Falcon at T-9

In article ,
says...

I've got NASA TV streaming to the kids' PC (they've got the best
hardware) and it looks like Dragon is getting pretty close to ISS.

The ground has commanded a "retreat" of Dragon from rendezvous with ISS.
Not sure if it was planned (as a test?) or if something is wrong. Since
I just "tuned in", I'm a bit clueless right now. ;-)

SpaceX commanded the "retreat". They're now holding Dragon at 70 meters
away from (below?) ISS. The SpaceX team is closely examining the
(Dragon Eye) LIDAR data.

The picture on NASA TV is quite cool with a TV camera view of Dragon
with a lot of data overlayed on top (in the traditional bright green
used in ancient computer monitors of the past).

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker

Jeff Findley writes:

The ground has commanded a "retreat" of Dragon from rendezvous with ISS.
Not sure if it was planned (as a test?) or if something is wrong. Since
I just "tuned in", I'm a bit clueless right now. ;-)

It seems there was some discrepance between the LIDAR and thermal imager
ranging going on for some time, leading to a bit of (previously
unplanned) stop and go and analysing data earlier.

Dragon stopped now at 72 meters.

Decent live coverage going on at

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind...opic=28970.300


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In article , says...

Jeff Findley writes:

The ground has commanded a "retreat" of Dragon from rendezvous with ISS.
Not sure if it was planned (as a test?) or if something is wrong. Since
I just "tuned in", I'm a bit clueless right now. ;-)

It seems there was some discrepance between the LIDAR and thermal imager
ranging going on for some time, leading to a bit of (previously
unplanned) stop and go and analysing data earlier.

Dragon stopped now at 72 meters.

Decent live coverage going on at

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind...opic=28970.300

The live audio says that the LIDAR picked up a "stray" return from a
reflector on the JEM module. The reflector in question is not one which
Dragon is supposed to be "looking at".

Sounds like a classic "integration problem" which cropped up
unexpectedly.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker

Jeff Findley writes:

The live audio says that the LIDAR picked up a "stray" return from a
reflector on the JEM module. The reflector in question is not one which
Dragon is supposed to be "looking at".

Sounds like a classic "integration problem" which cropped up
unexpectedly.

Someone should go out and put some black tape over the bloody thing ;-)


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In article , says...

Jeff Findley writes:

The live audio says that the LIDAR picked up a "stray" return from a
reflector on the JEM module. The reflector in question is not one which
Dragon is supposed to be "looking at".

Sounds like a classic "integration problem" which cropped up
unexpectedly.

Someone should go out and put some black tape over the bloody thing ;-)

That would be a good hardware solution, but a software solution should
be faster to implement. ;-)

SpaceX is going to "narrow the view" of their LIDAR, which should take
the next 5 to 10 minutes. In other words, it's going to squint a bit
and ignore the stray reflection.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker

In article ,
says...

In article , says...

Jeff Findley writes:

The live audio says that the LIDAR picked up a "stray" return from a
reflector on the JEM module. The reflector in question is not one which
Dragon is supposed to be "looking at".

Sounds like a classic "integration problem" which cropped up
unexpectedly.

Someone should go out and put some black tape over the bloody thing ;-)

That would be a good hardware solution, but a software solution should
be faster to implement. ;-)

SpaceX is going to "narrow the view" of their LIDAR, which should take
the next 5 to 10 minutes. In other words, it's going to squint a bit
and ignore the stray reflection.

SpaceX is getting ready to command Dragon to resume its approach of ISS.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker

Jeff Findley writes:

SpaceX is going to "narrow the view" of their LIDAR, which should take
the next 5 to 10 minutes. In other words, it's going to squint a bit
and ignore the stray reflection.

Well, it's called a test and demo flight for a reason.

BTW, if you look at the data overlay on the ISS stream you can see the
primary and secondary range on the bottom right (one is from LIDAR, the
other from the thermal imager, don't know which is which). They're
differing quite a few meters.


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In article , says...

Jeff Findley writes:

SpaceX is going to "narrow the view" of their LIDAR, which should take
the next 5 to 10 minutes. In other words, it's going to squint a bit
and ignore the stray reflection.

Well, it's called a test and demo flight for a reason.

Agreed. A bit of tweaking is to be expected.

BTW, if you look at the data overlay on the ISS stream you can see the
primary and secondary range on the bottom right (one is from LIDAR, the
other from the thermal imager, don't know which is which). They're
differing quite a few meters.

The most recent video feed has the data "blacked out". Odd.

Anyway, they're now holding at 30 meters below ISS. The purpose of the
hold is to time rendezvous so that SSRMS capture can be made during a
daylight pass. Cool stuff.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker

In article ,
says...

Anyway, they're now holding at 30 meters below ISS. The purpose of
the
hold is to time rendezvous so that SSRMS capture can be made during a
daylight pass. Cool stuff.

Sounds like SpaceX is double checking the LIDAR settings for the
approach to the 10 meter hold position, which is where SSRMS would
capture Dragon.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker

In article ,
says...

In article ,
says...

Anyway, they're now holding at 30 meters below ISS. The purpose of
the
hold is to time rendezvous so that SSRMS capture can be made during a
daylight pass. Cool stuff.

Sounds like SpaceX is double checking the LIDAR settings for the
approach to the 10 meter hold position, which is where SSRMS would
capture Dragon.

Dragon Capture! 9:56 a.m. EST.

Lots of clapping and congratulations in mission control, Houston.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker