Space news, rocket launches and ISS docking

[MikeMelga 7,346]

The launch was scrubbed due to a faulty actuator on the thrust vector system of the 2nd stage.

The next attempt is on Friday.

[poohsan 2,486]

 

Landing Update

Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future though.

 

[Mapleleafdude 4,292]

Nice to see spacex is all metric ;-)

[poohsan 2,486]

Pictures of the hard landing

 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/16/7555633/falcon-9-barge-landing-images-released

[tor 17,547]

cool!

[poohsan 2,486]

video of the hard landing

 

 

[Quasy 318]

And the video from the first rocket landing attempt on a barge! Ever!

 

RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly)

 

Way to go Elon! Way to go Spacex!

[hellfire99 4,388]

A three-person crew will blast off to the International Space Station today, and two of them won't be coming back to Earth for a full year. Rather them than me. 1 year is a bit too long.

 

Space.com - live launch at 19:42 GMT

 

Have a safe trip! :)

[Uncle Nick 6,245]

With the lack of gravity, it could be advantageous for people with back problems up there.

[poohsan 2,486]

SpaceX launch in a few hours, with another attempt to land the first stage - better weather today than last time

 

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

 

And just because it seems appropriate

 

 

[Darkknight 2,305]

Not really.. Postponed until tomorrow due to weather

[BattalionBoy 17]

How to wash your hair in space

 

 

[BattalionBoy 17]

How to wash your bald head in space:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ZOIW6IgTN6U

[poohsan 2,486]

 

Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival.

bummer. maybe next time...

[kludgie 3,099]

Looks like they came very close...

 

[ian 3,996]

Just when space was getting boring, we the the BEST SPACE FOOTAGE since those old rocket launch failure films:

 

Note the thrust flame changing direction on descent.

And little stabiliser puffs from the top of the craft.

 

 

 

We've been waiting for something like this "Captain blast off" stuff since the 60's.

[ian 3,996]

An analysis of SpaceX's latest attempt to land its Falcon 9 rocket on an ocean barge:

 

SpaceX Checks Throttle Valve After Flawed Falcon 9 Recovery Attempt

 

“the issue was stiction in the biprop throttle valve, resulting in control system phase lag.”

 

Which is exactly what I thought at the time. But I didn't say it out loud.

 

Actually uncannily similar to problems experienced during the first, in Earth orbit, tests, of the lunar module LM-1 in 1967.

[MikeMelga 7,346]

I'm a bit concerned, as they should have nailed it by now. And the (future) landing pad is about the same size as the barge, although it has a "stable" GPS position and has no vertical movement.

 

Either this is the result of constant tweaking or the failure rate will be considerable.

[poohsan 2,486]

 

they should have nailed it by now.

 

How, exactly, have you come to that conclusion? They're trying to do something extremely complicated, extraordinarily difficult that has never been done before, and people expect that they should have nailed it in just two attempts? It took Edison years to make a light bulb work, it took NASA several explosions and years just to launch a rocket - imagine if they had given up after two attempts "too hard, impossible, will never work". Did Orville and Wilbur give up after their second failure? Lord knows many people back then were calling them idiots and said their idea would never work.

 

Sorry, I'm not really trying to single you out and beat you up, but I'm just amazed at how many people on the web have this same opinion; is it because they're part of the younger, zero attention span, "I want it now!", immediate gratification crowd? Or they just fail to understand just how difficult this endeavor is? Or don't understand that the R&D aspect of engineering is an iterative process which finds many ways that don't work?

[MikeMelga 7,346]

I've been following SpaceX since 2005. I've seen ALL (f9) launches live (which is quite hard) and as an engineer I understand perfectly how difficult it is.

 

So I don't expect "immediate gratification". But I don't cheer like a dumb fanboy too.

 

Contrary to what you are saying, this is not their 2nd attempt. They had a lot of Grasshopper "attempts" to nail the final approach down. The hardest part of the barge landing was the reentry of the stage, re-orientation, and the two extra burns. The final meters to hit the barge should be already something easy after the Grasshopper tests.

 

2 things are happening:

- the barge is slightly moving

- some components are misbehaving after being pushed throughout the whole flight.

 

The first problem is solved by landing on dry land. The second is much more difficult but they should have sorted that out by now with all the landing attempts (including the ones without barge).