SpaceX CRS-1 Mission Tonight

Tomk1

The first official Cargo resupply mission by SpaceX hopefully will launch tonight countdown approx 5hrs.
Can watch launch https://new.livestream.com/spacex/CRS1

shizz

Gonna stay up to watch this. Even though the test during the summer was the first of its kind this really is a big deal. The first re-supplying mission of a contract between NASA and SpaceX

irishgeo

any chance of seeing this following the ISS in ireland tonight or tomorrow night/

shedweller

According to http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=Ireland&region=None&city=Dublin
The next sighting is oct 12 at 20:47.

Which is a pity as we'll miss a great photo opportunity!

irishgeo

shame really, seeing the space shuttle over Ireland was one of the best thing ever.

shedweller

Just to add what i said above:

Quote from nasa:
The Dragon spacecraft will be grappled at 7:22 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 10, by Expedition 33 crew members Sunita Williams of NASA and Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who will use the station's robotic arm to install the Dragon. The capsule is scheduled to spend 18 days attached to the station. It then will return for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California.
According to this:(quoted from the above nasa link)
ISS
Thu Oct 18/07:06 PM 17 above SW 12 above E
ISS
Thu Oct 18/08:42 PM 18 above W 50 above SW

We might just see its undocking, weather permitting. Yay!!

Tomk1

I actually fell asleep, but just watched the press conference, excellent, the only thing that got me was calling the ISS American soil, but hey let them have the day.
Well done SpaceX

namloc1980

Surprised no mention that dragon had a fairly serious engine malfunction during launch. Large amounts of debris were shed during launch. Amazing it still managed to get orbit.

shizz

namloc1980 wrote: »

Surprised no mention that dragon had a fairly serious engine malfunction during launch. Large amounts of debris were shed during launch. Amazing it still managed to get orbit.

JESUS! Have they released a statement on the matter?

Tomk1

Approximately one minute and 19 seconds into last night's launch, the Falcon 9 rocket detected an anomaly on one first stage engine. Initial data suggests that one of the rocket's nine Merlin engines, Engine 1, lost pressure suddenly and an engine shutdown command was issued. We know the engine did not explode, because we continued to receive data from it. Panels designed to relieve pressure within the engine bay were ejected to protect the stage and other engines. Our review of flight data indicates that neither the rocket stage nor any of the other eight engines were negatively affected by this event.
--
It is worth noting that Falcon 9 shuts down two of its engines to limit acceleration to 5 g's even on a fully nominal flight. The rocket could therefore have lost another engine and still completed its mission.

http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20121008

I read that the 2nd'ary payload Orbcomm OG2 telecommunication satellite was positioned into a lower orbit than it should have been.
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/08/14297705-spacex-launch-problems-revealed-dragons-ok-but-satellite-goes-awry?lite

Also more on this:

Unfortunately, the propellant mass check at SECO-1 failed to pass the requirements to ensure safe insertion of Orbcomm and the second stage in an orbit away from Station, resulting in no second burn commanded.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/10/dragon-iss-spacex-review-falcon-9-ascent-issues/
But overall the satellite hasn't been lost, I assume it has an ion-drive or other positioning thrusters, ion-drive has successfully got satellites from low orbit to preferred orbit in the past after final stage failure. As I said I assume it has an ion-drive as it's kind of norm now, but would take many months...18?

The launch is now on the same link as op plus updated pics

Capt'n Midnight

namloc1980 wrote: »

Surprised no mention that dragon had a fairly serious engine malfunction during launch. Large amounts of debris were shed during launch. Amazing it still managed to get orbit.

The Saturn V's on Apollo 6 and Apollo 13 also experienced engine failures on launch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_6#Causes_and_fixes_of_problems

Unfortunately, the command signals for engine three were partially cross-wired with engine two, so that the shutdown of engine two caused a liquid oxygen valve for engine three to close, resulting in a shutdown of that engine, as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13#Launch_incident during the second-stage boost, the center (inboard) engine shut down two minutes early.

Jacksquat

Dragon capsule just grappled by ISS arm