SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space station

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by RAMA, Apr 17, 2012.

  1. YellowSubmarine

    YellowSubmarine Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    The payload was successfully put in orbit and deployed, which I hope means that ORBCOMM will proceed with the bigger payloads they have planned. It's only the orbit that sucks, which might render the satellite useless, but that appears to have been done by design... somewhat. :borg: SpaceX managed to launch the Falcon 9 and Dragon flawlessly again, yet they chose to proceed with a mission that would put one of its payloads in jeopardy even on a successful mission. It sounds weird, but if their objective was only a demonstration, I guess it can still count as success. Or can it?
     
  2. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    As I understand it, the Orbcomm satellite will still be able to raise its orbit using its own propulsion systems, although that will use up a lot of fuel and maybe shorten its operational life. But I could be wrong.
     
  3. YellowSubmarine

    YellowSubmarine Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    Their press release said exactly this, and yeah, I doubt they will pay full price to SpaceX for this, if they pay them at all. The real question is whether they will count this as a success and launch their next batch of satellites with SpaceX? If I understood Gwynne correctly, the satellite was the milestone SpaceX needed to pass to continue with the rest of their contract with ORBCOMM.
     
  4. gturner

    gturner Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    The situation with the ISS safety gate, and I presume limits on the second stage's LOX boiling off, would be a good argument for having a seperate storable hypergolic propulsion system for secondary payloads. Perhaps they could use a regular Draco thruster for the task.
     
  5. YellowSubmarine

    YellowSubmarine Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    And we're berthed! They hurried so much with the berthing because of the ice cream, and now they have to wait for the hatch opening. Poor astronauts. I'll have to remember not to tease them by telling them I can buy my ice cream by walking around the corner.
     
  6. YellowSubmarine

    YellowSubmarine Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    OK, so splashdown is due in a few minutes. The parachutes just deployed. Great job!

    Edit: "Dragon safely splashed down in Pacific at 12:22PM PT" - so as space flight is concerned, CRS-1 is a success.
     
  7. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    ^ It was a success when it docked with the space station, technically. The loss of blood and urine samples would be regrettable, but not catastrophic.

    To have it be a COMPLETE success just bolsters the case for commercial spaceflight even more: with two fully operational flights under its belt, the Dragon is now in a far better position to begin crewed flights than any other spacecraft in America.
     
  8. YellowSubmarine

    YellowSubmarine Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    If SpaceX plan to sell their Occupy Mars t-shirts to the future Martian 99% they need to guarantee them safe landing. Unsuccessful re-entry would not re-assure them.
     
  9. gturner

    gturner Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    But landng on Mars wouldn't require re-entry, just entry. :)
     
  10. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    An interesting smackdown from Musk on Ariane 5:
    http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30402.msg981261

    One person tried to describe the folks there as being like ATK. Ironically, solids were looked at for the cheaper Ariane 6 option. Sadly, that may mean no ATV?
     
  11. Byeman

    Byeman Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    What a bunch of crap, disinformation and outright lies.
     
  12. Byeman

    Byeman Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

     
  13. Byeman

    Byeman Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    More cluelessness. There is no conflict of interest. ULA treats Boeing and SNC equally. Anyways, your view is so warped, that you actually can't see a real potential conflict of interest. Dragon vs Dream Chaser. If your world is real, then Spacex would be favoring is own Dragon over Dream Chaser.
     
  14. Byeman

    Byeman Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    More disinformation and lies

    1. It was not bigger than needed. Russians didn't have the technology at time to shrink the payload. The US did and we are better off in many ways. Also, the R-7 was never a viable weapon system.

    2. You don't even know what the ULA culture is. In your warped view of the world, you have a perception of ULA that in no way reflects reality.

    3. That is total wrong and has no basis in fact. Also, you don't have the knowledge or experience to make such a claim.
     
  15. Byeman

    Byeman Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

     
  16. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    A long-time aerospace guru with years of experience working for NASA, whose expertise can be ultimately distilled to "You're stupid! I'm right! Multi-quote? What's that?"
     
  17. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    That and a case of recto-cranial infarction.
     
  18. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    ^And yet, he takes your arguments apart rather nicely.
     
  19. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    I'm not sure that 5 consecutive posts of "You're a clueless moron with a warped view of the world" could actually be described as "taking an argument apart."
     
  20. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    Re: SpaceX is a go for April 30th: 1st commercial launch to space stat

    Oh I wasn't referring to his reply to you, just the point for points he made against publiusr.