SpaceX F9 : CRS SpX-20 : March 6/7, 2020 : Discussion

[penguin44]

Also I believe a VV in that close using rcs would have some impingement on the ISS itself which I think is a rule violation no?

[CorvusCorax]

Also I believe a VV in that close using rcs would have some impingement on the ISS itself which I think is a rule violation no?

Not necessarily. It depends where the thrusters are located, type of thrusters, amount of thrust, distance to "things on the station" and how vulnerable those things are.

Plume impingement on the station is something you would probably try to avoid as far as possible, but there are situations where it can't be completely avoided - neither for berthing nor for docking vehicles. If a vehicle approaches and an abort is called - forcing it to retreat outside the keepoutsphere, then it can't avoid to "fart in the stations géneral diréction" in order to get away from it. And the station is so huge, you will get some weak impingement no matter what. You can however angle the stations solar panels and radiators to minimize plume effects, and you can avoid firing thrusters in the direction of sensitive science equipment that would be badly affected.

To undock/unberth a vehicle propulsively, it would likely be enough to make sure you only fire thrusters that are far enough away (pods at the back end of the vehicle) and inhibit those in direct proximity (or even obstructed by the station). But again that issue is the same for both docking and berthing. And even vehicles released by the Canadarm are still in close enough proximity that plume impingement can be a factor.

[Vettedrmr]

Isn't the picture upside-down?

[pb2000]

Isn't the picture upside-down?

I don't think the ISS has any enemy gates, so there's no way of knowing which way is down.

[smisamore]

Isn't the picture upside-down?

I don't think the ISS has any enemy gates, so there's no way of knowing which way is down.

Actually, the person taking the picture IS looking down and the folks in the Dragon are looking up (as referenced from the center of the big blue marble anyway), since the Dragon is docked to the Nadir port of Harmony, right??

[John Santos]

Isn't the picture upside-down?

I don't think the ISS has any enemy gates, so there's no way of knowing which way is down.

Actually, the person taking the picture IS looking down and the folks in the Dragon are looking up (as referenced from the center of the big blue marble anyway), since the Dragon is docked to the Nadir port of Harmony, right??

The caption says Morgan is at the top and Meir is at the bottom, but in the picture, Meir is at the top.  So picture is upside-down.

[kdhilliard]

The caption says Morgan is at the top and Meir is at the bottom, but in the picture, Meir is at the top.  So picture is upside-down.

Who are those masked men?
That's Andrew Morgan at top left -- note the "A" on his 3M mask to distinguish it from Jessica Meir's mask marked with a "J" -- and Oleg Skripochka at bottom left, so the caption order description is incomplete.  It should have read, "From top to bottom, left to right, ..."

[kdhilliard]

Also note the camera obscura pinhole on the window of the hatch to the right in that photo.

Ear...

place on nadir window
during a day pass and
switch off all lights
Then look up

Edit: Link to post with full image.

[Herb Schaltegger]

Isn't the picture upside-down?

I think it’s sideways, per station LVLH coordinates given the way the hatch is stowed (which is usually “up” toward the nadir per the original designs), but don’t recall for sure. In microgravity, it doesn’t really matter though does it?

More amusing to me, a former Space Station Freedom/ISS design engineer, are the legacy decals on the Station side of the CBM hatch that that say “TO MPLM —>” .

[haywoodfloyd]

I also like the signed decals on the top (side) wall for each supply mission that has docked at that port.

[freda]

Isn't the picture upside-down?

I think it’s sideways, per station LVLH coordinates given the way the hatch is stowed (which is usually “up” toward the nadir per the original designs), but don’t recall for sure. In microgravity, it doesn’t really matter though does it?

More amusing to me, a former Space Station Freedom/ISS design engineer, are the legacy decals on the Station side of the CBM hatch that that say “TO MPLM —>” .

And... the adhoc ISS pinhole camera on the far right, intended to project an image of Earth on the opposite wall!  Fun!  (enlargement attached)

[CorvusCorax]

I spotted a link to this,

https://images.nasa.gov/details-0200306-SpaceX_CRS_20_Live_Launch_Coverage_ISO_String-3243998

over in reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/fqu8l7/crs20_booster_view/

it includes neat footage including complete stage1 on board booster footage from Falcon9 from launch to landing.

[racevedo88]

Dragon back holding my breath for a while, good job dragon 1 and spacex

[baldusi]

Congratulations to the whole Dragon team for finishing this strong with Cargo v1 (and CRS-1).

[Olaf]

https://twitter.com/spacebd_inc/status/1206857372964016129

According to http://issstream.tksc.jaxa.jp/iss2/press/htv9_presskit_B.pdf iSIM will now be inside HTV-9.
So it was relatively short-term switched from SpX-20 to HTV-9.
Does anyone hear something about the reason?