SpaceX delays Bulgarian satellite launch to replace valve
Capitalism in space: In order to replace a valve in the payload fairing of its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX has decided to delay its Florida launch of a Bulgarian television satellite until Friday.
Meanwhile, they have another launch scheduled for Sunday out of Vandenberg. If both fly successfully this will make the weekend very busy for SpaceX.
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
Capitalism in space: In order to replace a valve in the payload fairing of its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX has decided to delay its Florida launch of a Bulgarian television satellite until Friday.
Meanwhile, they have another launch scheduled for Sunday out of Vandenberg. If both fly successfully this will make the weekend very busy for SpaceX.
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
This is confirmation that Spacex has two independent launch teams, which is good news for future launch cadence.
Did the last flight of the Dragon spacecraft (CRS-11) to the ISS have in flight abort capabilities?
Danny Daniels: Your question is a good one. SpaceX had said that after the June 2015 launch failure that they would provide all future Dragons parachute capabilities and flight abort software so that if a rocket failed in flight the capsule would be able to separate and splashdown safely.
I do not know whether they have actually done this, but I suspect they have.
Mr. Danny Daniels: The Dragon capsule with abort capabilities has side blisters to house the super draco thrusters. If you google CRS -11 and go to images, the capsule does not have these blisters. There still may be a parachute recovery system on board. I would think the retro-grade thrusters would be enough to pull it away from a non-operating second stage for a clean parachute deployment after re-entry. I would assume this would all have to happen above 15,000 feet AGL.
Des,
Two independent on-site ground crews. The crew at Canaveral/Kennedy has been by far the busier of the two and has, no doubt, long been both on a full-time basis and resident in that area. The current ground crew for Vandy missions likely have “day jobs” in Hawthorne and probably commutes north from L.A. for a few days preceding each launch given their – until now – relative rarity. Perhaps they also rotate to Kennedy/Canaveral periodically to keep their skills sharp. The SpaceX facility at Vandy is apparently deserted between missions. Or at least has been up until now.
Given that there are a half-dozen missions scheduled out of Vandy this year, with four of those scheduled in the final six months of the year, SpaceX may be close to establishing a full-time presence there.
Mission Control for all missions, though, is in Hawthorne and is shared among launch sites. Once all four launch sites are running at a high cadence, all will have resident full-time ground crews and even the Hawthorne Mission Control will probably have to be at least duplicated. Mission Control will become a full-time gig too. Right now, my understanding is that the chairs are all filled by people who have other duties when a mission is not imminent. Increased launch cadence at all pads will make this increasingly untenable – perhaps within a year.
Danny,
I left a reply for you over on the June 16 podcast thread where you had posed the same question.