Space News thread

[OhOh]

surely it's not that hard to figure out.

Are you suggesting there is no steering wheel or their fuel has no safety reserve?

[Edmond]

Looking forward to next week.

Don't need to wait that long. The next window of opportunity is in 2 days.

[Takeovers]

Explanation please.

There is only one window a day to get to the ISS. They launch the moment the ground track of the ISS passes over the launch site. Actually two but one trajectory would go over land, which is a NO NO.

So there would be a launch window every day. But the ISS needs to be in the right position along the flight pass too or transfer time becomes too long. Yesterday was ideal with 19 hours to docking. The next window on saturday will be more like 30 hours. Transfer when launching today or tomorrow would be even longer.

Shorter than 19 hours is possible too but for the first flight they want to try many things. They want the astronauts to sleep in Dragon, they want them to perform some manual maneuvers. 19 hours was just the perfect fit.

Maybe they want to test the Dragon toilet too. Yesterday during the launch coverage I heard the toilet is a new design, very comfortable and easy to use but never tried in microgravity. Saturdays 30 hour transfer will probably give them opportunity to test the toilet. Microgravity toilets are a challenge, any advance would be welcome.

[OhOh]

Yesterday was ideal with 19 hours to docking. The next window on saturday will be more like 30 hours.

Does the rocket carry fuel for the 30 hour flight as standard or is the amount of fuel loaded depend on the planned target/flight duration? What is the maximum flight duration for the launch vehicle being utilised for an ISS visit?

Apollo XII was struck by lightning after take-off.

According to AO's link at #2675 (Space News thread) :

Apollo 12 Lightning Strike Incident

During this launch the power was lost and many onboard computers/systems were required to be re-booted. It appears once rebooted a new current location and required target location were entered into the guidance system, a new trajectory was calculated and the mission was successful.

It appears then that the trajectory can be modified, placing the rocket on a course to reach it's objective, subject to fuel availability and any other consumables, oxygen, water and toilet paper.

[Edmond]

I guess there's no real point in going through the differences between a Saturn V rocket on a lunar mission and a SpaceX DM-2 on an ISS docking mission. :-)



Interestingly enough, the third stage of Apollo XII's Saturn V rocket was discovered orbiting the Earth by an amateur astronomer around 20 years ago. First thought to be an asteroid. It then left orbit and should be back to orbiting Earth in another 20 years time.

[harrybarracuda]

I suppose that's why they are trying to introduce a tax on orbiting satellites and shit to encourage people to dispose of their waste properly when they've finished with it.

[Edmond]

Would have been pretty cool if it had managed to come back to Earth.

Not experience burn-up.

And land back on it's launch pad.


Fuck Elon up no end.

[Takeovers]

Does the rocket carry fuel for the 30 hour flight as standard or is the amount of fuel loaded depend on the planned target/flight duration? What is the maximum flight duration for the launch vehicle being utilised for an ISS visit?

There is basically no difference in fuel requirements. Just more drifting. Maybe a little more small corrections but that takes very little. They have plenty of reserves. In fact way too much. They have all the propellant that they have not spent for abort.

They need more supplies for the astronauts, oxygen, CO2 scrubbing, water, food.

[Edmond]

Pretty damn cool.

[Saint Willy]

Much more neat and tidy.

[OhOh]

Until this



I'm sure 'arry will let us know when SpaceX's fix will be available.

[Dragonfly]

the messy cockpit was much more fun though

and in time of panic, not sure the touch screen will be more efficient than simply pushing buttons on a messy dashboard

[Takeovers]

and in time of panic, not sure the touch screen will be more efficient than simply pushing buttons on a messy dashboard

For a handful of essential functions they have buttons. Like deorbit and deorbit now. Difference being that deorbit gets them down on water, deorbit now gets them down no matter what the target area is. At least that's the info from maybe a year ago. There is also an abort button which they should never ever use. Leave that to the computers.

[Takeovers]

Until this

They use a realtime OS, certainly not Windows. Though realtime is relative, a nearly real time version of linux.

[harrybarracuda]

I still laugh at that Apollo Guidance Computer....

Your Mobile Phone vs. Apollo 11's Guidance Computer | RealClearScience

[Dragonfly]

For a handful of essential functions they have buttons. Like deorbit and deorbit now. Difference being that deorbit gets them down on water, deorbit now gets them down no matter what the target area is. At least that's the info from maybe a year ago. There is also an abort button which they should never ever use. Leave that to the computers.

do they have to confirm their passcode on the touchscreen if they push one of those buttons by accident?

could make the whole situation kind of funny in an emergency landing situation

[Dragonfly]

I still laugh at that Apollo Guidance Computer....

Your Mobile Phone vs. Apollo 11's Guidance Computer | RealClearScience

and yet all those smart phones do stupid shit compared to the mission of those computers

size doesn't matter, it's what it does or what it computes that do

my WinXP with 512MB RAM do far more and more interesting things than your Windows 10 with 4GB Ram

[OhOh]

certainly not Windows

Whatever they use requires a power supply. They may of course have solved the lightning strike problem.

[harrybarracuda]

They use a realtime OS, certainly not Windows. Though realtime is relative, a nearly real time version of linux.

Fun Facts:

• SpaceX vehicles are powered by dual-core x86 processors.
• In addition to the Linux operating system, they use LabView, a graphical programming tool that runs on Windows.
• Programmers at SpaceX prefer using C++ (and sometimes Python).
• The vehicle code is on the order of a couple of hundred thousand lines.

[Edmond]

Should be a few hours away.

"We are moving forward with launch today," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a Twitter update today. There's no leeway in that launch window, by the way. If Demo-2 cannot get off the ground at 3:22 p.m., the mission team will have to start working toward the next available opportunity, which comes Sunday (May 31) at 3:00 p.m. (1900 GMT)."

Or around the same time tomorrow.

SpaceX will try again to launch 1st astronauts for NASA today. Here's when to watch live. | Space



This is going to the ISS, just wait until they're going to the Moon, and Mars.

[harrybarracuda]

Weather looks good, the Teslas are just pulling up at the launchpad.

[Takeovers]

Let's hope they go up today. Doing many tries must be tiresome to all involved. But manned flights have more requirements for go, mostly weather related.

[harrybarracuda]

Well they're fueling it, which is further than they got last time.

They must have some fucking bandwidth, 1.3 million viewers and the picture is flawless!

[Takeovers]

They did fuel. The first stage was fully fueled, the second stage partly, when hold was called. That's part of the reason why it took so long to get the astronauts out of the capsule, they had to detank first.

Presently launch conditions are all go. Let's hope it stays that way until launch.

[Takeovers]

Complete success so far.

Dragon is in nominal orbit. Separated from Falcon second stage.

Left picture Dragon drifting away from the second stage Right picture astronauts inside the capsule in orbit in microgravity.


Booster has landed on Drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.