Dragon hits snag

[Unorthodox]

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/01/spacex-rocket-poised-for-flight/

A commercial vessel carrying a ton of supplies for the International Space Station ran into thruster trouble shortly after liftoff Friday, and flight controllers scrambled to fix the problem.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said three of the four sets of thrusters on the company's unmanned Dragon capsule did not immediately kick in, delaying the release of the solar panels.

Dragon's twin solar wings swung open two hours later than planned as SpaceX worked to bring up the idled thrusters and keep the capsule on track for a planned Saturday arrival at the space station. The company said in a statement that a fuel valve was at fault, and that two sets of thrusters were needed before the Dragon could begin the series of maneuvers needed to get to the space station.

The Dragon is equipped with 18 thrusters, divided into four sets, and can maneuver adequately even with some unavailable.


The problem cropped up following Dragon's separation from the rocket upper stage, nine minutes into the flight. The liftoff was right on time and appeared to go flawlessly; the previous Falcon launch in October suffered a single engine failure that resulted in the loss of a communications satellite that was hitching a ride on the rocket.

This is the first major trouble to strike a Dragon in orbit. Two similar capsules, launched last year, had no problem getting to the orbiting lab.

More than 1 ton of space station supplies is aboard this Dragon, including some much-needed equipment for air purifiers.

SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for 12 deliveries to restock the space station, and hopes the venture will lead to transporting astronauts there in a few years. A company-sponsored demo mission kicked everything off last May.

Launch controllers applauded and gave high-fives to one another, once the spacecraft safely reached orbit. The successful separation of the Dragon from the rocket was broadcast live on NASA TV; on-board cameras provided the unique views nine minutes into the flight.

Then the trouble struck, and the coverage ended.

The California-based SpaceX, run by the billionaire who helped create PayPal, is in charge of the flight, until it gets near the space station. Then NASA calls the shots. NASA flight controllers in Houston offered help with the thruster problem as they monitored the space station.

The space station and its six-man crew were orbiting 250 miles above the Atlantic, just off the New England coast, when the Falcon soared. Astronauts are to use a hefty robot arm to draw the Dragon in and dock it to the station.

SpaceX tucked fresh fruit into the Dragon for the station residents; the apples and other treats are straight from the orchard of an employee's family. Also on board: 640 seeds of a flowering weed used for research, mouse stems cells, protein crystals, astronaut meals and clothing, trash bags, air-purifying devices, computer parts and other gear.

NASA's deputy administrator, Lori Garver, said using commercial providers is more efficient for the space agency. It's part of a long-term program, she noted, that has NASA spending less money on low-Earth orbit and investing more in deep-space missions. That's one reason why the space shuttles were retired in 2011 after the station was completed.

The goal is to have SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and other private firms take over the job of ferrying astronauts to and from the space station in the next few years.

SpaceX -- so far the leader of the pack -- is aiming for a manned Dragon flight by 2015.

Competitor Orbital Sciences Corp. has yet to get off its Virginia launch pad. The company plans to launch a free-flying test of its Antares rocket and Cygnus supply ship in April, followed by a demo run to the space station in early summer. Then the so-called operational supply runs can begin.

Russia, Japan and Europe regularly make station deliveries as well, and Russia is the only option for astronaut rides. But only the Dragon is designed to bring back substantial amounts of research and used merchandise.

This Dragon is scheduled to spend more than three weeks at the space station before being cut loose by the crew on March 25. It will parachute into the Pacific with more than a ton of medical samples, plant and cell specimens, Japanese fish and old machinery, and used spacewalking gloves and other items.

SpaceX plans to launch its next Dragon to the station in late fall.

More than 2,000 guests jammed the Cape Canaveral launch site Friday morning to watch the Falcon take flight. It wasn't much of a show because of all the clouds.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/01/spacex-rocket-poised-for-flight/#ixzz2MJrif5jQ

[Unorthodox]

This is the first major trouble to strike a Dragon in orbit. Two similar capsules, launched last year, had no problem getting to the orbiting lab.

Not entirely true.  We've had a slew of little failures that actually foreshadow something like this happening. 



On one hand, it's survived all the problems, and there's a lot to be said of that.  On the other, it's not looking good for human flight rating...

[Buster's Uncle]

Is it going to be able to complete the mission?

[Unorthodox]

Most likely.  Barring more problems. 

I don't know what/if they are trying to return this time, though, and that is the unique ability of the Dragon that it has thus far been rather shoddy with. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Uh, what's the unique ability?

SpaceX Dragon Capsule Problem Stalls Space Station Cargo Delivery
By Miriam Kramer | SPACE.com – 37 mins ago.. .

SpaceX's Dragon space capsule is seen from a camera aboard its Falcon 9 rocket after separating from the booster following its March 1, 2013 launch toward the International Space Station on the second cargo mission for NASA.

A thruster problem on the robotic Dragon space capsule launched by the private spaceflight company SpaceX on Friday (March 1) has engineers scrambling to identify the cause, forcing a delay in the spacecraft's arrival at the International Space Station by at least a day.
 
SpaceX and NASA officials say the thruster glitch, which occurred after the Dragon spacecraft's launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket today, prevented the spacecraft from performing vital maneuvers to put it on course for the International Space Station. The spacecraft is hauling nearly a ton of cargo and support equipment to the space station for NASA.

 The Falcon 9 rocket launched on time at 10:10 a.m. ET (1510 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but once the Dragon capsule separated from the booster, the problem became apparent.
 
Three of the four thruster pods on the Dragon space capsule required to propel the spacecraft to the space station did not activate properly after today's launch, according to officials at SpaceX. An issue with one of the capsule's propellant valves caused the thrusters to malfunction before the solar arrays — the pieces of machinery responsible for powering Dragon to the station — could deploy. [Photos: SpaceX's Dragon Launch to Space Station]
 
Friday afternoon, SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced that after some troubleshooting, ground controllers were able to activate one of the inactive thruster pods.
 
"Pods 1 and 4 now online and thrusters engaged," Musk wrote in a Twitter post. "Dragon transitioned from free drift to active control. Yes!!"
 


Engineers on the ground decided to extend the two solar arrays in spite of the less-than-ideal conditions. The solar panels were deployed when the capsule was upside down, preventing them from performing their intended function, according to press reports.
 
According to NASA officials, three thrusters need to be in working order before the craft can dock with the space station. Two will get the capsule within the vicinity of the orbiting science laboratory, but unless three thrusters are proved to be functioning, it cannot attach to the station.
 
This is the first time SpaceX has experienced problems with a Dragon spacecraft in orbit, but not the first glitch on a mission by the company.
 
During an October 2012 cargo launch to the International Space Station, one of the nine Merlin engines on the Falcon 9 rocket shut down during launch. The engine shutdown did not affect the delivery of Dragon to the station, but it did prevent the mission's secondary payload from being deployed in its proper orbit.
 
When Dragon returned to Earth three weeks after its flight in October, the capsule's freezers lost power. None of the experiments housed in the freezers were damaged, SpaceX officials say.
 
The launch today is the second of 12 flights to the space station planned for Dragon. SpaceX was awarded a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fund these trips. Orbital Science Corp., another private spaceflight organization, was contracted for nine supply trips to the station as well.

http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-dragon-capsule-problem-stalls-space-station-cargo-200616016.html

[gwillybj]

Good show!

[Buster's Uncle]

Space station capsule problem appears fixed
By MARCIA DUNN | Associated Press – Fri, Mar 1, 2013.. .

 
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A commercial craft carrying a ton of supplies for the International Space Station ran into thruster trouble shortly after liftoff Friday. Flight controllers managed to gain control, but were forced to delay its arrival at the orbiting lab.
 
The earliest the Dragon capsule could show up is Sunday, a full day late, said top officials for NASA and the private company SpaceX.
 
"We're definitely not going to rush it," said SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon Musk. "We want to make sure first and foremost that things are safe before proceeding."
 
The Dragon, owned and operated by SpaceX, holds considerable science experiments for the International Space Station as well as food and spare parts.
 
Musk said six hours into the flight that all four sets of thrusters finally were working properly. "All systems green," he reported via Twitter. The problem might have been caused by a stuck valve or line blockage. The thrusters are small rockets used for maneuvering the capsule.
 
It is the first serious trouble to strike a Dragon in orbit. None of the three previous flights had any signs of thruster issues, Musk told reporters by phone from company headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.
 
He said it appeared to be a glitch versus a major concern.
 
NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini said at least three groups of thrusters on the Dragon need to work before the capsule can come close to the complex. That's a safety rule that will not be waived, Suffredini said.
 
Engineers for both SpaceX and NASA plan an exhaustive study before allowing the rendezvous to take place. The Dragon could hang around at least a month before linking up with the station, Musk said. It's supposed to spend more than three weeks there.
 
A crucial maneuver needed to be made quickly, however, to raise the orbit and keep the capsule from plunging down through the atmosphere. Musk promised in a tweet that was forthcoming.
 
SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to make a dozen deliveries to restock the space station. This is the third trip by a Dragon capsule to the station; the first Dragon flight, in 2010, was a solo test.
 
Musk acknowledged it was scary for a while.
 
"Yes, absolutely, it was a little frightening there," he told reporters.
 
He stressed that the company's Falcon 9 rocket performed "really well" and that the thruster problem was isolated to the Dragon.
 
On the previous flight in October, one of nine first-stage engines on the Falcon shut down too soon. A communication satellite hitching a ride was lost.

http://news.yahoo.com/space-station-capsule-problem-appears-fixed-213930155.html

[Buster's Uncle]

SpaceX Dragon Capsule Glitch (and Recovery) Shows Why Spaceflight Is Hard
By Mike Wall | SPACE.com – 9 hrs ago.. .

The struggles a private cargo capsule faced in orbit Friday reinforce the notion that spaceflight remains a challenging proposition, experts say.
 
SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft launched smoothly atop a Falcon 9 rocket Friday (March 1), but only one of the capsule's four thruster "pods" activated after it reached orbit. After several hours of scrambling to identify glitch SpaceX engineers turned the situation around, fixing the problem and bringing all four pods online for an engine burn that set Dragon back on course for the International Space Station.

"Orbit raising burn successful. Dragon back on track," SpaceX founder and CEO Musk wrote in a Twitter post Friday.



Dragon is currently embarked on the second of 12 contracted supply runs to the orbiting lab for NASA. The capsule successfully executed its first official cargo mission to the station last October, but that flight didn't go entirely as planned, either. One of the Falcon 9's nine Merlin engines shut down prematurely, causing a telecommunications satellite that was riding along as a secondary payload to be placed in the wrong orbit. The Dragon capsule on that October flight, however, successfully reached the space station.

During Friday's launch, the Falcon 9 rocket functioned flawlessly, placing the Dragon capsule in its intended orbit. The rocket, SpaceX officials said, has been designed to be able to fulfill its mission even with the loss of an engine. [Photos: SpaceX's Dragon Launch to Space Station]

"Falcon 9 was designed to be the world's most reliable rocket, and today's launch validated this by adding to Falcon 9's perfect track record with our fifth success in a row," said Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX.

SpaceX and NASA are replanning the Dragon's flight to the International Space Station. The capsule was initially due to arrive at the station early Saturday (March 2), but the thruster issue forced a delay. The space rendezvous could occur as early as Sunday (March 3), SpaceX officials said.

The challenge of spaceflight

Of course, SpaceX is far from alone in experiencing a few issues on the way toward the final frontier. The history of robotic and human space exploration is studded with glitches and outright failures, showing how tough it is to pull off a successful space mission, even after more than a half-century of practice.
 
"There's absolutely nothing ho-hum about any spaceflight," said former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "It's a challenging business, there's no doubt about it."

A big part of the difficulty stems from the huge amounts of energy the enterprise requires. Rockets must accelerate their payloads to about 17,500 mph (28,160 km/h) in just a few minutes to reach low-Earth orbit, giving engineers very little room for error.

"Every time I witnessed a [space] shuttle launch that I wasn't on, it was gut-wrenching," Lopez-Alegria told SPACE.com. "The forces of physics involved are eye-watering, and you realize just how razor-thin the margins are. And you breathe a huge sigh of relief when the main engines cut off and you have a nominal insertion."

Not every space shuttle mission ran this gauntlet successfully. The shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff in 1986, killing all seven astronauts on board.

And the shuttle Columbia suffered a fatal wound during launch in 2003 when a piece of foam from the orbiter's external tank broke off and punched through the heat shield on Columbia's wing. This left the shuttle vulnerable to the intense heat of re-entry, and Columbia broke apart in Earth's atmosphere on its way home, claiming the lives of its seven-person crew.



Future of spaceflight

Many unmanned scientific and commercial satellite missions have been scuttled by launch failures over the years as well, including Russia's Phobos-Grunt mission to the Mars moon Phobos in November 2011 and NASA's Glory climate-studying mission in March of that year.

Getting into space in one piece isn't the only hurdle to clear, of course. A spacecraft's many systems and subsystems must also work flawlessly in the harsh environment of space, enduring extremes of temperature and radiation that we don't experience here on Earth's surface.

And designing robotic explorers to do meaningful science work far from home only adds to the difficulty. Just 40 percent of the 40 Mars missions that have launched over the years, for example, managed to achieve their mission goals in full.

But all is certainly not doom and gloom, as the list of space successes is long and growing all the time. And scientists and engineers learn more with every mission, robotic or manned, successful or not,.

In short, we're getting better all the time. Lopez-Alegria voiced optimism that the nascent field of private spaceflight will eventually become extremely reliable, invoking the example of commercial aviation, which had a very bumpy start back in the 1920s and '30s.

"The number of accidents was staggering, and look how long it's been since we've had a fatal accident in commercial aviation in this country," Lopez Alegria said. "So we have come an incredibly long way, and I think there's no reason to think that we can't do likewise in commercial spaceflight."

http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-dragon-capsule-glitch-recovery-shows-why-spaceflight-132504117.html

[Buster's Uncle]

SpaceX Dragon Capsule Cleared Space Station Docking Sunday
By Tariq Malik | SPACE.com – 1 hr 1 min ago.. .

 
A privately built robot cargo ship has been cleared to link up with the International Space Station early Sunday (March 3) after a review by its builders and NASA. The cargo ship's arrival will be one day later than planned due to a thruster issue, since fixed, that cropped up shortly after its Friday launch.
 
The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built by the SpaceX spaceflight company, is on track to be captured by the space station's robotic arm at 6:01 a.m. EST (1101 GMT) and attached to an open docking port shortly afterward. The cargo ship is hauling 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of food, experiments and other supplies for the station's six-man crew.
 
"Just received #Dragon docking clearance from @NASA," SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk wrote in a Twitter post today. "Will begin orbital maneuvers to Space Station at 11pm Pacific time."
 
NASA will broadcast live views of the Dragon rendezvous at the space station beginning at 3 a.m. EST (0800 GMT).
 
You can watch NASA's SpaceX Dragon docking webcast on SPACE.com courtesy of NASA TV.
 


Stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere also have a chance to see the Dragon spacecraft in the night sky tonight as it chases the space station. The two spacecraft will appear as fast-moving lights in the sky to observers who know when and where to look. [How to spot Dragon in the night sky]

 SpaceX's Dragon space capsule mission is the company's third flight to the International Space Station and second official resupply flight for NASA under a $1.6 billion cargo delivery contract. In all, SpaceX plans to launch 12 missions to the space station under the deal. 
 
The mission hit an unexpected snag shortly after the Dragon capsule launched into space atop its SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. After separating from the rocket, three of the spacecraft's four thruster pods did not activate as planned. NASA requires at least three functioning thruster pods on the Dragon capsule in order to allow a docking attempt. [See video of SpaceX's Dragon and Falcon 9 launch]
 
After several hours of troubleshooting, SpaceX officials solved the thruster problem and activated all four thruster pods, but the time required for the fix forced the Dragon to miss its planned Saturday morning docking at the space station.
 
Now, with all 18 Draco thrusters on the Dragon's four thruster pods working, SpaceX is ready to attempt the rendezvous.
 
"SpaceX said it has high confidence there will be no repeat of the thruster problem during rendezvous, including its capability to perform an abort, should that be required," NASA officials said in an update.

Chasing the space station
 
Two NASA astronauts — station commander Kevin Ford and flight engineer Thomas Marshburn — will oversee the capture of the Dragon spacecraft using the station's robotic arm at about 6:01 a.m. EST. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield will use the arm to attach the Dragon capsule to a docking port on the station's Harmony connecting module later in the morning. Three Russian cosmonauts round out the station's current Expedition 34 crew.
 
The astronauts are expected to open the hatches between the International Space Station and Dragon capsule one day after its arrival. The Dragon capsule will be detached from the station and released on March 25 so it can re-enter Earth's atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Baja California. The capsule will be retrieved by a SpaceX recovery crew. It is expected to return about 2,700 pounds (1,210 kg) of experiments and other gear to Earth for NASA.
 
NASA's private cargo ship needs

 SpaceX (short for Space Exploration Technologies) is one of two companies with billion-dollar contracts to provide unmanned cargo delivery missions to the space station for NASA. The Hawthorne, Calif.-based firm launched two successful missions to the station in 2012, a demonstration flight and an official cargo delivery.
 
The other company, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., has a $1.9 billion contract for eight cargo shipments using its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. Orbital Sciences is planning to launch its first test flight of the new rocket and spacecraft later this year.
 
NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011 and has been dependent on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to fly American astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Until SpaceX's first cargo mission last year, the U.S. space agency was also dependent on robotic cargo ships built by Russia, Europe and Japan to send supplies and experiments to the space station.
 
SpaceX is one of four companies vying for NASA funding to develop manned spacecraft capable of launching American astronauts to the space station and returning them home. SpaceX has received about $440 million in NASA funding to modify its Dragon design and Falcon 9 rockets to carry crews of seven astronauts into low-Earth orbit.
 
SpaceX officials said they expect to launch the first crewed mission of a Dragon spacecraft in 2015.
 
Visit SPACE.com for complete coverage of SpaceX's Dragon mission to the International Space Station.

http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-dragon-capsule-cleared-space-station-docking-sunday-225101080.html

[Buster's Uncle]

SpaceX Dragon Cargo Ship Docks at Space Station
By Tariq Malik | SPACE.com – 1 hr 53 mins ago.. .

An unmanned commercial space capsule packed with precious cargo successfully linked up with the International Space Station early Sunday (March 3), arriving one day late due to a temporary thruster glitch.
 
The Dragon cargo capsule, built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX, docked with the space station at 8:56 a.m. EST (1356)  as the two spacecraft soared 253 miles (407 kilometers) over the Arabian Sea. NASA flight controllers performed the docking remotely by commanding the space station's Canadian-built robotic arm, which had latched onto the Dragon capsule three hours earlier, to attach the capsule to a docking port.
 
"The Dragon is ours! Maneuvering it now on Canadarm2 to a docking port, will open hatches once secure," station astronaut Chris Hadfield of Canada wrote in a Twitter post.  "Look forward to new smells. Great!" [See photos of the Dragon's space station arrival]
 
Dragon reached the space station at 5:31 a.m. EST (1031 GMT), a full hour ahead of schedule. Two NASA astronauts, station commander Kevin Ford and flight engineer Thomas Marshburn, used the station's arm to grapple the capsule as it approached close to the orbiting lab.
 


SpaceX launched the Dragon capsule toward the space station on Friday (March 1), with the spacecraft riding the company's Falcon 9 rocket into orbit. While the launch was smooth, the Dragon capsule ran into trouble after it separated from the Falcon 9 rocket when three of four thruster pods did not activate as planned.
 
After several hours of troubleshooting, SpaceX engineers isolated the glitch to a pressurization problem in the thruster system and devised a fix that solved the problem. Because of the time needed for the fix, the Dragon capsule missed its initial rendezvous slated for Saturday (March 2).
 
The spacecraft's arrival on Sunday, however, appeared to go extremely smoothly, with the capsule being captured by the station's robotic arm an hour earlier than scheduled.

Precious cargo for space station
 
The Dragon space capsule is packed with 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) for the International Space Station, a haul that includes fresh food, science experiments and other vital equipment. The capsule is also carrying two grapple bars for the station's exterior inside an unpressurized "trunk" — a storage compartment in a cylindrical section of the spacecraft below its re-entry capsule. [How SpaceX's Dragon  Capsule Works (Infographic)]
 
This is SpaceX's third flight to the space station and second official cargo delivery under a $1.6 billion deal with NASA for resupply flights. Under that contract, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX has agreed to provide at least 12 Dragon supply flights to the space station.
 
"I remember exactly where I was the very first time I ever heard of this scheme …when I was a young astronaut, and I said, 'We're going to do what?'" Ford told Mission Control during the docking operation. "That was when it was an idea and now it is starting to become routine. "
 
SpaceX launched its first Dragon to the space station last May during a demonstration flight, and followed that success with an official cargo delivery in October.

Cargo missions for NASA
 
NASA has a similar cargo delivery deal with the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., which will use its new Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket to launch eight cargo missions under a $1.9 billion contract. The first Antares and Cygnus test flights are expected later this year.
 
With the space shuttle fleet retired, NASA is relying on private spacecraft like SpaceX's Dragon capsules to fly cargo — and ultimately astronauts — to the International Space Station. Currently, NASA is dependent on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to launch American astronauts into space.
 
SpaceX is one of four companies developing manned spacecraft under NASA's commercial crew program. Its manned spacecraft is an enhanced version of the Dragon spacecraft designed to fly seven people to the station and return them to Earth at mission's end.
 
The Dragon space capsule that arrived at the space station Sunday will be attached to an open docking port on the outpost's Harmony connecting module later in the day, with unpacking scheduled to begin on Monday. The spacecraft will stay linked to the space station until March 25, when it will be plucked free using the robotic arm and released back into space.
 


Unlike the unmanned Russian, European and Japanese cargo spacecraft that serve the space station, SpaceX's Dragon capsules have a heat shield that allows them to re-enter Earth's atmosphere to return science experiments and other gear. This Dragon is expected to return about 2,700 pounds (1,210 kg) of gear to Earth for NASA when it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.
 
"What a fantastic day," Ford radioed Mission Control of the smooth Dragon rendezvous Sunday. "Obviously the vehicle is beautiful, the station is beautiful, the Canadarm2 is beautiful … the prettiest thing of all was the dance."
 
Visit SPACE.com for complete coverage of SpaceX's Dragon mission to the International Space Station.

http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-dragon-cargo-ship-docks-space-station-144625899.html

[Unorthodox]

Uh, what's the unique ability?

We have a few things that can take crap up.  The Dragon is the first that is supposed to be able to bring items back safely.  It's just not been so successful with that yet.  Something that's getting downplayed in the press.