SpaceX Dragon 1 - CRS-8: ISS resupply mission


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Let the Unloading Begin Aboard the ISS

video is 3:41 min.

 

 

 

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Published on Apr 10, 2016
After arriving to the International Space Station on April 10, the U.S. SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft was captured by Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Tim Peake of the European Space Agency operating the station’s Canadarm2. A few hours later, Robotic flight controllers at Mission Control in Houston installed and bolted Dragon onto the ISS. Loaded with some three and a half tons of supplies and experiments including the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), Dragon will remain attached to Harmony for a month. For the first time, Dragon is occupying a port next door to the U.S. Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo vehicle, which was berthed to the Unity module on March 26. In addition to the Russian ISS Progress 63 resupply vehicle that arrived at the complex April 2, Dragon’s installation completed the delivery of 12 tons of cargo to the station from three spacecraft in as many weeks.

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Cool stuff.  Running out of docking ports. :)

 

Speaking of ... is the PMA-2 on Harmony used anymore (where the shuttle used to dock)?  Or even PMA-3 on Tranquility?

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18 minutes ago, jjkusaf said:

Cool stuff.  Running out of docking ports. :)

 

Speaking of ... is the PMA-2 on Harmony used anymore (where the shuttle used to dock)?  Or even PMA-3 on Tranquility?

Yes...just as you stated the positions with PMA-1 being the Russia/US joint.

 

Node2 is Harmony and Node3 is Tranquility when reading references.....PMA-3 will be going to Node2 shortly and the recent EVA which repaired the power systems, also prepared cables for the move...have not heard word on the move yet.

 

:)

 

 

 

 

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Heads up to Floridians: 

 

OCISLY and the landed stage are headed for Port Canaveral, and they're setting up the crane and stage platform. Arrival NET April 11, perhaps April 12. Slow going due to swells. 

 

I hear Jetty Park or Fish Lips will give a really good view. I'll keep an eye on its progress.

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39 minutes ago, DocM said:

Heads up to Floridians: 

 

OCISLY and the landed stage are headed for Port Canaveral, and they're setting up the crane and stage platform. Arrival NET April 11, perhaps April 12. Slow going due to swells. 

 

I hear Jetty Park or Fish Lips will give a really good view. I'll keep an eye on its progress.

I was thinking about this, how stable is the stage on it's own legs? Will someone have been on board to secure it down? I cant image how they could do this safely, a big wave could have terrible consequences. But if the seas are really rough, could they topple the stage during transport back to port?

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The tender ship crew will put "shoes" over each landing leg foot and weld them to the ASDS deck.  These welds can be easily  ground off in Port to remove the shoes.

 

As for balance, it may be tall but the center of gravity is lower than the top leg mount so it's very stable. 

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12 minutes ago, DocM said:

The tender ship crew will put "shoes" over each landing leg foot and weld them to the ASDS deck.  These welds can be easily  ground off in Port to remove the shoes.

 

As for balance, it may be tall but the center of gravity is lower than the top leg mount so it's very stable. 

Makes sense, I suppose the majority of the weight is in the engines at the bottom, above them is mostly empty tanks.

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Correct,and the tanks are aluminim-lithium which is lighter still vs the titanium alloy Octaweb and 9 Merlin 1D engines combo. Now add 2.5 tonnes for the legs. 

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19 minutes ago, Emn1ty said:

Anyone know what the schedule is for when the BEAM will be added to the ISS?

I think I saw something that said next weekend, to allow it to come into thermal equilibrium first.

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1 minute ago, Beittil said:

BEAM removal from Dragon's trunk & installation is scheduled for this saturday the 16th. Current plan for deployment is (if i heard correctly) May 26th.

Why such a long delay between installation and deployment?

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Several reasons, mostly the one you already stated. But also because of other activities in the coming month, at the end of may they are entering another period where there is no vehicular activity to and from the station and it should be a 'slow' period where they have all the time they need to do the deployment.

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Few more images...

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket returns to port

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/12/spacexs-falcon-9-rocket-returns-to-port/

 

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Photo credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

 

 

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Photo credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

 

 

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Photo credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

 

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Once the first stage is off the drone ship, the ground team will retract or remove the rocket’s landing legs, then rotate it horizontal for transport to a nearby hangar.

The Falcon 9’s destination is unconfirmed, but SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said Friday the rocket’s first stage will likely go to launch pad 39A — a former shuttle launch facility now leased by SpaceX — for a series of engine firings to verify its flight readiness.

 

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The objective: Fly the first stage booster again, perhaps as soon as June.

“We’re going to do a series of test fires,” Musk told reporters after Friday’s launch. “We’re hoping to do that at the Cape, rather than transport it to Texas (SpaceX’s rocket test facility), and then bring it back. Our plan is to basically fire it 10 times in a row on the ground. If things look good at that point, then it’s qualified for reuse and launch. We’re hoping to re-launch on an orbital mission in … June.”

SpaceX has not identified what spacecraft will fly on the used booster, but Musk said he hopes a paying customer will agree to sign up for the mission.

Officials from SES, a Luxembourg-based communications satellite operator, have repeatedly said they are interested in flying a payload on a reused Falcon 9 rocket. But their next satellite will not be ready for launch until late this year.

 

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Demonstrating the Falcon 9’s first stage can be recovered and reused is a major leap in SpaceX’s goal of slashing the cost of spaceflight.

“I think it’s another step towards the stars,” Musk said. “In order for us to really open up access to space, we’ve got to achieve full and rapid reusability, and being able to do that for the primary rocket booster is going to be a huge impact on cost.”

The Falcon 9’s upper stage, which goes into orbit on each launch, and the rocket’s clamshell-like payload enclosure are still thrown away after every flight. Musk said SpaceX is working on retrieving the payload fairing, which costs several million dollars.

In the meantime, SpaceX hopes to improve its success rate at recovering first stage boosters.

 

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“It will still take us a few years to make that smooth and make it efficient, but I think it’s proven that it can work,” Musk said. “There probably will be some failure in the future, but we’ll iron those out and get to the point where it’s routine to bring it back, and where the only changes to the rocket are to maybe hose it down and clean it, give it a wash, and add the propellant and fly again.”

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/12/spacexs-falcon-9-rocket-returns-to-port/

 

 

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johnkphotos                 AmericaSpace.com Photographer

 

:)

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