Brevard County, Florida ping.Let me know if you want on or off this ping list.
(not associated with the county government)
Posted on 10/07/2012 3:37:44 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
SpaceX is poised to start work on a $1.6 billion contract with NASA today, when a Falcon 9 rocket is set to blast off with 882 pounds of supplies on the first operational commercial cargo flight to the International Space Station. Tonight's liftoff time is 8:35 p.m. EDT/5:35 p.m. PDT (0035 GMT). The capsule will return to Earth in late October with approximately 1,673 pounds of equipment from the space station.
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
Will check in later.
Bump.
Related articles for reading:
Commercial resupply of space station blasts off Sunday
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/004/121005preview/
Dragon launch cargo manifest
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/004/launchmanifest.html
/johnny
Other websites for viewing the launch.
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/
http://new.livestream.com/spacex
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ustream.html (in HD)
For Apple’s iPhone, iPod and iPad users.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/nasatv_live_iphone.html
Don’t know. I’ll have to check on that.
For Twitter users you can follow the launch here.
http://twitter.com/spaceflightnow/
Brevard County, Florida ping.Today’s flight is the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station, but it’s the second time SpaceX has launched a Dragon capsule to rendezvous with the complex.
In May, the company completed a round-trip flight to the outpost, delivering limited supplies on what was largely a demonstration mission to prove Dragon’s ability to safely reach the space station.
“The 2,000-plus men and women of SpaceX have been working very hard to make this mission go a little bit smoother than the prior,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president.
NASA and SpaceX jointly funded development of the Falcon 9 and Dragon vehicles, with the government providing $396 million in payments as SpaceX accomplished development milestones.
SpaceX has spent a total of $1.2 billion working on the Falcon rocket family and the Dragon spacecraft.
This time, Dragon is loaded with science experiments and spare parts needed by the space station.
“The Dragon is largely the same, although we are carrying the full complement of cargo racks,” Shotwell said.
“We’re taking about 1,000 pounds of cargo up,” Shotwell said. “This is the first time we’re taking powered cargo up. we’re taking up a GLACIER freezer, which has refrigerated science samples in it. This is also the first time we’re going to bring back a GLACIER as well. we’re quite excited about the mission both up and back.”
At today’s launch countdown gets underway, the weather team continues to give a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions for liftoff at 8:35 p.m. EDT. Thick clouds, anvil cloud and precipitation in the flight path are the launch rules that could be violated tonight.
/johnny
According to this news report the ice cream has been loaded.
SpaceX launch today includes Santa Monica High Silly Putty experiment
By Hans Laetz, City News Service
Posted: 10/07/2012 12:19:12 PM PDT
Updated: 10/07/2012 12:20:00 PM PDT
(excerpt)
“Among the cargo heading up is freezers for scientific specimens to be sent back to Earth, and the spaceship will return with almost twice as much stuff as is going up this time. Extra space in the freezers has been loaded with ice cream for the astronauts, cosmonauts and other space explorers onboard the Iinternational Space Station.”
I like it when rockets go up in the air
big bump
..hard to get excited over 884 lbs. of chickenshit cargo...
how many launches will it take to put a new toilet up there?
It may be chickenshit cargo, but they gotta have that stuff, too.
/johnny
An old Air Force buddy of mine is the HMFIC of weather for this flight.
Go Mike!
Go Dragon! Go Falcon!
Thanks for the reminder. I’ve got NASATV up on the big screen.
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/ has a great pre-flight program going on. Cute space-babe too.
... and of course, as soon as I post the above, they pause their program....
Launched, looking good.
First stage separation confirmed.
Lots of clouds but saw a rather slow climb to orbit compared to the usual Atlas & Delta launches.
Did he say “New Hampshire acquisition of signal?”
Can someone explain what we are seeing? I’m watching the Livestream. No commentator.
T+10 min. Dragon is in orbit. Way to go!
Dragon is deploying its solar array now. You should be hearing mission control audio.
Disappointed they didn’t show any of the camera shots on climb-out. They were visible in the desktop monitors.
Good flight so far.
Sweet!!
It’s probably Newfoundland.
Don’t worry. They’ll put some video together showing it that will be posted to GoogTube.
I am sure they have a ton of proprietary info and data they don’t want to share with the world.
100% Cargo RACKS only.
Not 100% Cargo racks with 100% cargo CONTAINERS loaded with 100% full with cargo.
Think of a semi tractor on the highway.
Now have it pulling a nearly empty double decked car hauler trailer. It has one little SMART car in the middle of the lower level. The semi is pulling 100% of its cargo rack capacity, with almost no cargo.
Once they are sure that the semi can handle the load and tracks straight & true on the highway, they will load more vehicles until they have tested it with a full load.
This is what Dragon is doing, working up to full capacity of 13,000 lbs +.
Yeah. I understand about working up to full weight loads. Contract says 20 tons over 12 flights.
/johnny
This one has the added significance of signalling a new age of private commercial spaceflight, which is so wonderful!!
I watched the live video feed on SpaceX’s website. Beautiful launch.
Yeah, that was the place to be. And how cool to watch the solar panels deploy!
I switched to the Spacex feed when NASA TV didn't show the separation of the first stage. The Spacex feed showed more video from the rocket.
Thanks; I should have done that. Next time, if I’m still around! :^)
Here’s my video of the launch. It went into a cloud before 1st stage MECO unfortunately:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4c18sJynC4
Great video! Thanks!
...set to blast off with 882 pounds of supplies on the first operational commercial cargo flight to the International Space Station.
Hopefully you're not going anywhere soon.
Why less than half a ton of supplies?
It’s possible they are starting small and will be increasing the payload weight on each successive flight. The CRS-2 launch will using Dragon’s trunk.
“CRS-2 will debut the use of the Dragon’s trunk – used for unpressurized/external cargo, that will utilize Dextre for removal operations (see image left) - with payloads already allocated for a ride uphill in the trunk (L2 Link).”
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/09/spacex-october-7-dragons-opening-crs-mission-iss/
Just saw the ISS pass overhead with Dragon about 7 degrees behind.
Kewl!
Falcon 9 launch tomorrow morning at 10:10am EST.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/005/status.html
Rocket: Falcon 9
Payload: Dragon (CRS 2)
Launch Date: March 1, 2013
Launch Time: 10:10 a.m. EST (1510 GMT)
ISS Grapple: March 2 @ 1130 GMT
ISS Departure: March 25 @ TBD
Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Landing Site: Pacific Ocean
Feed: NASA Television
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