Mitchz95 Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 I think the thread just got buried. The static test-fire was conducted at 9:40pm EST. Everything looks good for Friday's launch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KerbonautInTraining Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 OH YEAAAH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exoscientist Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 On March 17, 2016 at 10:34 AM, Nibb31 said: Which meant that it was a pretty stupid idea to put the drone barge on course with a landing attempt that was expected to fail. Sometimes, it seems that SpaceX has a Kerbal development process. You learn from your failures. To a point. There is also a point beyond which your failures cost more money. Most aerospace companies do this sort of testing in computer simulations. Only when the design is frozen, and when they are 100% confident, do they actually build a working prototype. You don't see Boeing or Airbus blowing stuff up to see if it works. Elon has said he uses Kerbal. Maybe we can get him to call the F9 landing technique what it really is: "suicide burn" rather than "hoverslam", since there is no "hover", just slam. Bob Clark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredinno Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 This thread should be pinned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingman703 Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Anyone know what the profile is looking like for this launch? RTLS? Barge landing? I'm assuming RTLS due to the success with the last one but don't know for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KerbonautInTraining Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 9 minutes ago, Wingman703 said: Anyone know what the profile is looking like for this launch? RTLS? Barge landing? I'm assuming RTLS due to the success with the last one but don't know for sure. Barge landing because they still need to test it successfully. rip first stage you will be missed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwind Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 It'll be a barge landing. "Of Course I Still Love You" has already left port, off to prove the truth of her name after the last Falcon 9 punched clean through her solid steel deck. I can only assume that hole's been fixed by now... SpaceX has stated that RTLS is the goal for CRS flights, but they still have work left to do to make it a reality. My personal conjecture: NASA as the customer isn't easily comfortable with modifying the launch trajectory. Historically, all accounts indicate that when you combine the words "trajectory" and "ISS", NASA puffs up and hisses like a terrified cat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevenperforce Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 7 hours ago, fredinno said: This thread should be pinned. Hear, hear. Here. 23 minutes ago, Wingman703 said: Anyone know what the profile is looking like for this launch? RTLS? Barge landing? I'm assuming RTLS due to the success with the last one but don't know for sure. Yeah, as others have said, it's a barge landing. With the BEAM in the trunk weighing them down, I think they would be cutting awfully close on a RTLS. It wouldn't make sense to attempt a risky RTLS when they have a very good chance of sticking the barge landing. Another barge landing failure, while disappointing, would not be the end of the world. A RTLS failure would be devastating; it would make the former landing look like a fluke while potentially messing up FAA approval for future attempts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathan1 Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this, but since the rocket is an F9 they need to name one of their barges "F5 for safety." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwind Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 (edited) 53 minutes ago, sevenperforce said: With the BEAM in the trunk weighing them down, I think they would be cutting awfully close on a RTLS. This is not so. They're lifting only to a 400 km low Earth orbit, woth no inclination change. An expendable F9 Full Thrust should have over 16 tons upmass to that destination (conjecture based on a mix of past performance data and official statements; SpaceX hasn't provided new official performance values), and RTLS cuts that by about 30% (source: Elon Musk himself in various interviews). And even with the BEAM module on board, the dragon capsule weighs nowhere near the roughly 11.5 tons that leaves. Wikipedia quotes 4.2 tons dry mass for the spacecraft, with up to 3.3 tons pressurized upmass. For BEAM, Wikipedia quotes 1360kg. So even stuffed chock full of cargo, plus BEAM in the trunk, plus RCS propellant, the Dragon will not exceed 9 tons. Remember, Dragon missions to the ISS were originally designed to launch on F9 v1.0, which advertised 10.5 tons to LEO (fully expendable). Even with RTLS, the F9 "v1.2" Full Thrust is predicted to stay as much as a whole ton above that limit. So even with NASA taking advantage of the extra lifting power, the chance that any Dragon mission ever becomes too heavy for RTLS is pretty much zero. (The spaceraft itself isn't rated for that much extra mass.) Edited April 7, 2016 by Streetwind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchz95 Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 1 hour ago, Streetwind said: It'll be a barge landing. "Of Course I Still Love You" has already left port, off to prove the truth of her name after the last Falcon 9 punched clean through her solid steel deck. I can only assume that hole's been fixed by now... Tough little ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredinno Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 2 hours ago, nathan1 said: I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this, but since the rocket is an F9 they need to name one of their barges "F5 for safety." ??? I don't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchz95 Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 1 hour ago, fredinno said: ??? I don't get it. F5 is the quicksave button for KSP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max_creative Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 7 hours ago, Mitchz95 said: F5 is the quicksave button for KSP. Ha ha! Actually Elon Musk plays ksp so maybe... I think he's on Reddit though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max_creative Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Guysguysguysguygs!!! look at this! 18 hours to CRS-8! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotius Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Launch will be at 11 pm. my time. I won't miss it this time - awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchz95 Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 1 hour ago, max_creative said: Guysguysguysguygs!!! look at this! 18 hours to CRS-8! "Window: 1 second." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatastrophicFailure Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 5 minutes ago, Mitchz95 said: "Window: 1 second." SOP for a space station launch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent86 Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 14 hours ago, Streetwind said: It'll be a barge landing. "Of Course I Still Love You" has already left port, off to prove the truth of her name after the last Falcon 9 punched clean through her solid steel deck. I can only assume that hole's been fixed by now... They used like, two whole rolls of duct tape, so it's practically good as new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Yellow Dart Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frida Space Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Interesting. Do you recall the mishap in June and everyone saying "is that thing coming off the rocket actually Dragon? could it have landed on parachutes?" Well, now it (maybe) can. Starting from tonight, SpaceX will use a code that introduces an abort function which will allow Dragon to deploy its parachutes in case something goes horribly wrong. http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/07/spacex-adds-abort-function-for-dragon-cargo-flights/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredinno Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Frida Space said: Interesting. Do you recall the mishap in June and everyone saying "is that thing coming off the rocket actually Dragon? could it have landed on parachutes?" Well, now it (maybe) can. Starting from tonight, SpaceX will use a code that introduces an abort function which will allow Dragon to deploy its parachutes in case something goes horribly wrong. http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/07/spacex-adds-abort-function-for-dragon-cargo-flights/ That's old news. SpaceX had been adding that since the CRS-7 failure. Edited April 8, 2016 by fredinno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frida Space Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 2 hours ago, fredinno said: That's old news. SpaceX had been adding that since the CRS-7 failure. Oops, I must have missed that. I had heard Elon Musk saying he might implement that feature, but I didn't know they had approved it yet. Either way, this is going to be the first flight featuring the abort procedure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lukaszenko Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 2 hours ago, fredinno said: That's old news. SpaceX had been adding that since the CRS-7 failure. Isn't this the first time the Dragon is flying since then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwind Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 It is indeed. So this is the first time the system, while previously announced, is actually put into use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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