Falcon 9: Dragon 1 CRS-9 ISS resupply (mission)


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Weather looks favorable for Falcon 9 launch and landing

 

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Forecasters predict mostly clear skies and light winds at the surface and aloft for Monday’s launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a resupply mission to the International Space Station, favorable conditions for the booster’s liftoff and landing at Cape Canaveral.

 

The official launch weather forecast released Friday by the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron calls for a 90 percent of acceptable conditions for liftoff at 12:45:29 a.m. EDT (0445:29 GMT) Monday.

 

A weather axis draped over Central Florida will lift north over the weekend, setting up generally good weather Monday.

 

“This will result in moderate temperatures and morning showers over the spaceport, but mostly clear afternoons as sea breeze storms move inland,” Air Force forecasters wrote. “The main weather threat on launch day will be cumulus clouds and flight through precipitation with these showers. Maximum winds will be from the northeast at 30 knots at 36,000 feet.”

 

The predicted conditions also look good for a landing attempt by the Falcon 9’s 15-story first stage booster about 10 minutes after liftoff. Using engine power and aerodynamic grid fins, the first stage will head for a vertical rocket-assisted touchdown at Landing Zone 1, a former Atlas launch pad leased from the Air Force by SpaceX.

 

The landing target sits just north of the eastern tip of Cape Canaveral, a few miles south of the Falcon 9’s Complex 40 launch pad near the northern perimeter of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

 

The Falcon 9 booster’s return to landing at Cape Canaveral will mark the second time SpaceX has tried recovering a first stage onshore. All other first stage landing attempts have occurred on a barge positioned several miles offshore in the Atlantic or Pacific.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/07/15/weather-looks-favorable-for-falcon-9-launch-and-landing/

 

 

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Risk mitigation for the RTLS?

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SpaceX: Sonic booms could hit Space Coast when company tries to land rocket

 

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Elon Musk's space launch company SpaceX has warned residents on Florida's Space Coast that an effort to land a rocket at its complex could cause sonic booms early Monday morning.

 

In a news release, the company said a "brief thunder-like noise" could follow when its Falcon 9 rocket returns from delivering cargo to the International Space Station. 

 

The release identifies Cape Canaveral, Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Courtenay, Merritt Island, Mims, Port Canaveral, Port St. John, Rockledge, Scottsmoor, Sharpes, and Titusville as the places "most likely to hear a sonic boom."

 

SpaceX leases the landing zone from the U.S. Air Force.

 

The rocket will try to land on the 282-foot wide site, known as Landing Zone 1, which was the site of the company’s successful landing of a Falcon 9 in December. SpaceX began a five-year lease on the site in February of 2015.

 

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Once the Falcon 9 delivers its payload into space heading toward the space station, the effort will turn to bringing the rocket back to Landing Zone 1, which sits about 7 miles south of the launch pad.

 

It will be SpaceX’s ninth resupply mission and take off from Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-spacex-to-attempt-to-land-rocket-at-complex-for-2nd-time-20160714-story.html

 

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LAUNCH (experimental landing) AND DRAGON DEPLOYMENT (all times approximate)

 

Hour/Min/Sec Events


00:01:08 Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket)

 

00:02:21 1st stage main engine cutoff (MECO)

 

00:02:24 1st and 2nd stages

separate

 

00:02:32 2nd stage engine starts

 

00:02:42 1st stage boostback burn begins

 

00:06:31 1st stage entry burn begins

 

00:07:38 1st stage landing burn begins

 

00:09:02 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO)

 

00:09:37 Dragon separates from 2nd stage

 

00:11 Dragons solar arrays deploy

 

02:19 Dragons Guidance, Navigation and Control bay door opens

 

IDA 101

 

 

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Not officially confirmed....but static fire has been completed...

 

 

 

and verified by Johnkphotos over on reddit, an AmericaSpace.com photographer.

 

No confirmation from SpaceX yet.....

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Just a reminder, the Progress MS-03 launches today....

 

NASATV coverage 5:30 to 7:00 pm EDT, launch at 5:41 EDT

 

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public

 

International Space Station Calendar

 

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Date               Event

July 16, 2016 Progress MS-03 Launch atop Soyuz U

July 18, 2016 Dragon SpX-9 Launch atop Falcon 9

July 19, 2016 Progress MS-03 Docking to Pirs

July 20, 2016 Dragon SpX-9 Rendezvous, Capture & Berthing to Harmony

July/August 2016U.S. EVA-36 – IDA-2 Installation

NET August 2016 Cygnus OA-5 Launch atop Antares 230

2016 Relocation of Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 from Node 3P to Node 2Z

http://spaceflight101.com/iss/iss-calendar/

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Yup. The static fire was deemed "good" and they're doing the Launch Readiness Review tonight instead of tomorrow. This ones flow has a motor on it.

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Part of the twitter post did not finish...just a repost for testing...

 

 

 

:)

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Is it return to land or asds? I'm presuming since its LEO that there is plenty of fuel to get back to the cape.

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Got my customary "Launch Goodie", Iced Tea, and did the standard three-turn dance in the counter-clockwise direction at sunset prior. Everyone in the house will be asleep so no 48" tonight.

 

12:44 AM (00:44 EST) launch window. Get your goodies at the stores of choice and make it home safe, folks. All that'll be left is DD's "Cigar Chompy Fella" to bless the flight. :yes: 

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Something I'm especially looking forward to seeing on-board the ISS, aside from IDA-2 of course, is how well the 3D-Solar Cells perform in-testing. If they perform how they should, those are game-changers. :yes: 

 

Then we've got the new Cubesats, the DNA experiments going up ... the SIS gear (Ship Identification System) .. yep, gonna be a great haul. :D 

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Ed the Sock.jpg

 

I've got itchy ears...wait a minute...I have no ears...

 

This old sock is trying an experiment tonight.....40" TV and 3X magnifier glasses....the whole wall is a TV now.......ooops, just saw a 100 lb mosquito, got to get the weapons out for this fella...back in a bit......

 

//

 

NASATV on the air now....

 

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23:26 
T-minus 1 hour, 20 minutes. The U.S. Air Force Eastern Range has finished hold-fire checks with the Falcon 9 rocket.

 

The Falcon 9 countdown is significantly changed with the upgraded version of the rocket.

 

While radio checks and flight termination system tests are complete, fueling of the rocket with its propellant mixture of RP-1 rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen will not begin until about a half-hour before the launch, instead of at about T-minus 3 hours on earlier Falcon 9s.

The upgraded Falcon 9 consumes a chilled propellant mix that allows engineers to load additional fuel into the rocket. The cryogenic liquid oxygen is chilled closer to its freezing point, from minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 340 degrees, while the RP-1 fuel is cooled from a more standard room temperature of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit to 20 degrees, according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

 

The change essentially permits the volume of the Falcon 9 fuel tanks, which are also slightly enlarged on this launch, to hold more mass of propellant, giving the rocket more performance.

 

The Merlin engines on the first and second stages will also produce more thrust. At liftoff, the nine-engine first stage will generate 1.5 million pounds of thrust, up from 1.3 million force-pounds on the Falcon 9's previous version.

 

The second stage engine is also modified with a bigger nozzle, and the stage separation system includes a new pusher device to help guide the first stage as it is jettisoned, ensuring no recontact.

 

Taken together, the modifications allow the Falcon 9 carry heavier satellites into orbit and still attempt booster landings on the coast or on an ocean-going barge. Today's launch will target a landing back at Cape Canaveral, the second time such a return-to-launch-site maneuver has been attempted.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/07/17/spacex-9-mission-status-center/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:)

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NASA-TV has started it's Launch Coverage, 22:30 EST (11:30 PM). @DocM and @jjkusaf have real jobs and are likely in bed, so I'll do the MC honors for this evening. :)

 

Where to watch:

(NASA-TV Media Channel - YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fih5Wpe6ac4

(SpaceX Hosted Webcast - YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThIdCuSsJh8

(SpaceX Technical Webcast - YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCCyVCvN2bo

 

Other important links for the launch:

(Elon Musk Twitter) https://twitter.com/elonmusk

(SpaceX Twitter) https://twitter.com/SpaceX

(NASASpaceflight Twitter) https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight

 

 

SpaceX no longer does a Livestream.

 

 

Edited by Unobscured Vision
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