Dragon SpX-19 (CRS-19), HISUI, +... - Falcon 9-077 (B1059.1) - CCAFS SLC-40 - 05.12.2019, 17:29 UTC

[tnt22]

[tnt22]

  

[tnt22]

[tnt22]

 Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 12 мин. назад

No issues being tracked with rocket or payload.  If Thursday attempt is needed, it would be at 12:29 EST (17:29 UTC) #NASA #SpaceX #CRS19 #Falcon9 #Dragon


12 мин. назад

Late load currently underway.  Will wrap later tonight.  #NASA #SpaceX #CRS19 #Falcon9 #Dragon

[tnt22]

Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 13 мин. назад

185 nmi off Jacksonville, FL, is where the drone ship will be to catch the booster for this mission. #NASA #SpaceX #CRS19 #Falcon9 #Dragon


13 мин. назад

Weather forecasters noting the very high upper level winds of 120kts.  "That is a problem for space vehicles."


12 мин. назад

Basically, weather tomorrow will come down to Upper Level Winds.  Thursday looks MUCH better.


9 мин. назад

No RTLS landing because Stage 2 will do a thermal demonstration of 6hrs.  Needs extra performance for that.  1st stage has to burn for longer time -- which negates the ability to do RTLS.


7 мин. назад

As of right now, SpaceX trajectory analysts say those Upper Level Winds are OK for Falcon9 tomorrow.  But they need Day of Launch weather balloon data to verify predictions.


4 мин. назад

No conflict with Dragon and Progress arriving at ISS within 2 days of each other.


4 мин. назад

There is no launch op on 6 December due to Dragon/ISS phasing/rendezvous timelines.

[tnt22]

 Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 18 мин. назад

Version 2 Cargo Dragon - starts on CRS-21 next year - certified for 5 flights.

[tnt22]

 Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 2 мин. назад

SpaceX did analysis of Starliner thruster plume impingement on Dragon's solar arrays and sensors.  All is good on that front.

[tnt22]

 Stephen Clark‏ @StephenClark1 14 мин. назад

SpaceX's Jessica Jensen: Tomorrow's Falcon 9 launch with Dragon will perform a drone ship landing, rather than a landing back at Cape Canaveral, to reserve performance on the F9 upper stage for a six-hour, long coast thermal demonstration. F9's upper stage will then deorbit.

См также 4-й твит #85

[tnt22]

Брифинг завершен

 

[tnt22]

 Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 6 мин. назад

NASA says they've done everything to allow #DM2 (SpaceX's crew test flight) to stay for a long duration mission on ISS.  NASA is just waiting for time to pass as the vehicles work through final certifications for flight.

[tnt22]

 Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 4 мин. назад

And drumroll please... the to the second launch times are:

4 Dec: 12:51:58 EST (17:51:58 UTC)
5 Dec: 12:29:23 EST (17:29:23 UTC)

[tnt22]

Ловцы на позиции

 SpaceXFleet Updates‏ @SpaceXFleet 2 ч. назад

Of Course I Still Love You has arrived at the landing zone for the CRS-19 mission! The droneship is ~345km downrange.

[tnt22]

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacex/2019/12/03/weather-90-favorable-for-wednesdays-launch/

Weather 90% Favorable for Wednesday's Launch

Danielle Sempsrott
Posted Dec 3, 2019 at 4:39 pm


A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:01 p.m. EDT on July 25, 2019, carrying the Dragon spacecraft on the company's 18th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-18) mission to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, topped with the Dragon spacecraft, stands ready for launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida for the company's CRS-19 mission to the International Space Station. Following today's prelaunch news conference, liftoff remains on track for 12:51 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 4.


SpaceX's 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Dec. 4, 2019, at 12:51 p.m. EST.

"As of now, we're tracking no issues on Falcon 9, none on Dragon, and we're on track with regards to timeline," said Jessica Jensen, director of Dragon Mission Management at SpaceX.

Weather officials are predicting a 90% chance of favorable weather conditions for launch, with primary concerns revolving around liftoff winds and upper-level winds.

"It's going to be a beautiful day tomorrow, just a little chilly in the morning, but we're hoping that we can get through those upper-level winds," said Mike McAleenan, a launch weather officer with the U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing. "We may see some patchy fog or stratus around, but that will definitely burn off in time for launch, so we should have some pretty good viewing out there."

Live launch coverage will begin at 12:30 p.m. EST tomorrow, Dec. 4, on NASA TV and the agency's website, as well as here on the blog. CRS-19 will deliver supplies, equipment and material that will directly support dozens of science and research investigations that will take place during Expeditions 61 and 62.

Also being carried by the Dragon spacecraft is the Japanese government's Hyperspectral Imager Suite (HISUI), a next-generation, hyperspectral Earth imaging system.

[tnt22]

12/04/2019 01:21 Stephen Clark

SpaceX and NASA officials today decided to go ahead with a Falcon 9 launch attempt Wednesday at 12:51:58 p.m. EST (1751:58 GMT) to kick off an automated resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Teams will be watching upper level wind conditions during Wednesday's countdown to ensure they do not exceed the Falcon 9's limitations. But weather conditions at the surface should be nearly ideal for a launch.

SpaceX's Dragon supply carrier will launch aboard the Falcon 9 rocket on a three-day trek to the station. If the launch occurs Wednesday, Dragon will deliver nearly three tons of experiments, provisions and other cargo to the space station early Saturday.

At this time, the Falcon 9 is horizontal at Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad, where ground crews are loading about 700 pounds of time-critical payloads and research specimens into the Dragon supply ship's pressurized compartment. That work should conclude around midnight EST (0500 GMT), after which the Falcon 9 will be raised vertical in preparation for tomorrow's countdown.

[tnt22]

https://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp?rid=1&nid=522947&lang=RU

К МКС стартует американская ракета Falcon 9 с "грузовиком" Cargo Dragon
04.12.2019 0:00:06

Вашингтон. 4 декабря. ИНТЕРФАКС - Ракета-носитель Falcon 9 с грузовым космическим кораблем Cargo Dragon американской компании SpaceX в среду стартует к Международной космической станции (МКС), сообщает Национальное управление США по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства (NASA).

19-й по счету запуск "грузовика" Cargo Dragon к МКС в рамках коммерческого контракта между NASA и компанией SpaceX планируется осуществить с 40-го пускового комплекса на авиабазе на мысе Канаверал в штате Флорида в 12:51 по восточному времени США (20:51 мск).

Это будет уже третий полет данного многоразового "грузовика" к МСК. По сообщению компании SpaceX, корабль ранее уже дважды побывал в космосе - в сентябре 2014 года и в июне 2017 года.

Он должен доставить на МКС около 2,5 тонны продовольствия, а также оборудования и материалов для проведения десятков научных экспериментов экипажем станции. Среди прочего на МКС будет доставлен гиперспектральный сенсор (Hyperspectral Imager Suite - HISUI) японского космического агентства JAXA для наблюдения за воздействием добычи нефти, газа и минералов на прибрежные районы. "Грузовик" привезет на станцию 40 мышей для проведения экспериментов по уменьшению влияния невесомости на их костно-мышечный аппарат. После завершения исследований грызуны будут отправлены на Землю со спускаемым капсулой "грузовика".

Кроме того, Cargo Dragon доставит на МКС материалы по эксперименту, в рамках которого будет изучаться влияние невесомости на процесс соложения ячменя, начиная от прорастания зародыша, для понимания того, как будут реагировать растения. По словам главного научного сотрудника Национальной лаборатории МКС NASA Майкла Робертса, это необходимо для разработки новых способов выращивания растений для потребления в пищу в ходе дальних космических полетов.

Через две минуты после старта от американской ракеты-носителя Falcon 9 должна отделиться первая многоразовая ступень, которая затем совершит управляемую посадку на плавучей платформе Of Course I Still Love You на Атлантике.

В настоящее время Cargo Dragon является единственным космическим кораблем для снабжения МКС, который способен возвращать грузы на Землю.

Стыковка "грузовика" с МКС запланирована на 7 декабря. Она будет осуществляться путем захвата "грузовика" 17-метровой автоматической рукой-манипулятором Canadarm-2 МКС и последующим присоединением его к американскому сегменту станции - модулю Harmony. "Ловить" корабль будет итальянский астронавт Лука Пармитано. А процесс его непосредственной стыковки со станцией будет осуществляться по командам из Центра управления полетами NASA в Хьюстоне.

Cargo Dragon будет находиться в составе МКС около месяца. Затем он будет сведен с орбиты, и его спускаемая капсула приводнится в Тихом океане вблизи Калифорнии. Корабль доставит на Землю результаты экспериментов, проведенных экипажем МКС на орбите, общим весом более 1,5 тонн.

С 2012 по 2019 годы компания SpaceX осуществила 20 запусков грузовых кораблей Dragon к МКС. Один из них окончился неудачей из-за аварии ракеты-носителя Falcon 9. Принадлежащая Илону Маску компания SpaceX имеет контракт с NASA на 20 запусков корабля на сумму $2 млрд.

В настоящее время экипаж станции состоит из россиян Александра Скворцова и Олега Скрипочки, американцев Эндрю Моргана, Кристины Кук и Джессики Меир, а также итальянца Луки Пармитано.

Вслед за Cargo Dragon к МКС 6 декабря отправится грузовой корабль "Прогресс МС-13". Он пристыкуется в автоматическом режиме к модулю "Пирс" 9 декабря.

[свернуть]

[tnt22]

 NASA‏ @NASA 3 ч. назад

Robots need a place to stay in space, too.  NASA is attaching a "robot hotel" to the outside of the @Space_Station. The protective storage unit for critical robotic tools is set to launch on Dec. 4 aboard the 19th SpaceX commercial resupply mission: https://go.nasa.gov/2YfjQLC

[tnt22]

ISS National Lab Mission Overview, SpaceX CRS-19

ISS National Lab

3 дек. 2019 г.

The International Space Station (ISS) is poised to receive a multitude of critical research and supplies as part of SpaceX's 19th commercial resupply services mission (SpaceX CRS-19) to the orbiting laboratory. This video provides an overview on some of the investigations destined for the ISS National Lab on this mission.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wvdEohK-tL0?feature=oembed (2:42)

[tnt22]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/12/03/spacex-cargo-mission-combines-mighty-mice-fires-and-beer/

SpaceX cargo mission combines mighty mice, fires and beer research
December 3, 2019 | Stephen Clark


NASA astronaut Jessica Meir works with an experiment on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

A nest of genetically-engineered mice, a research study to observe the behavior of fires in space, and an experiment that could lead to brewing beer in microgravity are among more than 5,700 pounds of cargo inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule awaiting launch fr om Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station Wednesday.

Scientists will use the mice to study an experimental drug that could combat muscle and bone loss in astronauts and other vulnerable populations.

Eight of the 40 mice launching to the space station have been genetically-engineered to lack myostatin, a protein that acts to limit muscle growth in animals. The muscle-bound, myostatin-free mice — or "mighty mice" — will be joined by four other groups of rodents, including groups that will be given an experimental drug in space to block myostatin activity and promote muscle growth.

All 40 mice will return to Earth alive on the Dragon capsule in early January. Scientists will administer the same myostatin protein blocker to some of the mice after they are back on the ground to assess how the drug affects their rate of recovery.

"The focus of this project is going to be to determine whether getting rid of myostatin in mice that we send to the International Space Station can prevent, or at least mitigate, the loss of muscle due to microgravity," said Se-Jin Lee, professor at the Jackson Laboratory and University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and principal investigator for the rodent research experiment.

The drug trial to be administered to the mice on the space station also inhibits activin, a protein that regulates bone mass.

"By blocking activin with this drug, bone density increases significantly," said Emily Germain-Lee, a co-investigator on the experiment and professor at University of Connecticut School of Medicine. "And as you probably know, astronauts who spend a lot of time in space lose not only muscle mass, but also bone mass.

"Anything that can be done to prevent muscle and bone loss would be very important to maintaining the health of astronauts during space travel," Germain-Lee said. "But ... loss of bone mass is also a huge health problem for people here on Earth. There are actually lots of diseases that lead to bone loss in both children and adults. And, of course, osteoporosis is a big health issue for people who are elderly or bedridden.

"By testing this experimental drug in life subjected to microgravity, we hope to be able to test the therapeutic strategies for combating both the bone loss and muscle loss that occur in lots of different conditions," Germain-Lee said.

The resupply launch Wednesday will signal the start of SpaceX's 19th cargo mission to the space station, ferrying more than a ton of experiment hardware inside the pressurized compartment of the company's Dragon spacecraft. The supply ship will also launch with provisions for the space station's six-person crew, spare parts, tools, an ultra-sensitive Japanese Earth-imaging camera, and a flock of small tech demo CubeSats.

SpaceX ground teams were loading time-critical payloads late Tuesday into the Dragon capsule mounted to the Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad. Technicians planned to close the Dragon spacecraft's hatch and raise the 213-foot-tall (65-meter) launcher vertical at pad 40 before dawn Wednesday.


The Dragon spacecraft set to launch Wednesday is seen here on a previous visit to the space station. Credit: NASA

The Falcon 9 will be filled with super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants beginning 35 minutes before liftoff. The countdown clock will tick down to a precise launch time of 12:51:58 p.m. EST (1751:58 GMT), roughly the moment the Earth's rotation brings the Falcon 9 launch pad under the space station's ground track.

Nine Merlin engines will drive the Falcon 9 northeast from Florida's Space Coast. The 12-foot-diameter (3.7-meter) first stage will accelerate the rocket for two-and-a-half minutes before shutdown and separation.

The Falcon 9's second stage will fire a single Merlin engine to power the rocket into orbit. Meanwhile, the first stage will perform a series of burns using a subset of its engines to slow down for landing on SpaceX's drone ship parked in the Atlantic Ocean around 210 miles (340 kilometers) east of Jacksonville, Florida.

The Falcon 9 booster — a brand new vehicle in SpaceX's rocket fleet — will aim to land on the ocean-going drone ship less than eight minutes after liftoff. Less than a minute later, the upper stage will inject the Dragon supply ship into orbit, setting the stage for deployment of the station-bound cargo capsule at T+plus 9 minutes, 35 seconds.

The Dragon will unfurl its solar panels a few minutes later, prime its propulsion system, and begin a choreographed sequence of thruster firings to approach the space station. The cargo freighter will arrive at the station early Saturday, assuming an on-time launch Wednesday.

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA flight engineer Drew Morgan will man the space station's Canadian-built robot arm to capture the Dragon supply ship Saturday. The robotic arm will position the Dragon spacecraft on the station's Harmony module, wh ere astronauts will open hatches and begin unpacking the cargo inside the supply ship's internal compartment.

The Dragon cargo capsule set for launch Wednesday will make its third voyage to the space station, following two previous round-trip flights in 2014 and 2017.

Here is a break-down of the Dragon spacecraft's 5,769-pound (2,617-kilogram) supply load. The figures below do not include the mass of cargo packaging, which is included in NASA's overall payload mass:

[/li]
• Science Investigations:    2,154 pounds (977 kilograms)
  
• Vehicle Hardware:                675 pounds (306 kilograms)
  
• Crew Supplies:                     564 pounds (256 kilograms)
  
• Spacewalk Equipment:        141 pounds (65 kilograms)
  
• Computer Resources:           33 pounds (15 kilograms)
  
• Unpressurized Payloads: 2,037 pounds (924 kilograms)
  

The Dragon spacecraft will carry an experiment for Anheuser-Busch to test the malting ability of barley seeds in microgravity. The company eventually wants to brew beer in space.

Gary Hanning, director of global barley research at Anheuser-Busch, said the company's malting experiment is the third in a series of investigations looking at how the environment of space affects brewing processes."

"This series has been constructed to look at the impact of space environment on the germination process of barley," Hanning said. "So the germination processes is taking seed and creating the new plant from that, and so that's a very key step in the life cycle of any plant, and particularly important to malting barley. So much of our research on earth is focused on seed germination and the environmental impacts that would affect seed germination, as well as physiological effects."

Hanning said Anheuser-Busch's experiments in space have given the company's research team a new perspective.

"From our previous studies on the space station, we've noted that the gene expression — that's the genes that are turned on or turned off and to what degree — are different on the space station then they are on Earth," he said. "We think it's a response to the stress, because it's an abnormal environment, so there's a stress related there. So ogene expression is a part of that cascade of events as part of germination."

The experiment launching on SpaceX's next cargo mission will look at hardware solutions to support barley malting on the space station.

"Malting is basically a biological process," Hanning said. "It is to convert barley into a product called malt, which is used in a lot of food and beverage applications. Malting is actually a three-step process," he added, beginning with the steeping, or hydration, of barley grains, followed by germination and drying.

The Anheuser-Busch experiment will launch with just 2.5 ounces (70 grams) of barley grains, separated into two units.

Another research payload aboard the Dragon spacecraft will allow scientists to observe flame behavior in confined spaces in microgravity.

The Dragon capsule's external cargo bay is loaded with a Japanese Earth-imaging instrument with high spectral sensitivity. The Hyperspectral Imager Suite, or HISUI, instrument will image Earth's surface in 185 spectral bands, allowing scientists to distinguish between the composition and type of a range of vegetation, soil, rocks, snow, ice, and human-made objects like buildings, roads and other structures.

Using the robotic arm, the HISUI instrument will be mounted to a fixture outside the station's Japanese Kibo lab module. It's a follow-up to the Japanese-developed ASTER instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, which launched in 1999.

[tnt22]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/12/03/long-duration-coast-experiment-on-tap-after-falcon-9-launch-wednesday/

Long-duration coast experiment on tap after Falcon 9 launch Wednesday
December 3, 2019 | Stephen Clark


Artist's illustration of a Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX will perform a multi-hour experiment on the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket after the launcher deploys a Dragon supply ship on the way to the International Space Station Wednesday, gathering thermal data and other information to verify the vehicle's ability to perform long-duration missions and inject payloads into demanding, high-energy orbits.

The experiment will use up some of the Falcon 9's excess lift capacity, leaving an insufficient fuel reserve in the rocket's first stage to perform maneuvers to return to a propulsive landing at SpaceX's recovery site at Cape Canaveral. Instead, the first stage will aim for a landing on a SpaceX drone ship parked in the Atlantic Ocean.

"After Dragon is dropped off into orbit, the Falcon 9 second stage is going to continue on for a thermal demonstration," said Jessica Jensen, director of Dragon mission management at SpaceX. "So it's going to be a long six-hour coast that then results in a disposal burn.

"We need extra performance for that demonstration, so basically what we have to do is burn the first stage for a longer period of time, so that the second stage can have its performance reserved for that demo," Jensen said Tuesday. "Since we're burning the first stage for a longer period of time, it doesn't have as much fuel to come all the way back to the launch site. So we'll do a partial boost-back, which is where the drone ship is located."

On Wednesday's flight — SpaceX's 19th cargo launch to the space station — nine kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D engines on the Falcon 9's first stage will cut off at T+plus 2 minutes, 31 seconds, before separating to allow the rocket's single-engine second stage to accelerate the Dragon capsule into orbit.

That burn time is about 13 seconds longer than the first stage firing on SpaceX's most recent Dragon cargo launch in July, when the booster had enough leftover propellant to return to a landing at Cape Canaveral.

Jensen said SpaceX is performing the thermal demonstration on Wednesday's launch for "some of our other customers for longer missions that we're going to have to fly in the future."

She said SpaceX will measure the thermal environment in the second stage propellant tanks, along with other parameters, then reignite the stage's single Merlin engine for a disposal burn.

SpaceX's acknowledgement of the bonus objectives planned on this week's Falcon 9 launch helps explain an unusual airspace warning notice, or NOTAM, indicating the rocket's second stage would deorbit and fall back into Earth's atmosphere over the far southern Indian Ocean. Most of the rocket body is expected to burn up during re-entry.

The timing and location of the NOTAM hinted that SpaceX planned something unusual for the Falcon 9's second stage after releasing the Dragon cargo capsule in orbit, according to Marco Langbroek, an experienced tracker of satellite movements who lives in the Netherlands.

In a blog post, Langbroek wrote that the airspace warning suggests the Falcon 9 rocket will steer into a higher-inclination orbit after deploying the Dragon spacecraft into the space station's orbital plane inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator. The NOTAM indicates the upper stage will deorbit around five-and-a-half hours after launch.

SpaceX has performed long-duration missions on two Falcon Heavy launches to date.

During the company's first Falcon Heavy test flight in February 2018, the rocket's second stage reignited its upper stage engine after coasting in orbit more than five hours, a maneuver that sent a repurposed Tesla Roadster on a trajectory to escape the grip of Earth's gravity.

A Falcon Heavy mission in June for the U.S. Air Force included four upper stage engine burns over three-and-a-half hours to deploy two dozen satellites into three different orbits around Earth.

Long-duration missions lasting more than five-to-six hours are required to place satellites on trajectories high above Earth, such as circular geosynchronous orbits, where spacecraft linger over the same geographic region at an altitude of more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.

While SpaceX did not identify what customers might need a long-duration launch profile, some of the U.S. government's top secret spy satellites require direct rides to geosynchronous orbits. The Delta 4-Heavy rocket built and flown by United Launch Alliance often delivers those clandestine payloads to space, but ULA is retiring the Delta 4-Heavy. ULA's next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket and SpaceX's launch vehicles are less expensive than the Delta 4-Heavy, which has launched 11 times since 2004.

The U.S. Air Force also occasionally flies satellite missions that require multi-hour launch profiles.

In contrast, SpaceX's Dragon missions to the International Space Station reach their targeted deployment orbits in less than 10 minutes. A commercial communications satellite is typically released from the Falcon 9 launcher around a half-hour after liftoff.

[tnt22]

SpaceX CRS-19 Pre-Launch Briefing

 Space Videos

3 дек. 2019 г.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/727sk1VZcEY (43:16)