tugger From United States of America, joined Apr 2006, 4629 posts, RR: 7 Posted (7 months 2 weeks 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 3174 times:
So the commercial space industry is set to continue tonight! Hope everything goes as smoothly as it has been so far.
Quote: An unmanned cargo capsule built by SpaceX under a $1.6 billion commercial contract with NASA was prepared for launch Sunday on its first operational flight to the International Space Station, a milestone mission intended to restore the agency's ability to deliver critical components and supplies to the lab complex and to bring hardware and experiment samples back to Earth.
The Dragon capsule, perched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, was scheduled for liftoff from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:35 p.m. EDT, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. Forecasters predicted a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather, improving to 80 percent "go" Monday and Tuesday.
Tugg
I don’t know that I am unafraid to be myself, but it is hard to be somebody else. -W. Shatner
DiamondFlyer From United States of America, joined Oct 2008, 1294 posts, RR: 3 Reply 6, posted (7 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 3055 times:
Quoting ZANL188 (Reply 5): Gwynn Shotwell reports an anamoly with engine #1. 1st stage burn was longer than planned.
If you watch some of the close up video, you can see, right around T+:80, a large explosion. While its not good news, I think its great that SpaceX proved they can still get the job done when things don't go 100% right.
ZANL188 From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 3247 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (7 months 2 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 3048 times:
Quoting DiamondFlyer (Reply 6): If you watch some of the close up video, you can see, right around T+:80, a large explosion. While its not good news, I think its great that SpaceX proved they can still get the job done when things don't go 100% right.
Looks like something let go right around MaxQ. Nozzle maybe?
Slowmo video of the event. Shows big chunks coming off...
HaveBlue From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 2069 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (7 months 2 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 3041 times:
My girlfriend called at 8:29pm EST telling me that a rocket was going off in a few minutes. I walked to the beach and watched the ascent, though it was cloaked by clouds half the time. I saw the first stage transition, but til I read this thread didn't know it was the Falcon 9 just assumed it to be a Delta/Titan liftoff. From where I live (Daytona Beach, FL) it looked great. Wish the clouds hadn't obscured so much of it though.
jollo From Italy, joined Aug 2011, 178 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (7 months 2 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 2919 times:
Quoting ZANL188 (Reply 7): Slowmo video of the event. Shows big chunks coming off...
Ouch! That was the whole exhaust assembly blowing off... Glad the mission is still a go. First impressions:
1) nice performance of the structural integrity safeguards and the flight software; by "engine-out capability", they meant all the way up to "engine-blown-out-of-the-hood capability"
2) quite a bit of luck involved; I wonder how much the happy ending is to be credited to the anomaly occurring to a "corner" engine. Would the same explosion happening in engines 2-4-6-8 (or, worse, engine 5) lead to the same outcome? Is this one of the reasons behind the revised (circular) v1.1 engine layout?
3) that's not the first in-flight failure for a Merlin 1C, isn't it? Can't remember the details, though...
ZANL188 From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 3247 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (7 months 2 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 2913 times:
Press release from SpaceX. Musk is calling this a "nominal" launch. Wow!
"SPACEX LAUNCHES FIRST OFFICIAL CARGO RESUPPLY MISSION TO SPACE STATION
Cape Canaveral, FL — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) today successfully launched its Dragon spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on the first official cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. The launch went off on schedule at 8:35 p.m. ET from Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The SpaceX CRS-1 mission marks the first of at least 12 SpaceX missions to the space station under the company’s cargo resupply contract with NASA. On board the Dragon spacecraft are materials to support investigations planned for the station’s Expedition 33 crew, as well as crew supplies and space station hardware.
Dragon – the only space station cargo craft capable of returning a significant amount of supplies back to Earth -- will return with scientific materials and space station hardware.
The Falcon 9 rocket, powered by nine Merlin engines, performed nominally today during every phase of its approach to orbit, including two stage separations, solar array deployment, and the final push of Dragon into its intended orbit. Dragon will now chase the space station before beginning a series of burns that will bring it into close proximity to the station. If all goes well, Dragon will attach to the complex on October 10 and spend over two weeks there before an expected return to Earth on October 28.
“We are right where we need to be at this stage in the mission,” said Elon Musk, CEO and Chief Technical Officer, SpaceX. “We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon’s approach to the space station. But the launch was an unqualified success.”
The CRS-1 mission follows a historic demonstration flight last May when SpaceX’s Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to attach to the space station, exchange cargo, and return safely to Earth. The flight signaled restoration of American capability to resupply the space station, not possible since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
About SpaceX
SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches the world's most advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to revolutionize space transportation, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. Today, SpaceX is advancing the boundaries of space technology through its Falcon launch vehicles and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX is a private company owned by management and employees, with minority investments from Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Valor Equity Partners. The company has more than 1,800 employees in California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Florida. For more information, visit SpaceX.com.
"
Legal considerations provided by: Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe
jollo From Italy, joined Aug 2011, 178 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (7 months 2 weeks 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 2882 times:
Quoting ZANL188 (Reply 12): The Falcon 9 rocket, powered by nine Merlin engines, performed nominally today during every phase of its approach to orbit,
Two catches in one sentence:
1) a "nominal" Falcon 9 has 10 (ten) Merlin engines (9 standard 1C engines in the first stage + 1 Vacuum 1C engine in the second stage); true enough, a little more than a minute into its flight, mission CRS-1 only had 9 engines left!
2) design specifications do include an engine-out mode, and "nominal" litterally means "being such in name only", so yes, the overall performance can be called nominal; yet, in real life you'd never dream calling "nominal" loosing, say, a finger out of ten, even if by (evolutionary) design you can still cope with nine fingers.
Besides, each of Musk's quoted statements are "nominally" true: no one can dispute that the mission is, up to this point, a success. The catches were carefully left *out* of the quotation marks.
The take-away: never believe what *you* think a professionally written press release means!
maxter From Australia, joined May 2009, 192 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (7 months 2 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 2857 times:
Gwynne Shotwell said during her press conference that F9 was designed to enter orbit with an engine out so I guess from one definition that is "just enough to satisfy" it probably is nominal enough
nomadd22 From United States of America, joined Feb 2008, 1561 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (7 months 2 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 2826 times:
It looks like the 2nd stage had to burn longer than expected to compensate for the engine out, so didn't have the fuel to reignite and get to the planned Orbcomm orbit, and had to let the satellite go lower than planned. Not sure if this sat was meant to be one of the operational units in the future or was only for testing.
The F9 is suppose to shut down two engines part way through the flight to keep Gs down anyhow. I don't know if they'd keep one of the planned shutdowns from happening to make up for the lost engine or not.
tugger From United States of America, joined Apr 2006, 4629 posts, RR: 7 Reply 16, posted (7 months 2 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 2824 times:
Quoting ZANL188 (Reply 5): 1st stage burn was longer than planned
I assume to make up for the "anomaly"?
Quoting ZANL188 (Reply 7): Slowmo video of the event. Shows big chunks coming off...
Wow, that's a big bang. I guess it really does speak for the robustness of the system though, if that can happen and everything still gets to where it needs to go.
Quoting jollo (Reply 13): 2) design specifications do include an engine-out mode, and "nominal" litterally means "being such in name only", so yes, the overall performance can be called nominal; yet, in real life you'd never dream calling "nominal" loosing, say, a finger out of ten, even if by (evolutionary) design you can still cope with nine fingers.
Well even with nine fingers, you will still have a nominally normal life!
Tugg
I don’t know that I am unafraid to be myself, but it is hard to be somebody else. -W. Shatner
kalvado From United States of America, joined Feb 2006, 471 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (7 months 2 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 2722 times:
Same as with ETOPS operation, one engine out is quite different from airplane crash, but someone would run the numbers to check if airline should still hold ETOPS certificate.
Someone at NASA probably already calculated what is 3-engine failure probability, and SpaceX should probably be quiet about becoming "human rated" until things are sorted out.
cosmofly From United States of America, joined May 2009, 648 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (7 months 2 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 2720 times:
Quoting jollo (Reply 11): Would the same explosion happening in engines 2-4-6-8 (or, worse, engine 5) lead to the same outcome?
Spacex said it is not an explosion. http://www.floridatoday.com/article/...aceX-rocket-engine-did-not-explode
"According to a company statement, initial reviews suggest that the sudden loss of pressure and shutdown of Engine No. 1 may have caused a protective fairing around the engine to rupture “due to the engine pressure release,” creating the debris seen in video replays of the launch."
Spacex seems to be planning to rearrange engine positions such that all engines are pushing the side of the rocket body and there would be no more center engine.
I wonder if this incident will affect Falcon Heavy configurations.
nomadd22 From United States of America, joined Feb 2008, 1561 posts, RR: 0 Reply 19, posted (7 months 2 weeks 20 hours ago) and read 2687 times:
Turns out the second stage needed to reignite exactly the right time and place to raise the Orbcomm sat because of ISS concerns, and it couldn't do that because the booster orbit wasn't exactly where it should be. They couldn't wait to deploy the satellite since it needed to get it's solar arrays going, so it wound up in the low orbit.
Quoting cosmofly (Reply 18): Spacex seems to be planning to rearrange engine positions such that all engines are pushing the side of the rocket body and there would be no more center engine.
I don't think that's the case. They plan to move 4 engines out to get the thrust under the sidewalls, but the center engine will still be there. If Grasshopper proves out, the center engine will be taking care of the first stage trip home.
Quote: We know the engine did not explode, because we continued to receive data from it
Well, that's not very technical, isn't it? The exaust assembly isn't the only part of an engine generating telemetry data, it stands to reason that sensors not completely blown away in the "event" would continue to function even in a wrecked engine: they are hardened and redundant, after all.
The video shows a rapid expansion of ignited gas, *followed* by mechanical parts release. There's no time reference in the video, but I'd call that in the ballpark of 50 to 100 m/s lateral velocity: clearly subsonic so, technically, you could call that a "deflagration", not a "detonation". Semantics apart, SpaceX PR people may not qualify that as an "explosion", but it blew up pretty well.
Quote: Panels designed to relieve pressure within the engine bay were ejected to protect the stage and other engines.
I think the "pieces letting go because of mechanical pressure release following controlled engine shutdown" explanation doesn't really cut it. Does anyone believe this theory?
Anyway, well done SpaceX! That level of fault-tolerance is really impressive in so young a design.
tugger From United States of America, joined Apr 2006, 4629 posts, RR: 7 Reply 22, posted (7 months 2 weeks 5 hours ago) and read 2553 times:
Quoting Oroka (Reply 21): the launch was still a success!
Well except that one of their payloads did not make it to its intended orbit. Still the satellite is apparently still usable there and may be able to be raised to an effective orbit but for true success the Falcon system will need to find and fix the problems.
So I say congratulations to the SpaceX team, they are really doing very very well for such a young system. They have some very big things to still resolve but are doing very well.
Tugg
I don’t know that I am unafraid to be myself, but it is hard to be somebody else. -W. Shatner
cosmofly From United States of America, joined May 2009, 648 posts, RR: 0 Reply 23, posted (7 months 2 weeks 2 hours ago) and read 2500 times:
Quoting tugger (Reply 22): So I say congratulations to the SpaceX team, they are really doing very very well for such a young system. They have some very big things to still resolve but are doing very well.
Very true. This is a great proof of their design as well as a learning opportunity that other companies will rarely get. If root cause is identified, the knowledge can set SpaceX further apart from its competitions. Regardless, the experience gained is immeasurable.
tugger From United States of America, joined Apr 2006, 4629 posts, RR: 7 Reply 24, posted (7 months 1 week 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 2397 times:
I JUST saw the Dragon capsule chasing the ISS!
I had read what time it would pass over but didn't really think I would find it and see it here in the city while just standing in my back yard. Very cool! (Funny how two little dots of light - well one's a LOT bigger and brighter but the Dragon was easily visible - can be soo cool!)
Hey does anybody know if there are any pictures taken from the ground of the two together up in space? I have found plenty of the previous pics taken from the ISS of the Dragon docking process but I want to show others what I just saw (of course it will be a picture of two "stars" on a backdrop of stars but hey it is what it is...)
Tugg
[Edited 2012-10-09 20:09:00]
I don’t know that I am unafraid to be myself, but it is hard to be somebody else. -W. Shatner
25 MadameConcorde: The Dragon capsule was captured 26 minutes early. Now time to get the ice cream! http://www.spacex.com/webcast/ The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has been
26 MadameConcorde: They are ahead of schedule. One day early! Dragon berthed. Hatch opened. Air pressure equalized. Now they will be able to get the ice cream! Good job
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