SpaceX F9 / Crew Dragon : Crew-7 : KSC LC-39A : 26 August 2023 (07:27 UTC)

[FutureSpaceTourist]

More NASA Crew-7 arrival photos from flickr

[kdhilliard]

Man, that is big piece of hardware that came off.
...

Reformatted links:
20-second short "dragon crew 7 fod": https://youtube.com/watch?v=D3OdOhohjVA
Timestamped link to source video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5KeIAYTW8eQ&t=4888

Wowo! What the heck is that? What is happening?

*One* thing happening is the forum breaking the time stamp for embedded video.
A workaround is using the long-form links but removing the "www." to suppress embedding, as I've done above.
Note that the second video starts with the opening of the nosecone at 1:21:28, and the not-so-captive nutplate makes its appearance 74 seconds later at 1:22:42.

[LouScheffer]

Here's a hand-wavey argument to show the very short re-entry burn was likely plausible and deliberate.

First, note that RTLS entries with a long (20 second-ish) re-entry burn then have very low aerodynamic deceleration thereafter (about 2G).

Next, note that Starlink ASDS re-entry burns exit at a much higher velocity, and hence have a much higher atmospheric deceleration (about 6Gs)

Finally the two missions shown in the first example above shows a clear tradeoff.  With an entry burn about 2 seconds shorter, the peak atmospheric deceleration is higher by about 0.3G.   If this tradeoff continues (plausible as the widths of the two spikes are similar, and the sum of the area under the two curves must be the same) then a 20 second reduction in entry burn would result in about 3Gs more aero deceleration, or very roughly 5Gs total.  But we know from the Starlink missions (second example above) that the booster can withstand about 6G aero deceleration without eating into its lifetime.  And a 20 second reduction in the re-entry burn brings us to about 3 seconds, as observed.

Of course this is an oversimplification, as the RTLS is coming almost straight down whereas the ASDS missions still have a large horizontal component even after the entry burn.  This means the RLTS mission will hit the denser atmosphere more quickly than ASDS entries, which may result in less total deceleration from similar peak deceleration. But it's very clear, however, that a much shorter entry burn will be allowed before the booster reaches the demonstrated 6G aero deceleration limit.

P.S.  In retrospect, SpaceX has clearly been working up tp this.  Here is transporter 7, with an 11 second, one engine, re-entry burn, followed by a 5G aero decleration.  This gave a very significant 163 m/s performance boost compared to Transporter-6, which used a classic 20 second re-entry burn.  And an even shorter but 3-engine burn should be even more efficient.  Plus there is still some margin to get to the 6G aero deceleration shown in the ASDS entries.

[shiro]

Some reusability stats for this launch (SpaceX Crew-7):

Booster B1081.1 turnaround time: N/A
(the booster is brand new).

FYI: median turnaround time for Falcon 9 / Heavy boosters is currently 53.69 days *
* – based on the last 30 launches, excluding new first stages.

Launchpad LC-39A turnaround time: 29 days 4 hours 23 minutes
(the previous launch from this pad was Falcon Heavy with Jupiter-3 (EchoStar-24) on Jul 29, 2023).

FYI: median turnaround time for LC-39A is currently 15.64 days *
* – based on the last 30 launches.

The same type of stats for previous SpaceX launches may be found on this spreadsheet online.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Nice Crew-7 video montage on this tweet:

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1698171421418263012

One week after @NASA's Crew-7 arrived at the @space_station, Dragon and the Crew-6 astronauts are set to depart on Sunday, September 3 → spacex.com/launches

[litton4]

Here's a hand-wavey argument to show the very short re-entry burn was likely plausible and deliberate.

First, note that RTLS entries with a long (20 second-ish) re-entry burn then have very low aerodynamic deceleration thereafter (about 2G).

Next, note that Starlink ASDS re-entry burns exit at a much higher velocity, and hence have a much higher atmospheric deceleration (about 6Gs)

Finally the two missions shown in the first example above shows a clear tradeoff.  With an entry burn about 2 seconds shorter, the peak atmospheric deceleration is higher by about 0.3G.   If this tradeoff continues (plausible as the widths of the two spikes are similar, and the sum of the area under the two curves must be the same) then a 20 second reduction in entry burn would result in about 3Gs more aero deceleration, or very roughly 5Gs total.  But we know from the Starlink missions (second example above) that the booster can withstand about 6G aero deceleration without eating into its lifetime.  And a 20 second reduction in the re-entry burn brings us to about 3 seconds, as observed.

Of course this is an oversimplification, as the RTLS is coming almost straight down whereas the ASDS missions still have a large horizontal component even after the entry burn.  This means the RLTS mission will hit the denser atmosphere more quickly than ASDS entries, which may result in less total deceleration from similar peak deceleration. But it's very clear, however, that a much shorter entry burn will be allowed before the booster reaches the demonstrated 6G aero deceleration limit.

P.S.  In retrospect, SpaceX has clearly been working up tp this.  Here is transporter 7, with an 11 second, one engine, re-entry burn, followed by a 5G aero decleration.  This gave a very significant 163 m/s performance boost compared to Transporter-6, which used a classic 20 second re-entry burn.  And an even shorter but 3-engine burn should be even more efficient.  Plus there is still some margin to get to the 6G aero deceleration shown in the ASDS entries.

I've also noticed that they don't provide the telemetry for the booster after second stage sep on crew missions, like they do on Starlink ones (at least on Crew 6 and 7), which means none of the informative plots that our esteemed member @OneSpeed has often provided, thus denying much analysis..

[OneSpeed]

I've also noticed that they don't provide the telemetry for the booster after second stage sep on crew missions, like they do on Starlink ones (at least on Crew 6 and 7), which means none of the informative plots that our esteemed member @OneSpeed has often provided, thus denying much analysis..

I've had my best shot at it here: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42389.msg2520990#msg2520990

[litton4]

I've also noticed that they don't provide the telemetry for the booster after second stage sep on crew missions, like they do on Starlink ones (at least on Crew 6 and 7), which means none of the informative plots that our esteemed member @OneSpeed has often provided, thus denying much analysis..

I've had my best shot at it here: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42389.msg2520990#msg2520990

Fantastic! Thanks!

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/astrojaws/status/1700174701232882110

I wish I could fully capture how stunning the view from the Cupola is. It’s not just the view of Earth that amazes me, but also looking at this incredible orbiting laboratory we’ve constructed in space. @Space_Station  is a testament to what humans can do when we work together.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Some launch day photos from NASA Kennedy flickr that I don’t think have been posted before

[Oersted]

Got to say I am somewhat disappointed about how very little we hear from Crew-7 in the media. There was so much talk in Denmark about Andreas Mogensen before his long-duration mission, but since he went up... Well, basically very little has been heard from him. He did put a Danish flag in the Cupola for the recent Danish succession of the throne. But apart from that, not much. At least not that hit mainstream media...

[Oersted]

Crew-7 just got a date for their return: 'no earlier than March 8'.

Tweet by Commander Mogensen:
https://twitter.com/Astro_Andreas/status/1758434989723504958

No spacewalk for him.

[Ken the Bin]

NGA Space Debris notice that appears to be a splashdown notice for Crew-7, but way early. I can't think of anything else expected to return before Crew-7.

260623Z JAN 24
NAVAREA IV 190/24(11).
GULF OF MEXICO.
WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC.
FLORIDA.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, SPACE DEBRIS
   A. 251520Z TO 251550Z FEB, ALTERNATE
      260630Z FEB TO 031305Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 
      28-50.99N 080-13.80W.
   B. 251520Z TO 251550Z FEB, ALTERNATE
      260640Z FEB TO 031305Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 
      29-47.99N 080-40.01W.
   C. 251510Z TO 251540Z FEB, ALTERNATE
      260640Z FEB TO 031300Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 
      30-54.84N 080-15.00W.
   D. 250725Z TO 250755Z FEB, ALTERNATE
      251540Z FEB TO 031325Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 
      29-42.85N 086-10.86W.
   E. 250730Z TO 250800Z FEB, ALTERNATE
      251545Z FEB TO 031330Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 
      29-47.99N 087-30.00W.
   F. 250715Z TO 250745Z FEB, ALTERNATE
      251535Z FEB TO 031320Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 
      29-16.55N 084-12.00W.
   G. 251540Z TO 251610Z FEB, ALTERNATE
      260645Z FEB TO 031325Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 
      28-05.99N 083-54.00W.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 031430Z MAR 24.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/cknasaboy/status/1763704351611056462

Crew Dragon Endurance, lit by the rising moon, with star trails and Earth-glow in the background - this is a 150 second, f11, ISO 1000 exposure.

Not pictured - the 10 blurry horrible messes before I snagged this one lol

[Ken the Bin]

A new NGA Space Debris notice for splashdown. The previous notice has been active all of this time, and is not canceled by the new notice, but it expires tomorrow.

Note that this notice was created on February 22 (first line of the notice) but was only emailed a little while ago.

221741Z FEB 24
NAVAREA IV 239/24(11).
GULF OF MEXICO.
WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC.
FLORIDA.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, SPACE DEBRIS
   A. 090150Z TO 090220Z AND 091020 TO 091050Z MAR
      ALTERNATE 100130Z TO 160805Z MAR 
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 28-50.98N 080-13.80W.
   B. 090200Z TO 090230Z AND 091015Z TO 091045Z MAR
      ALTERNATE 100135Z TO 160800Z MAR  
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF  29-47.98N 080-40.01W.
   C. 091010Z TO 091040Z AND 100140Z TO 100210Z MAR
      ALTERNATE 100945Z TO160755Z MAR 
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 30-54.83N 080-15.00W.
   D. 101010Z TO 101045Z MAR  
      ALTERNATE 110130 TO 160035Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 29-42.85N 086-10.86W.
   E. 100200Z TO 100230Z AND 101015 TO 101050Z
      ALTERNATE 110135 TO 160040Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 29-47.98N 087-30.00W.
   F. 090210Z TO 090240Z AND 091030 TO 091100Z MAR
      ALTERNATE 101005Z TO 150020Z MAR
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF 29-16.54N 084-12.00W.
   G. 101010Z TO 101040Z AND 110115Z TO 110210Z MAR
      ALTERNATE 330920Z TO 150015Z MAR 
      IN AREA WITHIN NINE MILES OF28-05.98N 083-54.00W.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 160905Z MAR 24

[OneSpeed]

A new NGA Space Debris notice for splashdown ...

Map from the NGA notice.

[Targeteer]

Dragon departure conference underway on privatized SG-3. Any updates on the weather?

[Targeteer]

Answering my own question

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-spacex-crew-7-return-to-earth-to-air-live-on-nasa-platforms/

[NASA HQ News] NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Return to Earth to Air Live on NASA Platforms

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Return to Earth to Air Live on NASA Platforms

MAR 08, 2024

MEDIA ADVISORY M24-037

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 poses for a photo before their mission to the International Space Station. From left to right: Mission Specialist Konstantin Borisov, Pilot Andreas Mogensen, Commander Jasmin Moghbeli, and Mission Specialist Satoshi Furukawa.

Credits: SpaceX

NASA will provide live coverage of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-7 return to Earth from the International Space Station, beginning with a change-of-command ceremony at 11:55 a.m. EDT on Sunday, March 10.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are preparing to wrap up their nearly six-month science mission, and bring home time-sensitive research to Earth.

Pending weather conditions off the coast of Florida, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the space station at 11:05 a.m. Monday, March 11, to begin the journey home, with NASA coverage beginning at 10:45 a.m. NASA and SpaceX are targeting as early as 5:35 a.m. Tuesday, March 12, for splashdown off the Florida coast.

The return and related activities will air live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.

NASA’s coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):

Sunday, March 10

11:55 a.m.: Crew-7 farewell remarks and change of command ceremony aboard the space station

Monday, March 11

9 a.m.: Hatch closure coverage begins

9:15 a.m.: Hatch closing

10:45 a.m.: Undocking coverage begins

11:05 a.m.: Undocking

Following conclusion of Dragon departure from station, NASA coverage will continue with audio only, with full coverage resuming ahead of the deorbit burn and splashdown.

Tuesday, March 12

4:30 a.m.: Coverage begins as the spacecraft leaves low Earth orbit, completes re-entry, and prepares for splashdown

5:35 a.m.: Splashdown

7 a.m.: Return to Earth media teleconference call with the following participants:

    Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
    Jeff Arend, manager for systems engineering and integration, NASA’s International Space Station Office
    SpaceX representative
    Eric Van Der Wal, Houston office team leader, ESA
    Hiroshi Sasaki, vice president for human space flight and space exploration, JAXA

Media may ask questions via phone. For the dial-in number and passcode, media should contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 6 a.m. Tuesday, March 11, at [email protected].

See full mission coverage, NASA’s commercial crew blog, and more information about the mission at:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

-end-

 

[Targeteer]

CAPCOM update, go to proceed to undock.  No wx concerns

[Targeteer]

Departure and change command ceremonies on NASA TV in two minutes.