F9: CRS-13 ISS resupply (mission thread)

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Pad Director confirms LC-40 is in "great" shape, ready for an even faster launch cadence in 2018.

 

NASA coverage, which has great landing burn footage.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Beittil said:

Cool show as usual... /yawn

 

Cool detail!!! Hello there LZ-1 landing pad #2...

 

LZ-1 & LZ-2 reporting for FH duty, Sir!!
 

Edited December 15, 2017 by DocM

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NSF's Chris G. reports F9 core and Dragon performance nominal, right down the center. NO difference, as in zero. Zip. 

 

Just more soot.

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Technical webcast video

 

 

 

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[anthdci 218]

So when will see a falcon9 used for the 3rd time?!

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Dunno. They already have a lightly used 2-launch core with this one, so it'd be a candidate if a F9 Block 3 attempt is possible. Otherwise, F9 Block 5 is designed for 10 uses between refurbs.  Not too many F9 Block 4's as they're transitional. 

 

F9 Block 5, which is human rated, flies in very early 2018 and it needs to fly 7 times before a Crew Dragon can carry astronauts.

[+rdlenk 150]

Was a heck of a day in launch control. Just got home and watching a replay of the webcast.

 

T-13 minutes, "Tracking no issues...." lol

 

Was a great day today at the Cape and especially SLC-40!

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How's Sooty look? 

[+rdlenk 150]

Its looking very good but what is more impressive is how well SLC-40 did. Moving right along already to the next flight.

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Zuma?

[+rdlenk 150]

Sadly, there is a limit to what I get to comment about. Even being really, really tired is probably not a good excuse for talking (or typing) too much.

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That's okay, we understand Zuma-phobia.

[+rdlenk 150]

One of the coolest things today was the drive into the Cape this morning. There was some low clouds and the pad lights were lighting them up with the shadow of the rocket showing up really clear on the clouds. Was pretty amazing. I had hoped someone with a good camera and enough time got a picture of it but so far I haven't been able to find one. I took a quick picture with my phone, quality is bad but you can kinda see the effect.

 

Original: https://imgur.com/4tklPcV

 

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Getting a pic like that at night with most cell phone cameras is an exercise in frustration.

 

 

[Unobscured Vision 2,676]

Nice! I watched the launch after classes were done today. Glad to see LC-40 back in operation.  

 

Neat shot of the pad lights, @rdlenk ... that couldn't have been an easy one to get on a phone.

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Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit and deploy its solar arrays. A carefully choreographed series of thruster firings will bring the spacecraft to rendezvous with the space station Sunday, Dec. 17. NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba will capture Dragon using the space station’s robotic arm. Ground controllers then will send commands to robotically install the spacecraft on the station’s Harmony module.

The Dragon spacecraft will spend approximately one month attached to the space station, returning to Earth in mid-January with results of previous experiments.

Also on Sunday, Scott Tingle of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station at 2:21 a.m. (1:21 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

NASA TV coverage for Dragon arrival and crew launch Sunday is as follows:

    1:15 a.m. – (Soyuz) Launch coverage begins
    4:30 a.m. – Dragon rendezvous at the space station and capture coverage
    7:30 a.m. – Installation coverage

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Sweet stabilized mashup of the SpaceX and NASA launch & landing videos,

 

 

 

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Dragon captured at 0557 ET, 1057 UT. Moving to berthing position.

 

BTW: one of the experiments is barley germination in microgravity. 

 

It seems Budweiser has an interest in space agriculture, and space beer production. 

 

http://www.anheuser-busch.com/newsroom/2017/11/budweiser-takes-next-step-to-be-the-first-beer-on-mars.html

 

Edited December 17, 2017 by DocM

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