Some details on the cause of the Dragon/Falcon 9 launch delay
Bill Harward has some details on the cause of the Dragon/Falcon 9 launch delay.
Essentially, nothing seems critical. They found a few minor issues that they felt needed more testing, and are simply making sure these issues are resolved before launch. All in all I find this report very encouraging. Stay tuned.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Bill Harward has some details on the cause of the Dragon/Falcon 9 launch delay.
Essentially, nothing seems critical. They found a few minor issues that they felt needed more testing, and are simply making sure these issues are resolved before launch. All in all I find this report very encouraging. Stay tuned.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Bottonline – they got sloppy and forgot to do some tests, and didn’t find out in time to make the launch.
Oddly their talking about this taking 2 months + or – a couple weeks to wrap up and reschedule a slot in the ISS’ schedule?
And of course thats from SpaceX anouncements, so their might (as in the past) be more.
Intersting the line about
>… a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to provide 12 cargo flights to the station for delivery of more than 44,000 pounds
That’s $133m a flight for a 3,700 pound cargo, or $36,000 a pound to LEO. Pricy!!
I have said this before, so I will restate it one more time. The Fall dry run for the final review for this potential launch went very badly on a number of fronts both SW and HW. The fact that the linked article notes “NASA dispatched a veteran flight director and trajectory analysts to Hawthorne to help SpaceX get to the bottom of the issue” should indicate how serious at least some of the problems are. Exactly when the test flight will now take place (note no new flight date has been set) is an interesting question. But this is not a minor issue.
If the fall dry run went so badly – they should have known a lot sooner then January that February wasn’t going to happen. Assuming the same over optimism that lead them to keep thinking they could make Feb is still there, March/April may well be overly hopefull.
I’m also concerned with their phrasing this as a few things they want to make better, rather then stepping up and saying their were unacceptable issues that needed to be resolved. Given spaceX is runing as much on investor faith in Musk as any real business numbers – if he/SpaceX disappoint them – the bottom could start falling out of that unquestioning investor support.