Enter the Dragon

[Crazy Eddie]

I half suspect I'm the only one who's been following this, but SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket completed its final engine test at Cape Canaveral this morning. That test is the last item on the checklist before the launch of the Dragon spacecraft, which is--it seems to me--the first and so-far ONLY viable successor to the Space Shuttle.

In true Trek fashion, the first of three test flights is scheduled for this Tuesday (possibly Wednesday or Thursday, allowing for minor glitches). If the test flights are completed on schedule, it'll probably begin carrying cargo to the ISS by this time next year, and will begin to carry astronauts a year or two later.

In terms of sci-fi parallels, Dragon is a privately owned and built space craft; it's the Milennium Falcon to the shuttle's Enterprise. Don't know if it can make point 5 past lightspeed, but it's definitely moving alot faster than Project Constellation.

Follow it here.

 

[sojourner]

^Yesterday was the final engine test, and no, your not the only one.

Crewed Dragon is more likely 3 to 4 years out. SpaceX hasn't developed the LAS as of yet and estimates it will be 3 to 4 hundred million to do so.(though I always wondered why that one component would cost so much comparatively) They won't get that money until NASA gives them a contract.

 

[RobertVA]

Aries/Orion is also well along the development path. The Aries I first stage is essentially one shuttle booster with five segments instead of the four segments used for each of the two shuttle boosters. The Aries I second stage uses an updated version of the liquid fuel rocket used for the third stage of the Saturn Vs (and used for some satellite launch vehicles since). Orion is a scaled up Apollo command module featuring the same exterior hull angle (for similar reentry characteristics).

There's even one characteristic where Orion is ahead of Dragon. The launch escape system for Orion has already been tested. Since lives aren't at stake the cargo version of Dragon won't need an launch escape system for those ISS resupply flights.

While Orion would have been used in conjunction with the very expensive Constellation moon exploration program, Orion versions for ISS crew ferrying and unmanned ISS resupply have been included in the program since the beginning.

There's a possibility some of the existing satellite launch vehicles might be modified/certified to substitute for Aries I boosting Orion into orbit.

 

[sojourner]

Dude, Ares was killed months ago. The program was shutdown. And while the Orion LAS has been tested, they have yet to complete a flight version of the Orion capsule itself. Orion was never planned as an unmanned cargo variant. That would have curtailed the development of commercial cargo. Orion is only alive now as a lifeboat for the ISS. You need to catchup on your Space News.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Aries/Orion is also well along the development path. The Aries I first stage is essentially one shuttle booster with five segments instead of the four segments used for each of the two shuttle boosters. The Aries I second stage uses an updated version of the liquid fuel rocket used for the third stage of the Saturn Vs (and used for some satellite launch vehicles since). Orion is a scaled up Apollo command module featuring the same exterior hull angle (for similar reentry characteristics).

Except for the fact that the Ares upper stage has not yet even been fully designed--let alone tested--this is correct. In point of fact Orion isn't a "scaled up" anything, it's a totally new design that has only basic shape in common with Apollo and virtually nothing else.

There's even one characteristic where Orion is ahead of Dragon. The launch escape system for Orion has already been tested. Since lives aren't at stake the cargo version of Dragon won't need an launch escape system for those ISS resupply flights.

Assuming launch escape systems are all that complicated to begin with, is there any specific reason the Orion system could not be used on a manned Dragon?

While Orion would have been used in conjunction with the very expensive Constellation moon exploration program, Orion versions for ISS crew ferrying and unmanned ISS resupply have been included in the program since the beginning.

But Orion won't achieve either functionality before Dragon does, and even then it will (or would, had it not been cancelled) finally delivered several years later and for ten times the price.

There's a possibility some of the existing satellite launch vehicles might be modified/certified to substitute for Aries I boosting Orion into orbit.

That's called "Jupiter DIRECT," an HLV concept NASA has been directed to work on primarily as a way of preserving the supply of pork spending to ATK. Jupiter won't be operational before Orion is, and is unlikely to be ready at the same time.

Orion is only alive now as a lifeboat for the ISS.

And I hear Lockheed has finally stopped drinking the political koolaid and is making preparations to try and flight test an Orion capsule on a Delta rocket, apparently realizing that developing the spacecraft alone makes more sense than trying to develop an entire craft/launch system combination for something whose only remaining mission role is "emergency rescue from space station." They seem to be thinking that if you launch Orion on a Delta-IV then you don't even have to man-rate the rocket, you can get the unmanned capsule to dock with the station and remain there as a lifeboat.

 

[sojourner]

^Elon is talking about a pusher based LAS incorporated into the base of the capsule. He has mentioned using the system do double duty and provide soft landings on land (should it obviously not get used for LAS during the flight).

It sounds overly complicated to me. We'll just have to wait and see how far he gets with the idea.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

It would make sense if they mounted it in the trunk section between the upper stage and the capsule. There's already plenty of room for it in there, and if you don't use the system for launch aborts it could easily double as a retro package for deorbit burns (freeing up the Dracos for a wider range of orbital maneuvers).

 

[sojourner]

Yea, no, it's going in the base of the capsule above the heat shield. Supposedly.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

If he means UNDER the heat shield, it would be part of the idea he was talking about modifying the Dragon to set down on land like Soyuz. The Russians tried that with early Soyuz-TMA concepts, but the addition of the payload faring and the orbital module made this infeasible. Dragon flies without a faring OR an orbital module, so I don't see that as being a problem, assuming he makes the actual modification. Otherwise, the Orion LAS would work just fine.

 

[sojourner]

If the capsule is sitting upright, the heatshield is at the base. Elon wants to put it above the heatshield and just under the pressure vessel.

 

[sojourner]

Launch successful! capsule behaving nominally! de-orbit in just over an hour!

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Launch video here.

If they stick to their test schedule, it should be reentering within the hour. According to Hobbyspace, everything looks good so far.

 

[Galileo7]

Launch successful! capsule behaving nominally! de-orbit in just over an hour!

Good....cool name Dragon.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Reentry should be well underway by now. As with most space craft there are those two "hold your breath" moments: during launch, and during reentry. Cross your fingers, second hurdle is almost clear...

 

[Crazy Eddie]

The Dragon has landed. On target, on schedule, and apparently the test flight was 100% successful.

Not that I expected any differently, but at this point we can safely conclude that the Space Shuttle's successor is ready to assume the throne. Two more tests will make it official, but from here on out it's just a matter of safety rating and confirmation.

I wonder if Elon Musk will make good on his suggestion of docking with the space station on the SECOND flight instead of the third?

 

[sojourner]

^That's NASA's call, but they may allow it after COTS 2 has already finished it's goals, as an added bonus.

 

[M'Sharak]

I half suspect I'm the only one who's been following this, but...

Nope. The Planetary Society's blog has been posting updates on this for quite some time and I was following their retweets of Spaceflight Now's mission updates this morning, as everything went off just the way it was supposed to.

There's supposed to be rocket-cam video of the first stage separation here, but I haven't been able to get it to work for me yet. Still photos covering launch to first-stage shutdown and separation here. Some rocket-cam screencaps and pictures from inside the capsule can be seen here. Splashdown pics here.


Edit:

Here's a YouTube vid incorporating both the ground view of the launch and the rocket-cam view, from launch to orbit. Runs about 12 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-ci9xIgNZM

 

[CuttingEdge100]

What kind of payload can this thing carry?

 

[sojourner]

http://www.spacex.com/dragon.php