Elon Musk launches 2 astronauts in 7 man capable Dragon

[dbc]

NASA has had incredible achievements. But the last 10-15 years have been very lackluster.

 

[F-22Raptor]

NASA has had incredible achievements. But the last 10-15 years have been very lackluster.

I wouldn’t say that. Curiosity and Insight on Mars, New Horizons to Pluto, Juno to Jupiter. These are all huge achievements.

This decade should be very exciting. Perseverance is set to launch in July. It’s the first part of a two part sample return mission from Mars. The 2nd part is scheduled for launch in 2026. Perseverance is also carrying the Ingenuity drone helicopter to achieve first powered flight on another planet.

Europa Clipper mission to explore Europas oceans. And a potential lander.

Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Titan.

James Webb Space Telescope

Big decade ahead!


Not to mention the Artemis missions

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

NASA has had incredible achievements. But the last 10-15 years have been very lackluster.

Well compared to NASA no other country has accomplished anything new at all in the past 10-15 years.

Plus SpaceX keeps getting all the glory..with no end in sight.

 

[Oldman1]

Back in 2015, 60 Minutes interviewed Musk and Musk was in tears. Time 1:30.

Even I cried. Just how much doubts it affected him.

 

[F-22Raptor]

Even I cried. Just how much doubts it affected him.

Wait until Starship is launched into orbit on Super Heavy. It will revolutionize the aerospace industry. No one will doubt Musk then.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Originally NASA wanted new rockets for each crew dragon launch...

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/falcon-9-nasa
NASA modified SpaceX contract to allow the reuse of previously-flown Falcon 9 rockets

SpaceX is a leader in aerospace innovation. The company has designed and manufactured some of the world’s most advanced rockets, capable of launching payload and returning from space to be reused. Aerospace companies use a rocket once, SpaceX engineers developed a rocket recovery system to reuse some parts of the two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. The 229-feet-tall rocket is the most flown operational rocket in the United States, it has flown 85 times.

Falcon’s nine Merlin 1D engines are powered by a combination of rocket-grade kerosene, known as RP-1, and liquid oxygen, LOX. It is capable of producing over 1.7 million pounds of thrust as it lifts off through Earth’s atmosphere. In the vacuum of space, it produces over 1.8 million pounds of thrust. The rocket’s second stage, which is the top part that propels the payload or spacecraft in space, is powered by a single Merlin engine, it can carry 25 tons of payload to low Earth orbit.

SpaceX’s rocket recovery system consists of the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster conducting controlled vertical landings. The rocket can flawlessly land both on the ground and autonomous drone ships at sea to be reused again. Engineers truly introduced a great innovation to the aerospace industry. The company aims to one day accomplish developing a rocket that can be as reusable as airplanes. For now, SpaceX’s reusability goal is to re-fly a rocket 10 times, they are halfway to reaching that milestone. A couple of Falcon 9 first-stage boosters have re-flown 5 times. Previously flown Falcon 9 boosters are mostly used for internal missions, though customers can book a previously-flown booster for a cheaper price. Overall, SpaceX has safely returned orbital-class rockets 45 times and 31 of those rockets have been reused.

Last month, on May 30, SpaceX conducted its first crewed flight to the International Space Station under a contract with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program which is returning human spaceflight capabilities to the United States. The successful mission, referred to as Demo-2, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center with two brave NASA Astronauts aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft, atop a new Falcon 9 rocket.

According to a recent contract modification, NASA upgraded its contract with SpaceX to allow the use of previously-flown Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon spacecraft for future missions. The contract details that “NASA plans to issue task orders for Post-Certification Missions (PCM) to and from the ISS [International Space Station] that include ground, launch, lifeboat, on-orbit, return and recovery operations. The minimum quantity of missions to be ordered is two (2) and the maximum potential quantity of missions which may be ordered is six (6).”

The contract's modification reads:

“The purpose of this bilateral modification is to extend the Demo-2 flight from two weeks to up to 119 days and add the requirement for 45th Operations Group Detachment-3 (DET-3) Joint test training for PCM-1 [Post-Certification Mission] through PCM-6 in exchange for allowing reuse of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Crew Dragon spacecraft beginning with PCM-2.”

The 45th Space Wing is a United States Space Force team assigned to Space Operations Command, stationed at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. They will participate during astronaut deployment missions for training purposes.

The contract modification grants permission for SpaceX to use previously flown spacecraft after their Post-Certification Mission 1, which is expected after Crew-1 conducts a successful mission which could occur towards the end of this year. Spacecraft reusability significantly reduces the cost of spaceflight. If SpaceX continues to reliably conduct re-flights of orbital-class rockets and eventually carries astronauts to space aboard used spacecraft, it will completely revolutionize spaceflight.

SpaceX announced software engineers will host a question-and-answer session today, June 6, from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. PDT. Via the social platform Reddit, linked below.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1268991039190130689

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I'm way away ahead of this article

Meanwhile in 2020 SpaceX using glove compatible customizable touchscreens...
View attachment 636827
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Hello 21st Century!!

https://www.republicworld.com/techn...gon-donald-trump-space-station-usa-china.html
'Incredible' Rocket Control Console Progression Leaves Even Elon Musk Highly Impressed


One of the most fascinating aspects of NASA-SpaceX's historic launch was the astronauts became the first to pilot a spaceship using only touchscreen controls.

Two NASA astronauts last Sunday entered the International Space Station (ISS) from SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft after a historic launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the dawn of a new age in commercial space travel. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is the agency for space research, aeronautics and related programmes in the US and the pre-eminent such agency of its kind, alongside the ESA, JAXA, China's space agency and India's ISRO, confirmed the arrival of astronauts Bob Behnken (49) and Doug Hurley (53) at the ISS.

A spaceship with only touch screen controls
One of the most fascinating aspects was that both the astronauts became the first astronauts launched to space on a privately-owned rocket and they also became the first to pilot a spaceship using only touchscreen controls. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon refrained from using the infamous maze of manual controls and switches found on retired spacecraft like the Space Shuttle or the Apollo command modules.

Instead, Crew Dragon pilots had just three large touchscreen panels in front of them and a few spare buttons below. A Twitter user named 'Weird History' shared an image of showing the difference between the controller of Apollo 4 (1967), Space Shuttle (2002) and Crew Dragon (2020). SpaceX owner Elon Musk also liked the tweet which has garnered over 10,000 likes at the time of publishing this article.


Weird History@TheWeirdHistory
The progression is incredible


57.5K
10:33 PM - Jun 6, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
8,102 people are talking about this
People responding to the tweet praised Elon Musk for bringing such change through his "game-changing vision"

Top US leadership including President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and thousands of curious Americans had gathered to watch the launch live on a bright Sunday afternoon. Congratulating Musk, NASA and the astronauts, Trump described the launch day as a great day for the country.

The President said he spoke with Musk, whom he called one of the "great brains."

'This is the first time in human history...'
With the liftoff, SpaceX became the first private company to launch people into the orbit, a feat achieved previously by only three governments: the US, Russia and China. This was SpaceX's second spaceflight test of its Crew Dragon and its first test with astronauts aboard. This will pave the way for its certification for regular crew flights to the station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Programme.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Doug Hurley back then and now

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...er-seems-pretty-bitter-about-spacexs-success/

Russia’s space leader seems pretty bitter about SpaceX’s success

Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin visits the control center for a launch pad for the Soyuz-2 carrier rockets at the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

In the 10 days since SpaceX launched humans into orbit—returning to NASA the capability to get its own astronauts into space—Russian officials have offered a mixed reaction. However, a clear trend seems to be emerging—a minimization of SpaceX's achievement and pointing to Russia's own bright future in space.

During a post-launch news conference on May 30, SpaceX founder Elon Musk cheekily said, "The trampoline is working." This was a dig at the head of the Russian Space Corporation, Dmitry Rogozin, a former Russian defense official who was sanctioned in 2014 as part of the US response to Russia's aggression in Ukraine. At the time, when the US relied on the Russian Soyuz vehicle to get into space, Rogozin suggested on Twitter that NASA could use a trampoline to get into space if it didn't like working with Russia.

After Musk's most recent comments, Rogozin initially went along with the joke, saying he was amused by it: "Please convey my sincere greetings to @elonmusk (I loved his joke) and @SpaceX team. Looking forward to further cooperation!"

Change in tone
This was all well and diplomatic. However, in reality it seems more likely that Rogozin was stung by this "joke." A couple of days later, Rogozin ended his personal Twitter account, changing its handle to an official Roscosmos account and deleting some of his more inflammatory tweets. Sadly, the old, fiery Rogozin is gone from Twitter. At least for now.

But he, himself, is clearly not gone. Earlier this week, Rogozin authored an op-ed in Forbes about Crew Dragon and Russia's plans in space. Roscosmos has since published an English version, and in it Rogozin is far less complimentary of SpaceX and NASA.

Rogozin says SpaceX is no different from any other space company, having received "colossal funds" for Crew Dragon, that the spacecraft is very heavy, and that the Americans ought to be damned grateful that Russia got them into space for nine years. None of this is particularly untrue, but Rogozin's words seem angry and defensive.

"Elon Musk did not bring us down—he brought down his compatriots from Boeing passing them with the beginning of the flight tests," Rogozin said. "This war is theirs, but not ours."

Interestingly, he also admits that the Russians price gouged NASA for access to space. Although Rogozin says Roscosmos earned "honest" money for the Soyuz spaceflights, he takes issue with the notion the Crew Dragon is cheaper than a Soyuz. (According to NASA, the price per seat for Crew Dragon is $55 million. During its last round of negotiations, the space agency paid more than $90 million to Russia for a Soyuz seat).

"The cost of our launches is substantially lower than the American," Rogozin said. "The sirs seem to confuse launch cost price and launch service price that is formed by the market. Hence, I insist that Soyuz MS spacecraft with the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket was and still remains unchallenged—whatever our competitors say."

Space rifle
Much of the rest of the op-ed is given over to talk about all of the great things that Russia is doing in space—even comparing the Soyuz spacecraft to master Italian Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Titian, and alternatively as our "space Kalashnikov rifle."

This bluster about the future of Russian space has been accompanied on social media. For example, last Friday, Rogozin's rebranded Twitter account tweeted excitedly about the company's next generation "Oryol" spacecraft. The tweet showed pictures of an "escape" test in case of an emergency water landing. In reality, the photos showed some people using a rope to climb down from a mock-up of Oryol, which has been perpetually in development and may never fly. Moreover, Russian space journalist Anatoly Zak said this "news" was a reprise of a test that took place seven years ago.

Similarly, Roscosmos' chief of media relations, Vladimir Ustimenko, recently said the country was going to start testing two new missiles and would soon resume its lunar exploration program. However, this story appears to have been published with photos of an old Baikal concept booster from twenty years ago.

The pattern here seems pretty clear. In the wake of success by SpaceX and NASA, Roscosmos feels the need to make announcements about its own impending breakthroughs. Whether or not they materialize, well, we won't be holding our breath.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/09/nasa-anticipates-august-return-for-hurley-and-behnken/

NASA anticipates August return for Hurley and Behnken

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will likely return to Earth in August to wrap up a test flight to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, a senior space agency official said Tuesday.

The exact schedule for Hurley and Behnken’s return to Earth will hinge on several factors, such as the performance of their Crew Dragon spaceship, the progress of their work on the space station, and weather conditions in the capsule’s landing zones in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, according to Ken Bowersox, the acting associate administrator for NASA’s human exploration and operations mission directorate.

Bowersox said Tuesday that the Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 mission — the first SpaceX mission to carry astronauts — is proceeding as planned, and the crew capsule is performing well since its launch on a Falcon 9 rocket May 30 from the Kennedy Space Center and docking with the space station one day later.

The successful liftoff of the Crew Dragon marked the end of a nearly nine-year gap in launches of astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

Before the launch, NASA officials said the Crew Dragon test flight could last from one to four months, depending on a range of technical and weather factors.

“We didn’t prescribe the length of the Demo-2 mission until we got the crew on orbit and we could see the performance of the Dragon,” Bowersox said Tuesday. “The Dragon is doing very well, so we think it’s reasonable for the crew to stay up there a month or two. The actual details are still being worked out.”

Bowersox took over as acting head of NASA’s human spaceflight efforts last month after the abrupt resignation of Doug Loverro, who served in the role for six months before leaving the agency. Industry sources have said Loverro broke NASA procurement rules during a contract competition earlier this year for federal funding to support the development of new human-rated landers to carry astronauts to the lunar surface.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft that launched with Hurley and Behnken was certified to fly in space for up to four months. The limiting factor on the spacecraft’s endurance is the degradation of the ship’s power-generating solar arrays in the harsh environment of low Earth orbit.

NASA is now looking at bringing Hurley and Behnken back to Earth in late July or some time in August.

Bowersox discussed the plans Tuesday in a briefing during a joint meeting of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Space Studies Board and the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board.

Behnken is expected to perform at least two spacewalks in late June and early July with space station commander Chris Cassidy, who launched in April on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The duo will replace batteries on the far starboard end of the space station’s solar power truss, installing fresh power packs delivered by a Japanese HTV cargo craft last month.

Hurley will operate the space station’s Canadian-built robotic arm during the spacewalks. The arrival of Hurley and Behnken on May 31 ended a six-week period when Cassidy was the only U.S. astronaut on the space station, limiting the crew’s capability to perform experiments, repairs and other required maintenance activities.

“It is very likely that by the end of July, we will have conducted some spacewalks with Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken, replaced some batteries on the ISS, and we’ll — about two months from now — start thinking about bringing Bob and Doug home,” said Bowersox, a former astronaut and SpaceX executive. “We’d like to get them home some time in August.”

But if weather conditions look favorable, NASA and SpaceX might elect to have the Crew Dragon undock from the station and return to Earth before the end of July, sources said.

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken (left and right) brief ground teams on their trip to the space station aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. Credit: NASA
Alongside their work to assist Cassidy with regular space station operations, Hurley and Behnken are also helping SpaceX ground teams continue their assessment of the Crew Dragon’s performance. Mission controllers planned to place the Dragon capsule into a hibernation mode, then wake up the ship’s systems to verify the spacecraft can perform its role as a quick-response lifeboat to scurry astronauts back to Earth in the event of an emergency.

Mission managers are also checking data to monitor the status of the solar arrays.

Bowersox said strict wind limits for the Crew Dragon spacecraft flying the Demo-2 mission — named “Endeavour” by Hurley and Behnken — will also come into play as NASA and SpaceX plan the return schedule. In some cases, the wind limit for splashdown could be as low as 9 knots.

“The Demo-2 vehicle has a little bit tighter restrictions on its landing wind requirements, so we’ll need to provide extra lead time for the weather possibilities, but I think it will all work out in August,” Bowersox said. “August is often a light wind month in the parts of the Gulf (of Mexico) and the east coast of Florida that we’re looking at landing, so I think we’ll be able to find a good opportunity in there.”

But officials have not set a target date for the landing. That will wait until later in the mission, once Behnken and Cassidy complete their spacewalks.

“We don’t want to try to pin things down to too hard of a date or too hard of a time,” Bowersox said. “We want to pick the conditions that are right for this first return of the Crew Dragon with crew on-board.”

A few hours after departing the space station, the Crew Dragon will fire its Draco thrusters for a braking burn and re-enter the atmosphere, targeting a parachute-assisted splashdown at sea. The landing zones are located roughly 24 nautical miles, or 27 statute miles, off the east coast of Florida, with a backup site in the Gulf of Mexico south of Pensacola.

The Demo-2 test flight is a precursor to operational crew rotation missions to the space station using the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The first of the operational Crew Dragon missions, known as Crew-1, is scheduled for launch no earlier than Aug. 30 from the Kennedy Space Center.

NASA has ordered six crew rotation flights on the Crew Dragon spacecraft through 2024, each carrying four astronauts to and from the space station on expeditions lasting as long as 210 days. SpaceX also has agreements with Axiom Space and Space Adventures, two commercial space companies, to fly private citizens into orbit on shorter-duration Crew Dragon missions beginning as soon as late 2021.

SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon under contract to NASA, but the company is free to use the spacecraft for commercial flights without NASA involvement.

NASA has a similar contract with Boeing for development of the Starliner crew capsule, which has yet to fly with astronauts. An unpiloted Starliner test flight was cut short before docking with the space station in December, and Boeing plans to fly a second demonstration mission later this year before a test flight with a crew on-board in early 2021.

Steve Stich, deputy manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said May 31 that space agency managers will evaluate the readiness of the next Crew Dragon spacecraft — for the Crew-1 mission — before deciding when to bring Hurley and Behnken home.

“Not only are we looking at this particular vehicle, we’re also looking ahead to Crew-1,” Stich said. “That’s an important mission for us. It has four crew (members). It really is what commercial crew is about — having the vehicle ready to do these increment missions … Right now, it’s targeting toward being launch-ready at the end of August timeframe. So we’ll just kind of continue to look at this vehicle. Is it performing well? We’ll look at the readiness of that vehicle, and in a month or so, we’ll be able to make a decision as to how long to keep this vehicle in orbit.”

NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi are training for the Crew-1 mission. The Crew-1 flight will only launch after the return of the Demo-2 mission, and a subsequent review of data from the Crew Dragon test flight.

While the spacecraft for the Demo-2 mission came with a four-month certified mission lifetime, the Dragon for the Crew-1 flight will be certified for a full-duration 210-day mission, according to NASA.

Stich said there are several modifications to the capsule SpaceX is building for the Crew-1 mission, although major components such as the capsule’s life support system and guidance, navigation and control systems are largely unchanged.

“The Crew-1 vehicle can land in a little bit higher wind state,” Stich said. SpaceX has changed some of the outer composite panels to make that a little stronger.”

“It also has the capability not only dock to the forward port of the space station, but it can go to the zenith (space-facing) port as well, so it has that capability, and it has a couple other features,” Stich said.

The space station has two docking ports outfitted to receive Crew Dragon and Starliner spacecraft. Once the Crew Dragon and Starliner vehicles are operational, NASA expects both ports will be used simultaneously to accommodate visiting crew and cargo ships.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-aces-space-station-tests.html

SpaceX's 1st Crew Dragon for astronauts aces tests in space, could land Aug. 2



Endeavour is soaring above expectations in space.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon "Endeavour" is seen approaching a docking with the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aboard, Sunday, May 31, 2020.
(Image: © NASA)
SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts, now parked at the International Space Station, has passed all its tests so far and could return to Earth on in early August, according to NASA.

SpaceX successfully launched the crew capsule, called Endeavour, to the International Space Station on May 30 with veteran astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board. Its Demo-2 mission is a test flight for NASA to prove SpaceX's Crew Dragon is ready for regular astronaut flights to the station.

SpaceX are targeting for the craft to return home to Earth is Aug. 2, Kenneth Todd, deputy ISS program manager at NASA, said) in a press briefing today (June 24) to preview upcoming spacewalks at the space station.

"[It's] kind of hard to believe Endeavour's been docked now for three and a half weeks," Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters. "The vehicle's doing extremely well as we put it through its paces."

"We're learning a lot about the vehicle, nothing that's of any concern," Stich said. The team has been "learning how to manage the systems, heaters and thermal performance as we go through the changes in the orbit," he added. In a surprise, the Crew Dragon Endeavour has been generating more power than expected, Stitch said. This is thanks to its solar arrays, which have been out-performing what officials had originally predicted. In fact, the solar arrays could provide Crew Dragon with the capability to stay on orbit for up to 114 more days, later than its initial Aug. 2 return target.

"Right now, what we're seeing is they're really degrading a little bit better than predicted and so that's what

gives us the capability to stay on orbit for up to 119 days, 114 days or so docked," Stich said in response to a Space.com question. He added that to test the performance of the solar arrays, the capsule is routinely powered up so that the power coming from the arrays can be measured. And, Stich said, "right now that's looking very promising."

Endeavor still has a few critical tests ahead of it before it's back on Earth. On July 4, the space station crew will perform a habitability test with the craft, with four astronauts climbing into the capsule and practicing everyday activities like sleeping, hygiene tasks, as well as emergency procedures to see what it will be like for future crewed missions. On Demo-2, only two astronauts were on board for the trip but regular flights will carry at least four people, so this test will help inform astronauts on those future trips.

The last major tests that Crew Dragon will face will be undocking, deorbit, reentry, splashdown and, ultimately, the recovery of Hurley and Behnken back on Earth, Stich said.

"We did the entry and undock on Demo-1 [a 2019 test flight] with an uncrewed spacecraft that went extremely well the entry was extremely nominal," Stich told Space.com. But, he added, "this time it includes Bob and Doug." So the return to Earth will include a number of additional safety features including an air conditioning system that will have to work through post-landing and the crew's spacesuits.

While NASA, SpaceX and the space station's current crew prepare for the upcoming Crew Dragon tests, the astronauts have a more immediate job ahead.

Behnken and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, the station's Expedition 63 commander, are gearing up for a series of four spacewalks to replace the station's outdated nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion ones. The first of those spacewalks is scheduled for Friday (June 26).

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/el...sion-set-to-complete-on-august-2-2724501.html

Elon Musk's SpaceX Crew Dragon Mission Set to Complete on August 2

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

SpaceX astronauts will receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor | Engadget

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will be recognized for their bravery after flying the first crewed SpaceX mission to the International Space Station..

www.engadget.com

 

[Hamartia Antidote]