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SpaceX CRS-3 Mission

288 points| ColinWright | 12 years ago |spacex.com | reply

122 comments

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[+] Arjuna|12 years ago|reply
Here is a CRS-3 launch and ascent event list. Please note that all timings and values are approximate, as I have based them on a mix of CRS-2 profile telemetry and CRS-3 mission notes.

T-00:00:00 - Falcon 9 lift-off. Stage 1's nine Merlin engines produce 1.3M pounds of thrust.

T+00:00:07 - Falcon 9 clears the launch tower.

T+00:01:00 - Altitude: 6km, Velocity: 241m/s, Downrange distance: 1km

T+00:01:10 - Falcon 9 achieves supersonic speed.

T+00:01:23 - Falcon 9 achieves maximum dynamic pressure (Max Q).

T+00:02:00 - Altitude: 30km, Velocity: 1km/s, Downrange distance: 23km

T+00:02:30 - Altitude: 51km, Velocity: 1.8km/s, Downrange distance: 59km

T+00:02:41 - MECO (Main Engine Cut-Off) Altitude: 80km, Velocity: Mach 10

T+00:02:44 - Stage 1 separates from Stage 2.

T+00:02:45 - Stage 2's single Merlin engine ignites.

T+00:03:25 - Dragon's nose cone is jettisoned.

T+00:04:21 - Altitude: 148km, Velocity: 3.2km/s, Downrange distance: 346km

T+00:05:22 - Altitude: 182km, Velocity: 4km/s, Downrange distance: 541km

T+00:06:24 - Altitude: 200km, Velocity: 4.6km/s, Downrange distance: 767km

T+00:07:31 - Altitude: 210km, Velocity: 5.6km/s, Downrange distance: 1,080km

T+00:09:40 - SECO (Second-stage Engine Cut-Off)

T+00:10:15 - Stage 2 separates from Dragon.

[+] FD3SA|12 years ago|reply
Elon has just confirmed [1] that they will be attempting to recover the first stage. This is the first flight with the landing leg module attached to the first stage. The landing legs will be deployed over sea for a soft landing in preparation for a land-based recovery.

This will be a historic moment if the recovery succeeds, ushering in a new era of space travel due to the massively reduced operating costs of recoverable engines.

1. https://twitter.com/elonmusk

[+] TrainedMonkey|12 years ago|reply
Your SECO timing was off only by 4 seconds, pretty impressive.
[+] chrisBob|12 years ago|reply
But it doesn't reach the space station until some time on Sunday? Can someone explain the long maneuvering time once it is in orbit?
[+] ColinWright|12 years ago|reply
Is this submission being flagged by users, or has it tripped some sort of scoring penalty?

http://hnrankings.info/7609667/

Dropping suddenly from 3rd to 20th on the front page suggests some sort of penalty being applied, but is it community driven, or automated? Even with the new openness about the actions of the moderators on HN I still find some things deeply confusing.

Added in edit: This does bring home just how important upvotes are. I've seen how disproportional the effect is of downvotes on an item's ranking - one downvotes out-weights many upvotes. If you like something, upvote it, or see it sink without trace.

[+] happyscrappy|12 years ago|reply
>how disproportional the effect is of downvotes on an item's ranking

I think you mean flagging as there is no down voting of submissions as far a I am aware.

[+] dang|12 years ago|reply
I put a moderate moderator flag on it so that it would be lower, but still on the front page. My reasoning: Space X is cool and interesting, but it isn't a major story every time they do a launch.

Edit: We took the penalty off several hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7611240

[+] InclinedPlane|12 years ago|reply
At an absolute minimum this flight has shown that SpaceX is capable of testing reuse of the first stage on operational launches (including use of landing legs on the first stage) with no impact to the launch (provided there is sufficient payload margin, which there will be on any further Dragon launches). That's a big deal, it means they get tens of millions of dollars in free testing subsidized by their customers, and that gives them a huge leg up in working towards reusability.
[+] pjscott|12 years ago|reply
As of about an hour ago, this flight has also shown that they can successfully do a powered landing of the first stage. This has been one hell of a good day.
[+] bfe|12 years ago|reply
Alan Boyle reports "first-stage reignited during descent and video was being sent back." https://twitter.com/b0yle/statuses/457248899464314880
[+] ChuckMcM|12 years ago|reply
Yes he did, and no video was forthcoming. I would have loved to skip the incredibly smooth and nominal Dragon launch for some good coverage of the first stage test.
[+] timw6n|12 years ago|reply
Anyone know what the timeframe is for the test of the first-stage soft landing? The livestream was just showing the Dragon and seems to have ended now.
[+] InclinedPlane|12 years ago|reply
It'll already have happened by now. We'll see if they release footage or not. Usually the footage isn't very clear because of condensation and water spray.
[+] xtc|12 years ago|reply
Launch success. I'm incredibly excited to hear about first stage recovery attempt. This is going to be huge no matter the outcome.
[+] joezydeco|12 years ago|reply
My hunch is we won't see or hear much about it unless it's a (relative) success, then we'll have video from multiple drone POVs.
[+] 13throwaway|12 years ago|reply
VLC/mplayer live stream

pip install livestreamer

apt-get install rtmpdump

pip install python-librtmp

livestreamer ustream.tv/nasahdtv best

[+] wolf550e|12 years ago|reply
python package python-librtmp needs ubuntu package librtmp-dev and python package cffi. python package cffi needs ubuntu package python-dev.

So:

  sudo apt-get install python-dev
  pip install cffi
  sudo apt-get install librtmp-dev
  pip install python-librtmp
[+] BrandonMarc|12 years ago|reply
Would it be possible to add "live webcast at 2:30pm ET / 11:30am PT"?
[+] ColinWright|12 years ago|reply
The original submission had something like that, but it's been changed by the mods to be less informative.

<fx:shrug />

[+] ColinWright|12 years ago|reply
Currently the countdown shows an intended launch at roughly 18:45 UTC, 19:45 BST. It may change because of the weather, so you'll need to keep an eye on it, or keep the window open and the sound on.
[+] mladenkovacevic|12 years ago|reply
Is NASA ever this quick to restart a launch mission after a scrubbed attempt? 3 days seems blazingly fast considering the risks and possible consequences.
[+] jccooper|12 years ago|reply
STS-128 launched 4 days after a scrub. STS-134 had 3 days between attempts. STS-74 was scrubbed due to weather at landing sites, and launched the next day (about 30 hours later).

The older shuttle launches generally had less penalty for missing their launch window because they were not going to ISS (or Mir or Hubble) and didn't have to wait for a very specific launch window for rendezvous, which can take days.

Apollo never had a scrub, which is nice because missing your launch window to the moon can mean waiting another month. The Saturn V could turn around in 2 or even 1 day, theoretically. They did have to do a few holds.

[+] jerf|12 years ago|reply
Arguably, SpaceX's raison d'etre is fast turnaround on launches. NASA's... well... if y'all want to have the political debate about their true raison d'etre in reply to this I can't stop you, but let's just agree that in practice, fast turnaround has always been a stated goal, but not one they've been able to put much work towards in practice. (i.e., if one were simply handed a Shuttle design and asked to figure out what the top priorities were in its design, one would be very unlikely to answer "fast turnaround in launches", regardless of the process that got us there.)
[+] Symmetry|12 years ago|reply
When my former co-worker was in Kwajalein he got to watch a SpaceX launch. It was initially scrubbed and all the Air Force people went home, but he stayed around and they had a successful launch a few hours later.
[+] swatkat|12 years ago|reply
Cool! Would like know how did the landing with legs go. By the way, here's the launch video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65zDaDSvIww

"Dirty" water "geyser" rose up as high as the rocket itself :) Looks like water from acoustic suppression system had created a puddle under rocket?!

[+] egwynn|12 years ago|reply
The `Date` section says

  Fri Apr, 18 2014 2:45 PM EDT — Fri Apr, 18 2014 4:00 PM EDT
But the `About` section says

  ... targeted to launch on April 14 at 4:58 pm EDT ...
Looks like they copied and pasted the `About` info from their last launch.
[+] jhuckestein|12 years ago|reply
Good news: Elon just tweeted "Data upload from tracking plane shows landing in Atlantic was good! Several boats enroute through heavy seas."