Daily Archives: January 11, 2015

SpaceX scores on NASA launch; #39;no cigar #39; on rocket sea landing
SpaceX scores on NASA launch; #39;no cigar #39; on rocket sea landing Subscribe Please . The SpaceX company has successfully launched another fresh load of supplies to the International Space Station....

By: Predy News

Read more:
SpaceX scores on NASA launch; 'no cigar' on rocket sea landing - Video

Falcon/Dragon: ISS Cargo Resupply
More than two tons of supplies and NASA science investigations are on the way to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX #39;s Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft launched Saturday on the ...

By: Kowch737

Original post:
Falcon/Dragon: ISS Cargo Resupply - Video

HWMM: Space Station 76 - Full Interview (Minus Trailer) with Writer / Director Producer
Writer/Director Jack Plotnick and Producer Rachel Ward discuss his latest comedy, SPACE STATION 76, starring Liv Tyler, Matt Bomer, Jerry O #39;Connell, Marisa Coughlan and Patrick Wilson. The...

By: WMMoriginals

Continued here:
HWMM: Space Station 76 - Full Interview (Minus Trailer) with Writer / Director & Producer - Video

Some 2.5 tons of freight are speeding toward the International Space Station following Saturday morning's successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket topped with the company's Dragon cargo capsule.

The rocket launched at4:47 a.m.Eastern Standard Time from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, following an aborted launch attempt Jan. 6. That launch was scrubbed less than two minutes before lift-off after launch controllers reported that a key component in the steering mechanism for the rocket's second stage wasn't working properly.

This morning's launch went flawlessly, delivering the capsule to orbit some 17 minutes after launch. It's the companys fifth formal cargo flight to the station under a $1.6 billion agreement with NASA to resupply the space station.

Although the mission's primary goal is to deliver the goods to the station, the launch also represented Space Exploration Technology Corporation's first try at returning a first-stage booster safely back to Earth. In this case, Earth was represented by a football-field-size, ocean-going platform dubbed the autonomous spaceport drone ship.

Three times before, Falcon 9 boosters had soft-landed into the ocean during initial tests of the booster-return system. This time, with landing legs added, the stage was to have set down on the platform.

Instead, tweeted SpaceX CEO and chief technology officer Elon Musk, "Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho."

Even so, landing with a resounding thud could be considered a partial success. The SpaceX team delivered the first stage to the platform. In past tests, from about 150 miles up, the first stages splashed down within about six miles of the projected landing spot. Engineers added special fins to the first stage of the Falcon 9 used Saturday to help steer it to a more-accurate landing. The goal was to land with an accuracy of about 30 feet. A hard landing on the platform suggests that the fin system worked.

The company had another, crewed vessel nearby, but it was too dark and foggy to get decent video of the landing attempt. Still, engineers have a wealth of telemetry the first stage sent throughout its descent they can analyze for clues as to what changes need to be made to improve chances for success on future launches.

SpaceX is trying to perfect the system so that it can use a first stage for multiple launches. The goal is to drive down launch costs in hopes of expanding access to space for a wider variety of potential users.

The Falcon 9, as well as the more-powerful Falcon Heavy slated for its initial demonstration flight later this year, are unlikely to sport reusable seconds stages, Mr. Musk acknowledged in a question-and-answer session on reddit.com earlier this week.

More here:
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets toward International Space Station (+video)

Elon Musks SpaceX sent a cargo capsule loaded with International Space Station supplies into orbit Saturday morning, but the companys unprecedented attempt to set down the crafts first-stage rocket on an ocean barge was rocky and damaged the booster.

Rocket made it to the drone spaceport ship, but landed hard, Musk tweeted soon after liftoff. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.

The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Floridas Cape Canaveral at 1:47 a.m. Pacific time.

Within minutes, the cargo-filled capsule separated from the first-stage booster rocket and continued on its way to orbit and rendezvous with the space station.

That was when SpaceX attempted what had never been done: flying the 13-story booster back to Earth and landing it upright on an ocean barge.

The booster made it to the barge, but Musk tweeted that some of the vessels equipment was damaged by the impact. Ship itself is fine, he wrote. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced.

Didn't get good landing/impact video, he tweeted. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and ... actual pieces.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX hopes to one day be able to reuse the first stage, which includes the expensive and powerful engines needed to blast the capsule to orbit. The planned landing and recovery of the first stage is part of Musks goal to eventually be able to refly the same spacecraft many times, greatly lowering the cost of space flight.

The cargo capsule, nicknamed Dragon, is loaded with more than 5,000 pounds of much-needed supplies for the space station. It is the first cargo mission since Oct. 28, when a supply ship operated for NASA by another company, Orbital Sciences, exploded off the coast of Virginia just seconds after leaving the launch pad.

Days after that, Virgin Galactics rocket plane SpaceShipTwo crashed in Mojave, killing test pilot Michael Alsbury, 39.

Read more from the original source:
SpaceX launches rocket, but attempt to land booster falls short

The private space-exploration company successfully sends a cargo capsule off to the International Space Station, but its "reusable" rocket crashes into its floating landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off early Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. An attempt to land the rocket on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean was unsuccessful. NASA

SpaceX almost made history on Saturday. Almost.

As part of its NASA-contracted mission to resupply the International Space Station, the private space-exploration company was attempting to launch the "world's first reusable rocket" and then land it on a landing pad floating in the Atlantic Ocean.

The launch, which was scrapped earlier this week because of a problem with a rocket part, went off without a hitch at 4:47 a.m. local time at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, according to NASA.

SpaceX's 14-story Falcon 9 rocket also successfully sent a Dragon cargo capsule on its way to the space station. But when the first stage of the Falcon 9 returned to Earth, it crashed into its 300-by-100-foot floating landing pad.

"Close, but no cigar this time," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted Saturday morning. "Bodes well for the future tho."

SpaceX is one of a handful of private companies pursuing spaceflight, a realm once solely controlled by government space agencies. But the task isn't easy. In August, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test flight. And in October, space-tourism company Virgin Galactic saw one of its space planes crash during a test flight, a mishap that killed one of the plane's two pilots.

Before Saturday's launch, SpaceX had put the odds of a successful landing at 50 percent "at best" and likened hitting the bull's eye to "trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm."

SpaceX has already started assessing what went wrong, and Musk tweeted an initial finding: "Grid fins worked extremely well from hypersonic velocity to subsonic, but ran out of hydraulic fluid right before landing." The grid fins are an upgrade for the rocket and are designed to move independently to help with landing, according to SpaceX.

Read the original post:
'Close but no cigar' for SpaceX's try at historic rocket landing