SpaceX rockets and launches

[StoneRoad]

drat - no luck with that tonight - high level cloud cover. but thanks for the info, 2hats

 

[Crispy]

How it looked from the deck:

https://vid.me/i6o5

One of the legs definitely failed - too much rotation at touchdown.

 

[2hats]

NASA TV coverage of the Dragon capture and berthing has just started. The Dragon is about 1km below the ISS at the moment.

 

[Crispy]

"boring" launch tonight. Payload is Turkmenistan's first comsat. Ironically, the ultra-repressive government of Turkmenistan has just banned civilian use of satellite dishes. Good work Turkmenistan!

Launch window is 11:14-12:44 uk time. No landing legs or landing attempt, as this is a high-energy mission.

 

[Crispy]

Launch went ok. Boring payload, boring weather, boring video I won't even link to it

 

[Crispy]

Dragon 2 takes its first flight tomorrow, when it takes off under its own power for the pad abort test. They did a hold-down test today



There's no launch window as such, and they'll be doing all sorts of tests and checks first. I wouldn't bother trying to watch it live cos it'll all be over in 2 minutes and you'll probably miss it. Will be cool video though

 

[2hats]

There's no launch window as such

Other than various range operational constraints and lighting which mean that the 'window' runs from 1400-2100BST.

 

[Crispy]

That's more like a conservatory, tbf

 

[2hats]

A greenhouse. Worth just looking in at 1400BST I think on the off chance it leaps off the pad on time.

 

[2hats]

NASA TV coverage has started as has SpaceX coverage.

e2a: Everything go at this time. Some lightning in the area could cause concerns.

 

[2hats]

Off it goes!

e2a: splashdown. Seems to have been successful, though may have underburned and landed closer to shore than expected.

 

[Crispy]

A greenhouse. Worth just looking in at 1400BST I think on the off chance it leaps off the pad on time.

Called it

 

[2hats]

 

[Bob_the_lost]

That went off, to re-use a cliche, like a rocket.

 

[2hats]

The Dragon CRS-6 has undocked from the ISS and is heading to a re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific off the coast of California around 1742BST today.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

This is Elon Musk's current Twitter profile pic

 

[Crispy]

Next launch & landing attempt this Sunday at 15:21 exactly - Dragon supply mission to the ISS.

New landing platform named "Of Course I Still Love You"



Third time's the charm?

 

[Bob_the_lost]

Next launch & landing attempt this Sunday at 15:21 exactly - Dragon supply mission to the ISS.

New landing platform named "Of Course I Still Love You"

View attachment 73160

Third time's the charm?

Now featuring new and improved blast shield for the containers at one end of the deck.

They were so close last time but it's rocket science and they have failed twice out of the last two attempts. I remain hopeful but suspect another ball of flame.

 

[Crispy]

They've failed twice, but for different reasons that were easy to identify. If they fail again, it'll be something new. I'm optimistic

 

[sleaterkinney]

A Falcon 9 has just blown up after launch, about 35 k up. It was pretty when it happened.

 

[weltweit]

A Falcon 9 has just blown up after launch, about 35 k up. It was pretty when it happened.

So, well, lucky they weren't carrying humans then.
Any idea what went wrong?

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Any idea what went wrong?

There's roughly a gazillion possible failure modes, so it'll take a while to sort through the data they have.

 

[sleaterkinney]

Great timing from the commentator:

 

[Limejuice]

Arse.



I must say, the control room people looked supremely cool (3.30 onwards).

You'd expect red flashing lights and warning klaxons, but the two people in the foreground looked like they were texting what they wanted for lunch.

 

[Crispy]

You'd expect red flashing lights and warning klaxons, but the two people in the foreground looked like they were texting what they wanted for lunch.

They will have had tens or even hundreds of practice runs to cover these sort of things, so they're pretty well prepared for the worst.

So, well, lucky they weren't carrying humans then.

The crewed Dragon has launch escape thrusters that pull it clear of an emergency *very* quickly. They'd have been ok.

Any idea what went wrong?

From the video and the comms chatter, I think something went wrong with the LOX piping on the second stage. They'd just started pre-chilling the engine (ie. running liquid oxygen through the cooling channels). Then there was an obvious LOX leak - all those vapour clouds. Final destruction was either the flight termination system, or aerodynamic forces destabilising and tearing it apart.

 

[weltweit]

.. The crewed Dragon has launch escape thrusters that pull it clear of an emergency *very* quickly. They'd have been ok. ..

As I understand it, there were lots of sci experiments on that flight that could have been saved the same way no?

 

[Crispy]

As I understand it, there were lots of sci experiments on that flight that could have been saved the same way no?

In theory, yes. Whether they'd properly survive the high Gs of escape, I don't know.

 

[DotCommunist]

I know space is hard but this has unreasonably annoyed me. This was going to be third time lucky for a decen sea based landing. If that had been a manned flight we'd be looking at a tragedy. Try harder boffins, lest I grow angry.

 

[Crispy]

If that had been a manned flight we'd be looking at a tragedy.

Nah, the launch escape system on the manned version can cope with much worse. The astronauts would have been fine.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

In theory, yes. Whether they'd properly survive the high Gs of escape, I don't know.

I spent many hours once trying to work out, from wikipedia, how many Gs a human can survive. From a quick search the Dragon 2 only provides a max of 6G, which is very survivable. According the the font of all knowledge that's in the same range as the top end of F1 turns, pilots can take up to 9Gs in flight suits and for peak loading you're looking at >25Gs in that orientation to do serious harm, although that does depend on how long you're under that acceleration.