23 am »

NASA TV coverage: All times are U.S. ET.

April 20, Sunday
5:45 a.m. - Coverage of the Rendezvous and Grapple of the SpaceX/Dragon Cargo Craft at the ISS (Grapple scheduled at 7:14 a.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)

9:30 a.m. - Coverage of the Installation of the SpaceX/Dragon Cargo Craft on the ISS (Installation scheduled to begin at appx. 9:45 a.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)

Set your DVRs as needed...

Wetmelon · « **Reply #405 on:** 04/20/2014 01:43 am »

Quote from: Rocket Science on 04/20/2014 01:23 am

NASA TV coverage: All times are U.S. ET.

April 20, Sunday
5:45 a.m. - Coverage of the Rendezvous and Grapple of the SpaceX/Dragon Cargo Craft at the ISS (Grapple scheduled at 7:14 a.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)

9:30 a.m. - Coverage of the Installation of the SpaceX/Dragon Cargo Craft on the ISS (Installation scheduled to begin at appx. 9:45 a.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)

Set your DVRs as needed...

Thanks for the heads up. I don't have cable though, are these going to be on NASA.TV's stream?

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #406 on:** 04/20/2014 01:46 am »

Everything is always on the NASA TV webcast. That's what these times are for, always for the webcast coverage.

Wetmelon · « **Reply #407 on:** 04/20/2014 01:47 am »

Quote from: Chris Bergin on 04/20/2014 01:46 am

Everything is always on the NASA TV webcast. That's what these times are for, always for the webcast coverage.

Oh. Duh. I see that at the top now. I saw "JSC (all channels)" at first and was confused.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #408 on:** 04/20/2014 01:51 am »

And this one's locked to move on to the next live thread!

Note, this is now back to live updates. All follow on posts on discussion to go into the discussion threads.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=34518.0