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Dragon Is In Orbit!
On Dec 8, 1:23*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
On 12/8/2010 9:55 AM, Pat Flannery wrote: Whole ascent went just great, and they got some really good video of the stage burns and Dragon separation. Good communications with Dragon, and she is firing her thrusters. No word yet if they got a successful parachute recovery on the first stage. Pat Since the first stage represents most of the hardware - recovery of it is potentially very interesting in producing a low-cost operation. I know they had cracks on their expansion nozzle after testing the upper stage engines. First stage seemed to be in better shape after testing - despite high pressure in the chamber during one of the tests. What was the TRL-rating of the parachute recovery system before they flew it here? I think theyre calling it an evaluation - before making claims about it - which is sensible. Still, reusable systems are the way to go where possible. The first stage is low hanging fruit as Buzz Aldrin has been saying for 40 years, and vonBraun said for 40 years before that! I'm glad to see SpaceX is doing something about it. |
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Dragon Is In Orbit!
On Dec 8, 11:06*am, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article tatelephone, says... Whole ascent went just great, and they got some really good video of the stage burns and Dragon separation. I watched the video live and was amazed at how stable Falcon 9 was during the 1st and 2nd stage burns. *The earth (in the camera background) was rock solid, which shows that the attitude and roll of Falcon 9 was rock solid. *Nicely done! This page has updates: * *http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php Jeff -- 42 Liquid fueled rockets are very smooth compared to solids. Vibration resistant gyroscopicaly stabilized cameras were first developed by the movie industry for use on helicopters. If you look at the rocket body as well as the Earth I think some of the solidity had to do with the excellent engineering that went into the camera as well as the rocket itself. |
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Dragon Is In Orbit!
On Dec 8, 9:00*am, William Mook wrote:
On Dec 8, 1:23*pm, Pat Flannery wrote: On 12/8/2010 9:55 AM, Pat Flannery wrote: Whole ascent went just great, and they got some really good video of the stage burns and Dragon separation. Good communications with Dragon, and she is firing her thrusters. No word yet if they got a successful parachute recovery on the first stage. Pat Since the first stage represents most of the hardware - recovery of it is potentially very interesting in producing a low-cost operation. *I know they had cracks on their expansion nozzle after testing the upper stage engines. *First stage seemed to be in better shape after testing - despite high pressure in the chamber during one of the tests. What was the TRL-rating of the parachute recovery system before they flew it here? *I think theyre calling it an evaluation - before making claims about it - which is sensible. *Still, reusable systems are the way to go where possible. *The first stage is low hanging fruit as Buzz Aldrin has been saying for 40 years, and vonBraun said for 40 years before that! *I'm glad to see SpaceX is doing something about it. Too bad they had to reinvent most everything, and trial and error lear on the fly (so to speak), instead of using existing technology that was proven reliable and even in surplus, as in all bought and paid for several times over, not to mention our having wasted yet another public funded decade. ~ BG |
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Dragon Is In Orbit!
Whole ascent went just great, and they got some really good video of the
stage burns and Dragon separation. Pat |
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Dragon Is In Orbit!
On 12/8/2010 9:55 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:
Whole ascent went just great, and they got some really good video of the stage burns and Dragon separation. Good communications with Dragon, and she is firing her thrusters. No word yet if they got a successful parachute recovery on the first stage. Pat |
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Dragon Is In Orbit!
On 12/8/2010 10:23 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:
On 12/8/2010 9:55 AM, Pat Flannery wrote: Whole ascent went just great, and they got some really good video of the stage burns and Dragon separation. Good communications with Dragon, and she is firing her thrusters. And she came down intact in the landing area, and has been recovered: http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/002/status.html Now NASA is having a press conference, and the sound is all screwed up. Way to go, NASA. :-D Pat |
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Dragon Is In Orbit!
On Dec 8, 4:25*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
On 12/8/2010 10:23 AM, Pat Flannery wrote: On 12/8/2010 9:55 AM, Pat Flannery wrote: Whole ascent went just great, and they got some really good video of the stage burns and Dragon separation. Good communications with Dragon, and she is firing her thrusters. And she came down intact in the landing area, and has been recovered:http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/002/status.html Now NASA is having a press conference, and the sound is all screwed up. Way to go, NASA. :-D It sounded just fine to me. Maybe something to do with your end of things? Big congrats to both Space X and NASA. This is how these kinds of things should work for government-private business partnerships. NASA's help, both in being a reliable customer, and in providing technology with the Ames-developed PICA heatshield insulation as well as other support. The same with Bigelow Aerospace and the transfer of the Transhab technologies developed at Johnson Space Center. One thing I take exception to is Elon Musk trying to paint Dragon as having more capability than Orion. As an example he claimed that the Dragon class capsules had more volume than does an Orion one. Yet simple geometrics shows that to be incorrect since Orion is the wider and taller of the two, has 19 meters cubed of internal volume versus 10 m^3 for Dragon. I would find it hard to believe that the available *habitable* volume (8.9 m^3 for Orion) is signficantly less than Dragon's. Also Orion's service module is far bigger than Dragon's, and an Orion spacecraft as a whole is twice as massive as a Dragon is given the Orion is intended to support manned deep space missions from the get-go. So Elon, please, get your facts straight, or just ease off on the hype. Orion will live or die on it's own, you just need to stay on course and focus on ensuring more success for Dragon and Falcon 9, and you'll have a pretty good slice of the LEO cargo and human transportation market. -Mike |
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Dragon Is In Orbit!
Also Orion's service module is far bigger than Dragon's, and
an Orion spacecraft as a whole is twice as massive as a Dragon is given the Orion is intended to support manned deep space missions from the get-go. The original Orion was intended to do that. Isn't the compromised, stripped-down one forced by Ares I limitations a great deal less capable? Matt |
#10
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Dragon Is In Orbit!
On Wed, 8 Dec 2010 21:02:53 -0800 (PST), Matt
wrote: Also Orion's service module is far bigger than Dragon's, and an Orion spacecraft as a whole is twice as massive as a Dragon is given the Orion is intended to support manned deep space missions from the get-go. The original Orion was intended to do that. Isn't the compromised, stripped-down one forced by Ares I limitations a great deal less capable? No, it went from six to four crew for ISS missions (it never needed six anyway with Soyuz ever-present) and abandoned land recovery, but it is still Beyond LEO capable. Brian |
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