Dragon Mission Is Nominal
SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft Completes Key Tests In Quest to Visit Space Station Most Difficult Challenges Still Ahead, SpaceX
“Today, Space Exploration Technologies’ (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft completed key on-orbit tests as part of a historic attempt to be the first commercial company in history to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. In the days since SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the vehicle has steadily completed one task after another as it prepares to berth with the International Space Station. Only minutes after the spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage, its solar arrays successfully deployed, providing power to the spacecraft. The door that had been covering sensors needed for proximity operations opened successfully. ”
Track ISS and Dragon
NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 23 May 2012
“SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon: According to this morning’s IMMT (ISS Mission Management Team) meeting, “the vehicle is performing nominally and all planned demonstration objectives have been successfully completed to date. There are currently no known issues that would prevent proceeding with the planned ISS fly-under demonstration, currently scheduled for early tomorrow morning. During the fly-under, Dragon will briefly approach to within 2.5 km of the ISS to perform another series of demonstration objectives.”
Updated Coverage for NASA/SpaceX Mission to Station
“Thursday, May 24 (Flight Day 3): Live NASA Television coverage from NASA’s Johnson Space Center mission control in Houston as the Dragon spacecraft performs its flyby of the International Space Station to test its systems begins at 2:30 a.m. EDT and will continue until the Dragon passes the vicinity of the station. A news briefing will be held at 10 a.m. following the activities.”
The launch was decidedly unspectacular. Support requirements a small fraction of Shuttle. Looking forward to human spaceflight that is no longer spectacular and rare, but rather frequent and routine. Yes, it won’t be as exciting. But so what?
Good point: No-one really notices trans-continental airliners taking off anymore. Similarly satellite launches are so routine that, outside the space fan community, hardly anyone notices. Crewed launches to LEO need to achieve that status. Bad for PR but very good for getting down costs and increasing utilisation.
I’m pretty excited.
Me too! 🙂
It is indeed exciting and great that a private company can be excited about their work and doing well rather than a bloated, bureaucratic organization that cannot figure out what to do post Space Shuttle.
“it won’t be as exciting. But so what?“
DS3,
I understand what you’re saying, but if you use your imagination as well as your eyes, then I think it’s more exciting than ever before. We now have possibilities that were only pipe dreams before under the old, political/military-driven system. I think space is finally really starting to “open up.” I nominate all of the hard-working people at SpaceX for the D.D. Harriman award (if such an award doesn’t exist, it should; especially now.)
Steve
Mr. Whitfield,
It had accurred to me that perhaps you had stowed away in the dragon capsule. But I didn’t want to start any rumors.
George,
I tried to, but they picked a cheese round over me, again!
Steve
Lucky for you. Elon says the cheese is now sealed in lucite 🙂
Steve, I would be utterly gob-smacked if SpaceX didn’t win the next Collier Trophy.
Dogstar3
Left an idea for you in the Obama thread. Your folly factor rating would be appreciated should you have time.
From twitter:
Elon Musk @elonmuskThe President just called to say congrats. Caller ID was blocked, so at first I thought it was a telemarketer 🙂
Obama IS a telemarketer…for the next 5.3 months anyway, till the first Tuesday in November
Excellent!
Nice, smooth flyby. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s docking.
Is it wrong of me to expect some sort of release before the 10 AM press conference if the flyby was without issue?
Folks:
Dragon’s ‘prox ops’ to ISS seems to have gone flawlessly.
tinker
What happens tomorrow is a berthing, not a docking. And “prox ops” has not yet begun. The flyby was distant rendezvous. Prox ops is next.
Prox ops is just beginning. The rendezvous is complete. And it’s not a docking, it’s a berthing. Big difference.
Nominal… such an elegant but understated word in the spaceflight business…
Now deliver that cheese wheel to the Station! Go SpaceX!
Congratulations to SpaceX and NASA on the Dragon passing its driving test.
It is still taking the test. It finished the written portion. It’s taking the road test and everyone’s favorite is comming up. Parallel parking!
Folks:
Watching the post-rendezvous press conference, Just heard the Dragon Mission Director say how the simulations team likes to torture them. It`s good to see Spacex adopt a venerable NASA tradition that`s saved lives and spacecraft over the years.
Here`s the best visible ISS pass for Dragon`s berthday.
tinker
I went outside at 4: 30 AM Mountain Time to watch ISS and Dragon make a pass at the zenith over my town of Cody Wyoming ( thank you Heavens-Above for the predicition tables ). ISS was magnitude -3 which is as bright as Venus, and it had it’s own little moon. It was fun to watch Dragon change apparent position in the binoculars as the station passed over. Too bad the clouds were a little too thick to see the whole pass. I regret not getting up in time to set up my camera. This was the best station pass of the ISS during the Dragon mission from my location.
I watch a lot of ISS passes. Dragon is actually brighter than a Soyuz ; easier to spot, but would be hard to find all by itself without ISS to work from. Probably magnitude 2 to 3 at its best and brightest. Assuming ISS was magnitude -3 and Dragon was +3 , that means ISS is at least 100- 250 times brighter than its new moon Dragon.
The point is it was there to be seen at all….
Dewdle:Thank you for the observation data! I was hoping that it was possible to see Dragon with just binocs.They’ll be closer together during the 4am pass here in the east. The visible part starts when the vehicles are almost right over head so we may have to wait for them to slide down toward the horizon before we can distinguish Dragon from ISS.tinker
I had to defend my support for Spacex in the Obama thread, so thought I’d leave those thoughts here too.
Anonymous newbie
Thanks for your remarks
What’s the kool-aid with Spacex?
First the man has a Goal
That goal is to attempt to fulfill the goal we have been promised years ago.
To live in space and travel to new worlds.
Thats what I was told while watching John Glenn climb in his Mercury capsule anyway.
We can talk about why that didn’t and doesn’t happen here forever and things will just stay the same.
I realize that we have had a commercial satellite program for years with military type RIP OFF prices that has made even attempting to achieve the promised dream impossible.
Some where along the way our space program lost the dream.
The dream is settlement! Affordable settlement!
A growing, expanding, space economy!
Mr. Musk is attempting to design into his LV HLV rockets capsules/landers, capability that proves his words are not hollow.
He is also showing the world that space travel can possibly be made inexpensive enough to be self sustaining without government one day soon,
HOPE !!!
Finally after 40 years of seeing little, I see someone finally trying to fulfill the DREAM lol Sweet Kool-aid for this old dreamer/taxpayer.
For fun I have floated ideas that have occurred to me after reading NASA Watch posts in the hopes that just one of them might prove helpful. I don’t study space so I know many of my ideas are technically flawed. And I know full well it takes hard working rocket scientists to build rockets.
The point of that name I think is that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be interested in space and realize that getting us off this rock is important. If more people were interested in what rocket scientists think about, perhaps we really could achieve ELONS multi planet dream.
Did my best to answer your concerns, I’m not a rocket scientist you know lol
Joe Q
Elon said he would make a launcher much much cheaper. I stayed up to see that bird make it’s third cheap flight.
Elon said he would build a capsule that can carry cargo to ISS much cheaper.
LOOKUP!
Elon said he will figure a way to make his rocket economically recoverable and reusable.
Grass hopper program, proof he’s working on it.
ELONS building dragon rider. Once done will be the Safest human spacecraft/launcher ever built. EVER!!!!!
The race is on for the DREAM, and Spacex is in the lead and pulling away from the pack. Will others take the challenge and catchup?
I hope soo!!!!
Mr. Bigelow is right, We need more than one launcher that can compete for PRICE!
As you said there is a much bigger space industry out there. Spacex is leading the way!!
Dare I say Mr. Musk has made himself the tip of the spear.
Spacex Hack 🙂
and meanwhile, in Texas, Grasshopper is preparing for its first flight:
http://twitter.com/elonmusk…
Says Elon Musk: “It will jump soon”.
This is on-topic, btw, since Dragon can be seen as a streak in the sky above
meekGee:
Not off-topic at all. Grasshopper will launch Dragon sometime in the next few years and then… watch out LockMart and you other arsenal leaches that make all your profits off the government. Your days are numbered.
tinker
Unless you only count “missions under your belt”, SpaceX passed the old players more than a year ago. They just haven’t noticed, and still think that “oh, SpaceX will take some of the lower-price market”.
The longer they keep thinking like that, the better…
When the heck is someone going to discuss the video released by NASA LaRC yesterday???
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
These guys seem to have found an entirely new form of ABUNDANT CLEAN/GREEN ENERGY.
Yeah, just like George Bush found the WMDs, and O. J. Simpson found The Real Killers.
I also found THIS yesterday: Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist and NASA’s Langney Research Center has written an article entitled “Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, the Realism and the Outlook”
What the hell? And WHY is NASA devoting our hard earned dollars to this silliness?? Shouldn’t we be building more nuclear plants to power our future? And isn’t the “Clean/Green” really all about raising climate change money from carbon trading schemes? If we go all nuclear (not this phony “clean” nuclear – real radiation-heat-making nuclear-like Fukushima) we’ll never have to worry about climate change.
John Gardi
– I hear you. These optimistic scientists believe they’ve found some kind of miracle cure to energy problems. I’m a realist. There no such thing as miracles, rainbows or pixie dust! Human beings have to get back to the grind stone and pay their taxes and light bills.
skepticle:
On a technical note, can you tell us how you embedded a YouTube video in the ‘Image’ area?
On the cold fusion thing, there’s a lot in this world (this universe) that ‘just doesn’t add up’. We still have a lot to learn. ‘Belief’ is a fatal flaw for a scientist that can stifle progress.
This needs to be played out until we can completely understand and discribe why cold fusion doesn’t work before I’ll be satisfied.
tinker
I’ve read quite a bit about LENR/cold fusion over the years, and I have yet to hear about any evidence for the core claims of energy production that wasn’t most convincingly explained by either poor experimental setup or deliberate falsification. From what I can tell, virtually all well-respected physicists share that view.
Why is the trunk black?
NA:
Dragons ‘Trunk’ in actually the inter-stage section between the Falcon 9 second stage and the Dragon capsule. On Dragon’s first flight, the trunk stayed with the second stage and Dragon used batteries for it’s three hour flight. This time, the trunk flies with Dragon and is used as a mounting place for the solar arIrays as well as housing a fluid loop cooling radiator much like the Soyuz Capsule uses. It is not a ‘service module’ akin to Soyuz, ATV and Apollo because most service functions are built into the Dragon capsule; thrusters, fuel, all consumable fluids and gasses, flight computers and associated electronics.
The top dome of the second stage sticks up a few feet into the trunk during launch but there is still a lot of room to store unpressurized payloads. The trunk has a mounting grid just underneath the heat shield of Dragon from which cargo can be hung, upside-down, in that space in the trunk. Once on station, the Canadarm II can pluck the payloads out just like they did with the Japanese HTV.
If Spacex doesn’t use that space for ISS cargo then they could mount payloads to the top of the second stage instead. These payloads could be free flying satellites deployed by the second stage or fixed instruments meant to survive just the stage’s life on orbit.
When Dragon comes home, the trunk will be discarded after the de-orbit burn. So they’re out, what, the solar panels, some plumbing and an inter-stage that would have been thrown overboard anyway.
Hope that helps.
tinker
tinker,
I think that NA was referring to the fact that at launch, the trunk was white. Assuming this was some type of paint, did it burn off? Usually spacecraft are dark as it absorbs heat. Often gold or aluminum coated mylar film is used to reflect the suns heat.
Doug:
The Dragon trunk was in shadow, so it looked dark. The trunk is made out a composite of aluminum honeycomb clad with something akin to fiberglass.
It’s white now.
tinker
Folks:
Dragon’s dawn!
tinker
[edit] To post more than one image just click on ‘Image’ again. Caveat: They are displayed in the reverse order from how they were loaded. -t
What the hell is up with NASA?? Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist and NASA’s Langley Research Center has written an article entitled “Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, the Realism and the Outlook”