SpaceX Falcon 9 : CRS-11 : June 3, 2017 : DISCUSSION

[Danny452]

Could it have been Cygnus?

I've just read in spaceflight101.com that Dragon approaches ISS from below and behind.  So maybe you saw Cygnus.  To avoid any collision it would make sense to have Cygnus and Dragon on opposite sides of ISS.

[docmordrid]

Surprise, surprise....a Chinese experiment is on CRS-11.

Did a search and found nothing, so if this is a dup ignore.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1049836.shtml

SpaceX launches Chinese experiment, other supplies to space station
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Among the cargo is a 3.5-kilogram device from the Beijing Institute of Technology that sought to answer questions like "Does the space radiation and microgravity cause mutations among antibody-encoding genes and how does it happen?"
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"NASA complied with all legal requirements to notify the Congress of this activity, and all of the ISS partners approved the inclusion of the experiment," Hambleton said in an email.
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[Michael Baylor]

Could it have been Cygnus?

I've just read in spaceflight101.com that Dragon approaches ISS from below and behind.  So maybe you saw Cygnus.  To avoid any collision it would make sense to have Cygnus and Dragon on opposite sides of ISS.

 I believe Cygnus was still docked to the ISS at the time that they spotted this.

[overby]

There was an ISS pass this evening for the St. Paul, MN area and with the possibility of seeing three spacecraft I went to a local park to watch.  I saw one object trailing ISS but did not see any leading it.

Unfortunately, my camera was set to ISO 100 so the picture didn't come out very well.  A bit of enhancement brought out the trailing object.

[GWH]

I took a look also, had a nice clear night although still a little light out.  Could easily see the ISS and a trailing craft which I assume to be Dragon. No sign of Cygnus anywhere.

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

[pmonta]

Here is an image of Dragon and ISS taken about 45 minutes ago from California.  Exposure time 1 second.

[Danny452]

Could it have been Cygnus?

I've just read in spaceflight101.com that Dragon approaches ISS from below and behind.  So maybe you saw Cygnus.  To avoid any collision it would make sense to have Cygnus and Dragon on opposite sides of ISS.

 I believe Cygnus was still docked to the ISS at the time that they spotted this.

According to spaceflight101.com Cygnus undocked on Sunday at 13:10 UTC (2:10pm BST) and was due to make a 1.4m/s burn at 17:05 UTC (6:05pm BST).  So Cygnus was undocked 8.5 hours before vicarofdibley's observation.  Assuming the burn was as planned then it was 3.5 hours before his observation.  On earth that would cause a separation of 3.5x3600x1.4 metres ie just 18km.  Would orbital mechanics widen this gap enough to be consistent with what vicarofdibley saw?

[vicarofdidley]

Could it have been Cygnus?

I've just read in spaceflight101.com that Dragon approaches ISS from below and behind.  So maybe you saw Cygnus.  To avoid any collision it would make sense to have Cygnus and Dragon on opposite sides of ISS.

 I believe Cygnus was still docked to the ISS at the time that they spotted this.

No. Cygnus had definitely departed!

[vicarofdidley]

Could it have been Cygnus?

I've just read in spaceflight101.com that Dragon approaches ISS from below and behind.  So maybe you saw Cygnus.  To avoid any collision it would make sense to have Cygnus and Dragon on opposite sides of ISS.

Sounds plausible. It was hard to work out what was going on, since Heavens Above wasn't showing blatant 'CRS11' orbit data.  Had to extrapolate from what it was showing and had forgotten at the time that Cygnus was part of the picture too.   

[JoerTex]

Nasaspaceflight, and Chris's story on re-use, was listed/linked in Google News this morning.

[Mader Levap]

Not sure why "0 prayers given" on a t-shirt is a thing to love.

They take things in their hands, not waiting for or relying on divine miracles or other silliness.

[ugordan]

Not sure why "0 prayers given" on a t-shirt is a thing to love.

They take things in their hands, not waiting for or relying on divine miracles or other silliness.

Agreed, and exactly what the four-leaf clovers on mission patches signify, despite losing two vehicles over a span of a year...

[Norm38]

Dragon only vehicle to visit station more than once after the Shuttle program ended...

Has anyone at SpaceX given a rough percentage for how much of the Dragon hardware is reuse?  I'd love to see two numbers. Percentage by mass and percentage by $ value.

[Perchlorate]

Not sure why "0 prayers given" on a t-shirt is a thing to love.

They take things in their hands, not waiting for or relying on divine miracles or other silliness.

Agreed, and exactly what the four-leaf clovers on mission patches signify, despite losing two vehicles over a span of a year...

I hope this will be the last post on the subject, as I don't wish to derail...

There are many for whom matters of faith are "silliness" or worse.  I am not one of them.

I offer that it is quite possible for a person to hold a strong faith in a supreme being (other than himself), while using the human intellect to achieve great things.  Reliance on prayers for miracles or four leaf clovers for "luck" are matters of the individual's preference, but Rocket Science demands that one give his analytic best in every detail.  Praying "God, hold that turbopump together" seems silly to me.  Praying "God, thanks for letting me live in these exciting times and be a part of this exciting work" seems very appropriate to me.

Thanks for indulging; it's just my opinion.  Moderators, do as you see fit; won't hurt my feelings.

[gongora]

Further posts on luck, religion, etc. are highly unlikely to be productive.  Let's keep future discussion in this thread focused on the CRS-11 mission.

[Wolfram66]

It just never get's old. Wonderful stuff - I know the landing is a bonus and not the main event but it's just great watching it. Great stuff.

The NASA TV footage from the upper stage had a "Wow! Cool!" moment. You have to squint to see it but, immediately after they cut to the upper stage cameras, you can see the core flying away from the separation point back towards CCAFS.

SpaceX launches continue to create a whole new standard for reality vs. sci-fi!

This?

This is a SpaceYamulke... also know as Dragon's nosecone

[JimO]

Can anybody locate the actual time-of-ignition [and duration] of the stage-2 deorbit burn?

Still no=joy on this question any help?

[Ben the Space Brit]

It just never get's old. Wonderful stuff - I know the landing is a bonus and not the main event but it's just great watching it. Great stuff.

The NASA TV footage from the upper stage had a "Wow! Cool!" moment. You have to squint to see it but, immediately after they cut to the upper stage cameras, you can see the core flying away from the separation point back towards CCAFS.

SpaceX launches continue to create a whole new standard for reality vs. sci-fi!

This?

No, the circled objects in these two pictures. Watch them and you'll see that they're the core stage.

[gongora]

Can anybody locate the actual time-of-ignition [and duration] of the stage-2 deorbit burn?

Still no=joy on this question any help?

SpaceX does not typically release that information for any of their missions.

[buraianto]

I mentioned this before about having seen ice float off of a second stage. Which is why I’m so sure it was ice coming off the tail of the booster during the start of re-entry.

I noticed a similar event, though with a smaller piece of ice, at SECO on the CRS-11 webcast at 29:21. I agree with you, I believe it's ice.