Updates SpaceX Falcon 9 F5 CRS SpX-2 through CRS SpX-12 Updates

Musk said at the press conference that the array temperatures were falling quickly. They went so low that SpaceX decided to deploy with only one thruster pod online. And they really wanted at least two up and running.

I wonder if there could be some contamination that froze up the pressurisation system. One of Musk's tweets said that the pods were "trending positive", but AFAIK pressurisation is usually fairly quick on RCS systems.

Just my :2cents:

:hailprobe:
 
Cairan said:
I beg to differ... Those "bugs" are quite usual on relatively new spaceships... At least no-one got killed like the issues with Soyuz-1 or Soyuz-11 for that matter... It's the forth flight and the first to have issues so far on the Dragon side... and it's a cargo flight! Not bad at all.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but with the perilous funding state and (supposedly) competition from Boeing and others, SpaceX absolutely cannot afford any failures at this point. A Falcon 9 exploding would pretty much put an end to SpaceX's dreams. Hell, the sequester starting tomorrow is gonna hack almost half a billion dollars out of the commercial spaceflight budget, so they may come to an end anyway.
 
Looking back on the RCS issue sequence, I now have even more admiration on the Gemini 8 crew: how Neil Armstrong and David Scott managed to stop their spacecraft's crazy RCS without the help of the ground (out of ground station range) and just moments before the roll became too dangerous....
 
Ark said:
Yeah, but with the perilous funding state and (supposedly) competition from Boeing and others, SpaceX absolutely cannot afford any failures at this point. A Falcon 9 exploding would pretty much put an end to SpaceX's dreams. Hell, the sequester starting tomorrow is gonna hack almost half a billion dollars out of the commercial spaceflight budget, so they may come to an end anyway.
Click to expand...

What you say may be correct. The problem is that, for commercial spaceflight to become robust, it NEEDS to have opportunities to have failures and learn from them. It is a vital part of the process.

If these complex new systems aren't allowed to have even a bulb burn out during flight and funding gets axed because of it, well, that is a problem with our government and society, not the system.
 
Cairan said:
I beg to differ... Those "bugs" are quite usual on relatively new spaceships... At least no-one got killed like the issues with Soyuz-1 or Soyuz-11 for that matter... It's the forth flight and the first to have issues so far on the Dragon side... and it's a cargo flight! Not bad at all.
Click to expand...

Every spacecraft got in the begin issues, and there learned to solve the problems of the cause of it, no matter of you be SpaceX, or ESA.

However, its not really fair to grab the Soyuz fails in this discussion. That is simple compare apples with pears.


Thunder Chicken said:
What you say may be correct. The problem is that, for commercial spaceflight to become robust, it NEEDS to have opportunities to have failures and learn from them. It is a vital part of the process.

If these complex new systems aren't allowed to have even a bulb burn out during flight and funding gets axed because of it, well, that is a problem with our government and society, not the system.
Click to expand...

Well, of course 'private' spaceflight can have problems. But there got a more small window for failures then government spaceflight. Its hard in the private world, and when SpaceX next launch also got a problem, then sadly there are much less interest for the private world for SpaceX. I known, its something not what I like to say, but that is the problem with the private world.
 
I just want to underline that despite all the "drama", it still is cargo flights we're talking about... not manned flights yet. Heck, they tested out the Space Shuttle without any practical abort methods and STS-1 came real close to a Bad Day when we look back at it...
 
And launch video from spacexchannel:

Full webcast from spacexchannel:
 
Thunder Chicken said:
This was one of the big reasons for COTS/CRS - opportunity for many "all up" flights to test the whole system soup-to-nuts and stomp out the issues inherent with the development of a new complex system before manned flights, with some cargo getting to the station for the money. They're doing it right :cheers:

Fly and learn, fly and learn...that's what we need to do.
Click to expand...

Second that.

Bob Clark
 
Spaceflightnow:
NASA has approved plans for SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station on Sunday.
Click to expand...

After a series of rendezvous burns to fine-tune its approach, Dragon will arrive at a point directly beneath the space station early Sunday. Once the capsule is about 30 feet below the complex, station commander Kevin Ford will use the lab's robotic arm to grapple Dragon at 6:01 a.m. EST (1101 GMT).
Click to expand...
 
30 meter hold point

That was pretty cool, watching the solar arrays rotate like that. Luckily enough I can watch it streaming here at work.

0504 EST, Dragon OK'd for final approach to capture point.

edit-
0522 Dragon at the hold point @ 10 meters

edit-
Go for Dragon capture

edit -
0431 Dragon capture confirmed (over Northern Ukraine)
 
Last edited:
After a slightly cautious work on aligning to the Harmony nadir CBM, the Dragon was successfully berthed at 13:56 GMT! :thumbup:

Remember this happened 45.5 hours after we were talking of a possible LOM at least and perhaps even a LOV....... :hailprobe:
 
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