Space news, rocket launches and ISS docking

[Darkknight 2,305]

Space-X Is launching another Dragon (CSR-2) to the ISS in an hour.. - Live Webcast starts in a few Minutes

Current Launch time is scheduled for 1610 Local, 1510 GMT

[Editor Bob 3,378]

T-8 minutes.

 

[Editor Bob 3,378]

Looks like another successful launch.

 

[Darkknight 2,305]

Dragon Separation and In Orbit.However Space-X have announced "Problems", to be discussed at their

press conference in a few hours. If all goes to plan, Dragon will meet-up with the ISS sometime tomorrow.

[kiplette 8,802]

Yay! Thank you Toytown! I spotted this with 1 minute to go and we watched with awe and wonder. Life is amazing.

[Cheekyfox 219]

Thanks also, watched it live ... great.

[Darkknight 2,305]

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

1543 GMT (10:43 a.m. EST)

SpaceX founder and CEO just tweeted: "Issue with Dragon thruster pods. System inhibiting three of four from initializing. About to command inhibit override." Solar array deployment was delayed while engineers attempt to regain attitude control of Dragon.

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

1527 GMT (10:27 a.m. EST)

"It appears that although it achieved Earth orbit, Dragon is experiencing some kind problem right now," said John Insprucker, SpaceX's Falcon 9 product manager. We'lll have to learn about the nature of what happened. According to procedure, we expect a press conference to be held a few hours from now. At that time, further info may be available."

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

1524 GMT (10:24 a.m. EST)

ANOMALY. SpaceX is reporting some type of anomaly on the Dragon spacecraft. Deployment of the solar arrays was supposed to occur at T+plus 11 minutes, 45 seconds, but on-board cameras did not show the panels unfurl as planned. SpaceX's webcast cut away from the solar array view and went to a slate.

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013

1520 GMT (10:20 a.m. EST)

T+plus 10 minutes, 10 seconds. Dragon has separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage.

[kato 3,560]

 

SpaceX has been also the first company to commercially build and launch a satellite into Earth's orbit - as opposed to the other corporations that use government money for developing, building and launching rockets and satellites

Not to piss in people's wheaties regarding this piece of SpaceX propaganda, but the only thing that highly precise piece of wording there expresses is that unlike other companies SpaceX simply (at that time) wasn't capable of garnering support from established state-side partners.

 

The only thing Orbital got from NASA for example was a few test launches of Pegasus from a NASA aircraft (probably paid by Orbital anyway, NASA knows how to make money) before switching to their own. SpaceX uses government money itself by having quite a number of contracts with the US government in requests-for-development etc.

Dragon was developed with funding from NASA's COTS and CRS programs, which of course when we get down to it is nothing but NASA's failure to continuously provide inhouse what they promised to the other ISS partners. We can talk when Dragon becomes the size of its European counterpart ATV. You know, the one with 2.5 times the payload weight and 4.5 times the payload volume delivered to ISS. Or when SpaceX launches more Dragons than Russia has launched Progress.

[Quasy 318]

 

Not to piss in people's wheaties regarding this piece of SpaceX propaganda

 

Just to set the things straight: I am not affiliated in any way with SpaceX. I'm just an amateur astronomer and space enthusiast, that sees in SpaceX a fresh air to the spaceflight world.

 

I never said that Falcon 9 rocket or the Dragon capsule wasn't paid by government money (at least as the gov. being the customer). But the Falcon 1 and SpaceX at the time of its development, had nothing to do with NASA or any other governmental agency as far as I know. Orbital Sciences on the other hand already had ongoing contracts and grants with NASA and DARPA, and the flights were booked by the government 2 years before the first launch of the Pegasus...

 

And while we are at Orbital Sciences, I have not yet found an answer to my question: why is OS becoming more money through Commercial Resupply Services for ISS ferry services as SpaceX does? For more money they offer just 8 flights instead of 12 with a capsule (Cygnus) that has one third of Dragon's capacity by mass and two thirds by volume, and with no return capability...

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/dec/HQ_C08-069_ISS_Resupply.html

 

For the comparison with the ATV: its development cost was of 1.35 Billion Euro and additionally each ATV costs 300 Million Euro (only the craft without the launch). See how much SpaceX has invested until now in Dragon + Falcon 9 together...

 

As for the Russian Progress: it's first launch was 35 years ago... let's wait 33 years more, and then we can make a comparison on the number of launches...

[rocketpayload 70]

Thank´s Toytown! I am a space science fan - looking forward to more posts like this!

[kato 3,560]

 

For more money they offer just 8 flights instead of 12 with a capsule (Cygnus) that has one third of Dragon's capacity by mass and two thirds by volume, and with no return capability...

 

Number of flights is irrelevant. Payload capacity is irrelevant. We're talking commercial delivery here - Cygnus is better optimized for the mission contracted out.

 

Payload delivered counts, and SpaceX is getting 19.8 million per ton delivered (33 million per flight) while Orbital is getting 14.4 million delivered per ton delivered (36 million per flight).

[Quasy 318]

Thanks, I didn't know that.

 

Do you know the reason why they don't just fill up the Dragons completely to capacity?

[sr5dnptylno 1,648]

Good News!

 

 

Elon Musk ‏@elonmuskThruster pods one through four are now operating nominally. Preparing to raise orbit. All systems green. Retweeted by Spa

 

Elon Musk ‏@elonmuskPods 1 and 4 now online and thrusters engaged. Dragon transitioned from free drift to active control. Yes!! Retweeted by SpaceX

 

[kato 3,560]

 

Do you know the reason why they don't just fill up the Dragons completely to capacity?

 

Well, NASA has a timetable for resupply. Can't just wait until there's enough cargo to fill up that 40-ton truck your logistics partner has parked outside, for an analogy. Basically, ISS has maybe a ton of regular resupplies (food etc) delivered every couple months and gets a big delivery (up to ten tons, new equipment etc) once or twice a year or so. Dragon is mostly used as a "trash truck", taking stuff back down to Earth - the Dragon launched yesterday for example only had 600 kg payload onboard.

[Darkknight 2,305]

Coverage of SpaceX/Dragon Rendezvous & Capture (Capture scheduled 6:31 a.m. ET / 1130 GMT or 1230 Local German Time)

 

Update: Captured

[poohsan 2,486]

 

Number of flights is irrelevant. Payload capacity is irrelevant. We're talking commercial delivery here - Cygnus is better optimized for the mission contracted out.

 

Payload delivered counts, and SpaceX is getting 19.8 million per ton delivered (33 million per flight) while Orbital is getting 14.4 million delivered per ton delivered (36 million per flight).

 

and the ATV is $35M/ton delivered not including launch costs and can't return cargo. Seems like they were designed for different missions.

 

their falcon heavy is supposed to demo this year, though it obviously would have no ISS-related mission likely ever

 

if nothing else, ya gotta admire Elon for spening his millions on building cool stuff and doing cool things with it instead of just buying a mega-yacht and sailing the seven seas

[kato 3,560]

Ah, with ATV it's all in what it transports. It transports maximum 4.7 tons of fuel to the station, docks, and every couple weeks fires its engines to boost the whole 420-ton station back into its nominal orbit that it's constantly slightly declining from.

 

Without ATV, Zvezda could do that for the station, if that fails probably also the old FGB Zarya. With together have enough fuel in their tanks to last a year. Which is about how long it would take for the necessary flights with Dragon or Cygnus to bring that stuff up there. Provided they were modified to carry fuel and refuel Zarya and Zvezda.

[Editor Bob 3,378]

Undocking from the ISS, LIVE right now:

 

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

 

[Quasy 318]

Not a spaceX launch, but still a Commercial Supply Mission rocket test (the first of the Antares rocket, the main competitor of SpaceX's Falcon 9).

Transmission live here:

http://spaceflightnow.com/antares/demo/status.html

 

~50 to go to launch window start, which is 2 hours long for this launch.

the weather doesn't look very good, so there are chances that the launch will be scrubbed... still, crossing the fingers for them. the first launch is always the hardest one.

 

Later edit: Launch scrubbed for today due to technical reasons (T-minus 12 minutes and HOLDING. An umbilical line to the second stage has come loose, forcing the team to scrub for today!)

[poohsan 2,486]

Orbital Sciences launch to attempt to join the space station set to go in 1hr 40 min

 

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/09/18/private-company-to-rocket-cygnus-on-first-space-station-run/

http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/release.asp?prid=869

 

disclaimer - I don't read fox news, I just click on links from google news