SpaceX Updates (Thread 8)

By DocM
in Science News & Discussion

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SarK0Y

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, IsItPluggedIn said:

I have no idea what this says. Can we please have this in English or French, I can do French. 

i think @DocM got it right :) (we've the long road of discussions) but if you'd like to know: Clowns never have been good for Rocketry Science.  By the way..

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Additionally, a November supply delivery to the International Space Station (ISS) under a contract SpaceX signed with NASA also had to be scrapped. (There are other companies and international space agencies that can deliver supplies to the ISS.)

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2016/1208/Will-SpaceX-lose-more-customers-after-September-rocket-explosion

the're high probability that 2017th will become last year for Musk.

Mentor

Beittil

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Posted (edited)

No astros on Dragon2 next year :'(

 

First crewed flight slipped to at least may 2018. First uncrewed flight currently planned for November 2017.

 

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/spacex/2016/12/12/spacexs-first-launch-astronauts-slips-2018/95354964/

Edited by Beittil
Grand Master

DocM

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From the CCtCap

 

NASA updated Crew Dragon & Starliner schedules.

Slips due to NASA bureaucracy delays and dev issues (mainly Starliner, as discussed) 

SpaceX Demonstration Mission 1 (No Crew): November 2017
Boeing Orbital Flight Test (No Crew: June 2018
SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2 (Crew): May 2018
Boeing Crew Flight Test (Crew): August 2018

 

Grand Master

BetaguyGZT

Posted
Posted

/sigh ....

 

So SpaceX needs to slow down (again) because NASA and everyone else can't keep up. The CCtCap is now four years behind schedule. 

 

Now it's just getting ridiculous. ULA, LH/M & Boeing are whining because they can't finish tasks on time, so they hold up the show. By the time they're ready to actually fly, SpaceX will be ready to test ITS. Or maybe that's the whole objective?

 

Looks like there's another swamp that needs draining ... the one at NASA. The culture that allows crap like this to happen is why the U.S. Space Program is the mess that it currently is.

Grand Master

BetaguyGZT

Posted
Posted

Well, hopefully the "climate" will shift beginning this Spring once the new Administration has had time to settle in and get things organized. This first six months is likely going to be just sorting out the messes (and there are many) and getting new Management up to speed.

 

Once there's been time to really take a good, thorough look at NASA, I guarantee that things are gonna avalanche ... and OldSpace ain't gonna like it one bit. Elon Musk might just end up in charge of NASA.

 

Crazy? It could happen, and isn't as far-fetched as it sounds ... :yes: 

Grand Master

DocM

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The most discussed candidates for NASA Admin. are Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Oklahoma), who wrote a very interesting NASA reform proposal; Scott Pace, Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, a stay the course type; and....drumroll....Mike "The Stick" Griffin, daddy of Ares I. An outside shot of former Rep. Bob Graham, a member of the transition team and space advocate.

Grand Master

BetaguyGZT

Posted
Posted

Brindenstine = okay choice ...

 

Pace I don't know much about, but if it's "stay the course" then it's a "nope" from me (followed by "wouldn't be prudent" hand gestures) ...

 

Mike Griffin = nausea and moon-shot barfing. Wasn't he already NASA Admin? (Okay, here comes the long-distance record ... this might be the "moon-shot" ... :rofl:)

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anthdci

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, jjkusaf said:

Not really an update ... but one year ago today.  First time the first stage or an orbital rocket successfully landed vertically.

 

still gives me chills watching that. Cant wait for them to get flying again.

Grand Master

DocM

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From NASA's 2016 Commercial Crew progress review,

 

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>
The year marked a substantial transition from design of critical elements and systems in previous years to the manufacturing of the spacecraft and launch vehicles, substantial modifications to launch complexes in Florida and the first integrated simulations of the teams that will oversee the flights. Along the way, advances were overseen by NASA engineers and the astronauts who will fly the spacecraft into orbit for the flight tests.
>
SpaceX performed five drop tests to evaluate the parachutes that must deploy to allow a returned Crew Dragon to land safely in the water. The SuperDraco engines that will be used on the first flight test were also hot-fired to qualify them for flight.

The company also ran a series of qualification tests on the spacesuits astronauts will wear during missions aboard Crew Dragon spacecraft. The evaluation included putting the suit in a vacuum chamber to see how it withstood conditions similar to those found in space outside a spacecraft.
>
SpaceX continued extensive modifications at Launch Complex 39A during 2016, which included pad structures being refurbished or rebuilt to serve Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets instead of the space shuttles that previously launched from it. Additionally, the Crew Access Arm has been built, and SpaceX expects to bolt it into place on the tower in 2017. The fixed service structure and its foundations were strengthened to handle higher-force hurricane winds and to provide a stronger base for the vertical integration crane planned for the complex in the future.


If the original plan holds, 2 more levels will be added to the FSS as well.

  • BetaguyGZT and Emn1ty
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Grand Master

DocM

Posted
  • Author
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Also,

 

These are being built in the new Dragon Hatchery in the former Triumph Aerostructures-Vought plant down the street from the SpaceX Hawthorne factory.

 

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SpaceX has five Crew Dragon spacecraft in different levels of assembly. The company built and successfully tested one module to prove its environmental and life support systems and another as a structural test article. The three spacecraft that will fly the flight tests and the first operational mission to the space station are in various stages of production in SpaceX’s manufacturing facilities in Hawthorne, California.

Edited by DocM
Grand Master

DocM

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ITAR-compatable version of the AMOS-6 report. 

Return to flight: Iridium NEXT on January 8 from Vandenberg AFB.

January 2, 2017, 9:00am EST



Over the past four months, officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. Air Force (USAF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), along with several industry experts, have collaborated with SpaceX on a rigorous investigation to determine the cause of the anomaly that occurred September 1 at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This investigation team was established according to SpaceX's accident investigation plan as approved by the FAA. As the primary federal licensing body, the FAA provided oversight and coordination for the investigation.

Investigators scoured more than 3,000 channels of video and telemetry data covering a very brief timeline of events – there were just 93 milliseconds from the first sign of anomalous data to the loss of the second stage, followed by loss of the vehicle. Because the failure occurred on the ground, investigators were also able to review umbilical data, ground-based video, and physical debris. To validate investigation analysis and findings, SpaceX conducted a wide range of tests at its facilities in Hawthorne, California and McGregor, Texas.

The accident investigation team worked systematically through an extensive fault tree analysis and concluded that one of the three composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) inside the second stage liquid oxygen (LOX) tank failed. Specifically, the investigation team concluded the failure was likely due to the accumulation of oxygen between the COPV liner and overwrap in a void or a buckle in the liner, leading to ignition and the subsequent failure of the COPV.

Each stage of Falcon 9 uses COPVs to store cold helium which is used to maintain tank pressure, and each COPV consists of an aluminum inner liner with a carbon overwrap. The recovered COPVs showed buckles in their liners. Although buckles were not shown to burst a COPV on their own, investigators concluded that super chilled LOX can pool in these buckles under the overwrap. When pressurized, oxygen pooled in this buckle can become trapped; in turn, breaking fibers or friction can ignite the oxygen in the overwrap, causing the COPV to fail. In addition, investigators determined that the loading temperature of the helium was cold enough to create solid oxygen (SOX), which exacerbates the possibility of oxygen becoming trapped as well as the likelihood of friction ignition.

The investigation team identified several credible causes for the COPV failure, all of which involve accumulation of super chilled LOX or SOX in buckles under the overwrap. The corrective actions address all credible causes and focus on changes which avoid the conditions that led to these credible causes. In the short term, this entails changing the COPV configuration to allow warmer temperature helium to be loaded, as well as returning helium loading operations to a prior flight proven configuration based on operations used in over 700 successful COPV loads. In the long term, SpaceX will implement design changes to the COPVs to prevent buckles altogether, which will allow for faster loading operations.

SpaceX is targeting return to flight from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) with the Iridium NEXT launch on January 8. SpaceX greatly appreciates the support of our customers and partners throughout this process, and we look forward to fulfilling our manifest in 2017 and beyond.

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