SpaceX Returns To Flight

Update January 8, 2017: Given the massive winter rain storm looming in Southern California's forecast, it's not surprising that SpaceX's Iridium-1 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base has been  postponed to Saturday, January 14, 2017, at 9:54 a.m. PST (6:54 a.m. EST; 18:54 CET). Launch details below.

Following completion of a successful static-fire test yesterday, Iridium Corporation announced that it will target Monday, January 9, 2017 to launch the first ten of its Iridium Next satellites into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Southern California's Vandenberg Airforce Base. Launch time is set for 10:22 a.m. PST (1:22 p.m. EST; 19:22 CET).

Iridium has contracted with SpaceX to deliver its second generation global satellite constellation into orbit, over the course of seven missions, including the current one. The new 3-billion-dollar satellite array will replace Iridium's existing satellite network dating to the 1990s and 2000s and provide satellite and cell phone services.

Yesterday the Federal Aviation Administration also accepted Space X's accident report on last September's on-pad explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket and its payload during a pre-launch static fire test. SpaceX traced the failure to one of three composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs). More info here.

Thursday's test fire of the rocket that will launch Iridium's satellites was performed without the payload atop the rocket. It will be installed at Vandenberg over the weekend for a Monday morning launch window.

This mission will include a landing attempt of the rocket's first stage on a barge in the Pacific downrange from VAFB. If you are anywhere in Southern California with an unobstructed ocean view at launch time, you may well be able to see the launch and perhaps the burns by the returning rocket as it maneuvers itself to touch down on an ocean-going barge. The weather, however, may not cooperate. Southern California is expecting a winter storm with potentially heavy rain that is forecast to linger through Monday. Still, it's great news to know that SpaceX is back on track and back on the pad, preparing to return to flight.

 

Last Monday's Perfect SpaceX CRS-9 Launch And Landing In Pictures

Last Monday's commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station was a perfect night launch from Cape Canaveral, topped off by a successful return to launch site, which means SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 first stage back at the launch site, while the Dragon capsule it sent to orbit continued on to dock with the ISS. This landing marks the second time SpaceX has returned a rocket intact to a launch site on land. Rocketry doesn't get more picture perfect than this:
 

Image credit: SpaceX

Falcon 9 and its ISS-bound Dragon payload launch into the night sky in Florida...

Image credit: SpaceX

Image credit: SpaceX

...and then Falcon 9 returns to its launch site a few minutes after lift-off.
This picture shows the landing burn just before touchdown.

Image credit: SpaceX

The above long exposure image shows a familiar night sight on the Cape: a launch into orbit on the left. Not so familiar are the landing burn on the right and the re-entry burn visible at the center top of the image. Falcon 9 performs three burns to land: the boostback burn right after payload separation, which reorients the rocket in orbit in preparation for landing. This is followed by the re-entry burn. Spent rockets used to burn up in the atmosphere at this point. SpaceX's technological advances guide them back to Earth for re-use. The third and final burn occurs just before landing.
 

Image credit: SpaceX

Long exposure image of the launch and landing burn:
Falcon 9 returns to land next to the launch location.

Image credit: SpaceX

Launch, re-entry and landing burns with SpaceX signage at Cape Canaveral

Image Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX marks the spot: Falcon 9 just after it returned to the launch pad location

Image Credit: SpaceX

Dragon cargo capsule CRS-9, solar wings extended, approaches the ISS

After Dragon docked to the International Space Station on Thursday, NASA shared the following two tweets:

.@SpaceX #Dragon now berthed to the @Space_Station as of 10:03am ET. Hatches to be opened on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/qUNmJxTq12

— NASA (@NASA) July 20, 2016

The hatches between #Dragon and station are open and the crew will begin unloading cargo: https://t.co/19JfOxqJXt pic.twitter.com/bJMCAxE3iZ

— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) July 20, 2016

Space X's Historic Dragon Mission to the International Space Station

I had planned to write a few hundred words about Space X's recent successful mission to the ISS and back. Instead, I got sidetracked marveling at the many magnificent pictures that document this  mission.

So this looks like a good time to let pictures tell the story. Enjoy.


The mission in pictures - all photo credits: SpaceX and NASA unless noted otherwise.

 

Dragon atop its Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad on May 18, 2012

IGNITION! and LIFTOFF at 3:44 a.m. EDT on May 22, 2012 from launch pad 40
at Kennedy Space Center

Falcon vs. gravity well

~ Falcon wins ~

A view of Falcon 9 launching behind Space Shuttle Enterprise at Kennedy Space Center

It looks just like the Space Shuttle from here!

Dragon, solar panels deployed, in orbit over Namibia

Dragon over the Rocky Mountains

Dragon approaches the International Space Station - May 25, 2012

Historic moment ~ Dragon fully docked at the ISS for the first time, May 25, 2012

Dragon's main chutes are visible as it splashes down several hundred miles off the Coast of Baja California on May 31, 2012

First shot of Dragon floating in the ocean after splashdown

Dragon arrives at the Port of Los Angeles, June 5, 2012

Dragon is heading to Space X's facility in McGregor, TX for unloading

And, might I add that those scorch marks are totally cool!

T - 90 Minutes And Counting ~

As I write this, it is exactly T - 90 minutes from the scheduled launch time for Space X's demonstration mission to the International Space Station. A Falcon 9 rocket with its Dragon capsule payload is slated to lift off from Pad 40 at Kennedy Space Center at 1:55 a.m.

Space X is poised at the brink of making history. A successful mission means Space X will become the first private entity on the planet to not only achieve orbit, but to dock with the ISS. The symbolism of this feat cannot be overstated at a time when NASA is reeling from funding cuts and the iconic Space Shuttle will never fly again. 

More importantly, Space X has ambitious plans that go far beyond the symbolic. The Dragon capsule can function as a reusable spacecraft to carry astronauts to the ISS and beyond. Space X founder Elon Musk envisions manned missions to Mars within the next 10 years and a burgeoning space tourism industry that will offer round trip rocket rides to space stations, habitats and other future destinations in low Earth orbit and beyond. 

Within the next 20 years, space travel, space ships and suborbitals will become as commonplace as air travel and aircraft. We have finally reached the dawn of an era that will make space accessible to those who want to experience it, on a large scale.  90 minutes from now, Space X is set to pave the way!

Go Space X!

Go Falcon!

Go Dragon!

Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-135 - The Final Launch

A month after attending the NASA tweetup at JPL on June 6, 2011, I was on a plane to Orlando to see the final space shuttle launch in person. It wasn't convenient, it was expensive, it was exhausting. The humidity almost drowned me and the mosquitoes ate me alive. None of that mattered as I arrived at Merritt Island, near Kennedy Space Center, two days before the launch on July 6, 2011.

I shared a house with a number of fellow space geeks, most of whom I had not met in person before. During my three days in Florida, I met dozens of amazing people who I'd previously known only through their twitter presence. They are kindred spirits and many of them have become friends. 

Most of all, traveling to Florida for the last Space Shuttle launch rekindled my lifelong passion for space and space travel and has had a significant impact on my life. This blog is one example. 

Atlantis was scheduled to launch on July 8, 2011 at 11:42 EDT. When I left L.A., NASA predicted a 40% chance of go for launch due to weather. That prediction dwindled to 20% go the evening before the launch. I had no flexibility in my travel plans, I was leaving the next day, launch or no launch. After a sleepless night and no improvement in launch probability, the morning of July 8 arrived. I had resigned myself to a likely launch abort, which I knew was a possibility when I planned the trip. The launch would be visible from the house, so I thought I'd stay and see it from there. So did two of my house mates, Sophia (@phiden) and Gavin (@charmcitygavin). 

At the last minute, we decided to see if we could get closer. Traffic was forecast to be horrendous around KSC. However, we made it to an uncrowded viewing site about 8-10 miles directly across from launch pad 39A at Banana Creek, and found parking, with an hour to spare prior to the scheduled launch time. As the time drew closer, Atlantis remained Go for launch. As the final minutes and seconds clicked by, 11:42 arrived and.... nothing happened. People started to wonder about an abort. We had no definitive information at our viewing site. Then, at 11:45, the tell-tale white plume materialized across the water, followed by Atlantis roaring off into the sky in a fiery, graceful arc. At the time we didn't know that the countdown clock had stopped at T-31 seconds for a 2.5 minute hold to check out a mechanical issue. 

The video below was shot by @charmcitygavin. I'm the one screaming and cheering the loudest. It was a moment I will never forget. After mentally preparing myself for an abort and seeing 11:42 pass without a launch, the realization that Atlantis just went from 20% go for launch to Liftoff!! was overwhelming!

Here is NASA's launch video, which includes the nerve-wracking hold at T-31 ("We've had a failure") and its resolution. 

I will never again underestimate the power of 
"20% Go for Launch".

 

Curiosity: Meeting Mars Science Laboratory at JPL

On June 6, 2011, I was one among 120 @NASA Twitter followers who were invited to spend a day behind the scenes at a NASA Tweetup at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

This was my first NASA Tweetup and the second held at JPL, which hosted the first one in January 2009. Now, three years later, there are Tweetups hosted at various NASA facilities just about every month, in addition to many space-themed Tweetups organized by Twitter space enthusiasts not affiliated with NASA, a group that has christened itself #spacetweeps.

Immersion in Tweetups and related social events has been a tremendous inspiration for me. It rekindled my life-long passion for space, space exploration and space tourism in a setting that allows me not only to geek out to my heart's content, but to be part of a fast growing community of people who all want to see humans get off our planet and establish a permanent presence beyond low-Earth orbit. Not 100 years from now. Not 50 years from now. But NOW, in our lifetime.

I have yet to meet anyone at a NASA or space Tweetup who does NOT want to go into space. To illustrate just how much we do, an informal poll I took at a gathering of spacetweeps last July revealed that 80% answered Yes when offered this scenario: "You are given the opportunity to live on a Mars Colony in your lifetime. The trip is one-way. Would you go?"

I don't think NASA expected its Tweetup campaign to evolve into the social phenomenon, online and off, that it has become. Still, the credit certainly belongs to NASA and its social media specialists for creating a highly effective public outreach campaign, at a time when the agency's 30-year Space Shuttle Program drew to a close and NASA faced significant changes in its operations, staffing and priorities.

When I arrived at JPL on June 6, 2011, I expected to experience great things and meet people who would become friends. I was not disappointed. NASA Tweetup day at JPL stands out as one of my most memorable days of the year.

The highlight of the day was a tour of the JPL facility where Mars rover Curiosity was in its final stages of assembly, with preparations underway to ship the rover to Kennedy Space Center for its November 2011 launch. When I look at the pictures from that day, I marvel that this machine is now well on its way to the Red Planet. Curiosity will reach Mars orbit in August 2012.

The rover impressively outclasses its predecessors: Curiosity is the size of a car and weighs in at a ton. It is nuclear-powered and its many scientific instruments include a laser that can vaporize Martian rock. In a major design innovation, Curiosity won't have to bounce off the Martian surface encased in giant balloons to land in a most undignified manner. Befitting a robot of its sophistication, it will instead be lowered by a sky crane that uses retro rocket and tethers to guide Curiosity to its destination at Gale Crater while hovering above the Martian surface.

A flawless launch atop an Atlas V rocket on November 26, 2011 saw Curiosity off on an 8-month-trip to Mars:

I expect to see NASA Tweetups and space meetups around the world later this year as we celebrate Curiosity's arrival in Mars orbit and track the rover's descent onto the surface of another world. Nuclear-powered, laser-equipped and all that, Curiosity does have a whimsical side as well. The wheels have a tread pattern that spells out J-P-L in Morse code wherever Curiosity travels on the Red Planet. 

At the Tweetup, we were invited to sign a guest list, an image of which is on its way to Mars with Curiosity, along with a million others. I bet I'm not the only one who signed the list who has wondered about future colonists who will encounter Curiosity on the Martian surface and scan that list for the name of a relative or friend.

Mars Rovers Family Portrait:

Curiosity is on the right, Spirit/Opportunity is on the left, and the smallest one is a model of Sojourner, which launched to the Red Planet in 1997. Spirit and Opportunity arrived in 2003. Both Spirit and Oppy were designed to explore Mars for 90 days. Spirit remained operational until the summer of 2011 and Opportunity, roving strong now in its 9th year, is still sending back data.

You can track Curiosity's progress to the Red Planet here in real time:  
Where is Curiosity?