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Subscribe to RSSThe arrival of SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule at the International Space Station will be delayed due to a problem with its thrusters. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
The commercial SpaceX rocket venture launched its unmanned Dragon capsule on a cargo run to the International Space Station on Friday, and then spent hours addressing a gnarly problem with the Dragon's thruster system. The problem was solved, but not before it forced at least a day's delay in the cargo craft's space station rendezvous.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket made a problem-free ascent from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:10 a.m. ET to send the Dragon into space. But a half-hour after launch, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in a Twitter update that controllers encountered an issue involving the capsule's thrusters.
"Issue with Dragon thruster pods," Musk wrote. "System inhibiting three of four [pods] from initializing. About to command inhibit override."
Each pod contains a grouping of thrusters that are used to guide the Dragon's course in orbit. In an email, SpaceX spokeswoman Christina Ra said the Dragon "experienced an issue with a propellant valve" after it achieved orbit. "One thruster pod is running," she said. "We are trying to bring up the remaining three. We did go ahead and get the solar arrays deployed. Once we get at least two pods running, we will begin a series of burns to get to station."
SpaceX's controllers wrestled with the problem for hours. Just before 3 p.m. ET, Musk said that a second thruster pod was up and running. After another hour, he reported that the other two pods were working as well. "Thruster pods one through four are now operating nominally. Preparing to raise orbit. All systems green," Musk said on Twitter. And an hour after that, he sent another tweet saying that the orbit-raising burn was successful. "Dragon back on track," he wrote.
During a teleconference with reporters, Musk speculated that there was a stuck valve or "potentially some blockage" in the lines for pressurizing the thrusters' oxidizer tank. Cycling the valves and releasing a blast of pressurized helium cleared the lines, he said. There was no indication that the blockage did any damage to the system, although SpaceX and NASA were taking a closer look at the cause of the problem and its aftermath.
Musk voiced relief that operations were getting back to normal. "It was a little frightening there," the 41-year-old billionaire coolly acknowledged.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, sending the Dragon capsule on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
SpaceX
Hundreds of SpaceX employees gather around Dragon mission control at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., to watch the Falcon 9 liftoff. A flown Dragon capsule is suspended from the ceiling.
Checking the system
NASA said three operational thruster pods would be required for the Dragon's approach to the space station. The agency's space station manager, Mike Suffredini, said NASA's team would need some "added time to make sure this is working properly." That means the earliest opportunity for astronauts to grab the Dragon with the station's robotic arm and bring it in for a berthing will come early Sunday rather than on Saturday.
NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, Bill Gerstenmaier, praised SpaceX for its handling of the problem. "They did everything exactly right about the vehicle," he said.
This is the third Dragon flight to the station: The first one, which took place last May, was a demonstration flight aimed at proving that California-based SpaceX could safely reach the space station, get hooked up, and then descend again to a splashdown. Last October's second flight marked the first of what's expected to be 12 resupply missions to the station, under the terms of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. At that rate, each Dragon mission costs NASA about $133 million.
If the Dragon is not able to hook up with the space station, SpaceX would receive only a partial payment for the flight, Musk said. He didn't say how much that payment would amount to.
What's on the Dragon?
This Dragon contains more than 2,300 pounds (1,050 kilograms) of cargo, including experiments to study the growth of plants and mouse stem cells in zero-G. There are also spare parts for the station's air-recycling system, and a research freezer for preserving biological samples.
A similar freezer was loaded up with ice cream treats for the crew for last October's resupply mission, but this time, the goodies packed on the Dragon were "a little bit healthier," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said. Although she wasn't specific about what the space station's six residents would be getting, she said the treats were coming fresh from an orchard owned by the father of one of SpaceX's employees.
The astronauts are due to open the Dragon's hatch on the day after its arrival. It will take about three weeks to unload the craft, then load it up with more than 3,000 pounds (1,370 kilograms) of cargo for return to Earth. The original schedule called for the Dragon to be unberthed for a Pacific splashdown and recovery on March 25. Suffredini said that schedule would be adjusted, depending on the time frame for the Dragon's berthing.
SpaceX's cargo flights are meant to fill the gap left by the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in 2011. Another company, Orbital Science Corp., has a separate NASA contract to begin deliveries to the space station later this year. Cargo can also be delivered to the space station on Russian, Japanese and European transports, but only SpaceX currently has the capability to bring cargo back down.
SpaceX and two other companies, Sierra Nevada Corp. and the Boeing Co., are developing crew-capable spacecraft under a separate NASA program. Those spaceships could be ready for NASA's use as early as 2017. In the meantime, U.S. astronauts have to ride on Russian Soyuz capsules at a cost of about $60 million per seat.
More about SpaceX:
- SpaceX hoped for glitch-free Dragon mission
- Falcon 9 rocket passes pre-launch test
- These space capsules can fit on your desk
- SpaceX's press kit for the March 1 mission
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
This story was originally published on Fri Mar 1, 2013 10:01 AM EST
Leave a Comment:
Just think, someday this sort of event will be so routine it will cease to be newsworthy!
I hope you're right!
It is interesting to think about the kind of activities that will be drawing the attention away from these kind of cargo missions. Presumably only human missions and/or interplanetary probe missions would be enough to pull attention away from this stuff. But then again, even the launch of something like the James Webb Space Telescope will only happen once. Those one-time missions will draw their own attention but it's going to take regular activities of a kind deemed more important than that of a cargo-type mission.
So, presumably, regular human spaceflight is really the only thing I can think of that would cause space junkies like myself to not be interested every time someone launches a huge rocket into space (regardless of cargo). Some people just see this as a "cargo run". But this is rocket science, and even if you don't get deep into the science stuff, the rocket stuff is still friggin' awesome to watch! "Newsworthy"? perhaps not. But, still, friggin' awesome to watch.
SpaceX is demonstrating two very important things. One is that commercial companies can successfully operate in a domain previously restricted to governments and second is that they are both capable of dealing with minor glitches and that their craft is robust enough that these minor glitches do not result in a mission abort. I look forward to SpaceX getting their human capable capsule tested and ready for operation. It is troubling that we currently have to rely on the Russians to get people back and forth to the ISS. Having a US company capable of filling that role will put an end to reliance on another country to access a station that was built largely with US taxpayer dollars.
JoeS.: I understand your point, but I beg to differ. I think the realities of igniting a massive quantity of rocket fuel with incredibly complex machinery and electronics should never be thought of as routine. Just when we thought going to the moon had become routine, we got Apollo 13. That "successful failure" was of course followed in later years by the two shuttle disasters. I hope no one ever thinks of space missions, manned or not, as routine.
Justme-123, you make an excellent point. And I value your reasoning for making it. And I would agree that the safety and success of missions on this scale should never really be seen as "routine".
With "routine" one might conjure thought of lazy ineptitude gaining ground in the mind of operators. But I don't really think that would ever be the case with some as complex and valuable as rocket launches. I could be wrong, but that's what I think.
Also, I have to bring up the airlines as a modest comparison. One could argue that flights are "routine". And, yes, there are disasters, crashes, near misses, glitches, and a plethora of different variety problems... But it's a very safe way to travel, relatively speaking. But, then again, it's not entirely comparable to rocket launches.
JS in SD.. The thing that strikes me as troubling is not so much that we have to "rely on Russia" to get to and from space. The nationalistic side of this all doesn't really matter to me, personally. I'm all for international cooperation..
BUT, what RREEAALLLLLYY bothers me, in terms of access to space, is that the entire world, currently only has two real means of accessing space: Soyuz and the Chinese manned spacecraft (Shenzhou I think it is called).
And so, since we do not cooperate with Russia that only leaves America with ONE option for getting to space.
I've said it before and I will say it again, America needs options for space exploration. Currently we find ourselves in a single-point failure kind of situation. And that's no good. Even if we still had the space shuttle I would be supportive of building Orion. We need options. As many ways to get to space as possible. Going to space may not be "routine" (see above), but we should endeavor to do it well. And to do it well we need to explore different methods. Just like with airplanes, what is the most efficient way to fly?? Well, it depends on WHY YOU'RE FLYING. If you want to haul 45 military personnel from one base to another you aren't going use the F22. Likewise in space, if all you want to do is transport 3 personnel to the ISS every 6 months the Space Shuttle was a seriously inefficient way of accomplishing that. Luckily for the STS missions they always served multiple purposes.. But that's getting off-point. We should have, in my opinion, a needs-based fleet of options for accessing space.
And having those options be made in America and operated by Americans and designed by Americans, well that will certainly be good for our country. And I'm all for that. But I also think we should still utilize our international options as well.
Probably an O-ring.
They say my smart phone has more computing power than the computers the landed the men on the moon. But every time I throw my phone into the air it just crashes to Earth I think they are wrong and it's costing me a lot of phones. You would think one of them could make it to the moon and back
i don't see who would give a @!$%# anyway.
One day we'll have a space station closer to the asteroid belt used for the mining of those huge rocks. Then we can begin to construct huge solar panels around the sun 90 degrees to the orbit of the planets to supply energy to both the earth and any other bases and stations we build in our solar system. I think the construction of such solar panels in space should be our first priority as such an endeavor could provide clean and unlimited energy to the entire planet. It is a shame we still waste our efforts on war and profit where a few humans own enough wealth to feed billions while a block away from one of these people families are starving. I can't imagine how such people live with themselves, driving their shiny million dollar cars and living in their millions of dollar homes while other people in the same city they live are huddled under bridges at night for shelter.
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. – NASA's Wallops Flight Facility will provide launch range support for an Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket engine test scheduled for Feb. 22 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's Pad-0A.
The test will be visible and audible in the Wallops Island local area.
The test is a key milestone leading up to the first flight of the Antares rocket, which is preliminary scheduled for about four to six weeks following the completion of the engine test.
Orbital is building and testing its new rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. NASA initiatives like COTS are helping develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit.
Services contract.
The launch pad is the first of its kind constructed in the United States in decades. Preparations at the pad for the hot fire test were enabled through partnership between the Spaceport, Orbital and NASA, including representatives from Wallops; NASA's Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss.; NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida; NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Hunstville, Ala.; and NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
It will be interesting to see this new launch pad in Virginia and the Antares rocket used for future space station missions and other space exploration.
i still get all goose-pimplie whenever I see a rocket launch.
Just so awesome!
As mob stated, our planet needs several more options for putting humans and cargo into orbit. I love the Space Shuttle, but they are now in their proper place. Mission-specific craft offer tremendous economical advantages over a "all in one" approach. Launching rockets into orbit is a brute force method of attaining orbit, and I doubt it will ever be "routine" as you never know what little devil will pop up.
Too many Americans sell the Russian space program way short. They've been in the space business about as long as we have, and their technology is hardly old and obsolete. I grew up in the last decade plus of the Cold War, so I can understand those older than me who harbor resentment towards Russia, but we need to move on. Russia may not yet be a shining example of democracy, but they are not hardline Soviets anymore either.
It will be far better for ALL of us if both the US and Russia, and for that matter even the ESA, all had their own human-rated transports. That protects everyone in the event of technical issues, or an accident, prevents one space program from using its own craft (leaving China out of the discussion for the moment due to the political issues).
Joe S "someday this sort of event will be so routine it will cease to be newsworthy!" This is EXACTLY what was being said by the news media before Appollo 13.
Space is a VERY hostile environment. Its' exploration and habitation are inherently dangerous. It should only be done by expert professionals with MULTI layers of backup.
I agree with Joe S but richie777 is also right. In time space travel will become routine but space will ALWAYS be a hostile environment. The thing that excites me is: risk has never stopped mankind from taking the next step into the unknown... I hope this mission is successful, it will be a victory for all of us.
It will never be routine until we can take off like a plane, reach orbit and return to a runway; and then only years after we can do it.
Biggun666, Back in the 90s, we had executives and sales reps who came into the computer department demanding more memory for their laptops, I was the cranky old-fart, running the department, who said: "We put man on the moon with eight megabytes and you want sixteen?"
"Just think, someday this sort of event will be so routine it will cease to be newsworthy!"
Which is okay, we want spaceflight to be that common...
The Space Shuttle reached that, long ago. I don't remember the mission or date, but for me the figurative millennium arrived, when there was no live coverage of a morning Shuttle launch...even though it was occurring during the three broadcast networks' morning news shows.
No need to pre-empt entertainment programming, I stopped expecting that even longer ago. But it wasn't shown live even when they were already doing news.
It was no longer 'news.'
Of course, unless there's a serious failure, commercial satellite launches get no attention, either.
I can remember continuous, entire flight CBS (and probably the other networks) of John Glenn's three-orbit mission. Those days are seriously done. Even as early as Apollo 13, there was minimal post-launch coverage, until 'the problem.' (And no one wants that kind of drama, especially the crews. A 'dull' manned space mission, is a mission where everything worked exactly as it was intended to...)
"It will never be routine until we can take off like a plane, reach orbit and return to a runway; and then only years after we can do it."
Reusables don't necessarily have to be winged, Tony. Just regular, affordable and safe. But there have been VTVL RLV designs out there for years. DC-X was meant to be a step in that direction.
The things most significant about the mission so far are that they completed an investigation of the previous Falcon 9 flight anomaly, executed a corrective action against the root cause, and had a successful flight.; and then appear to have used a solid set of diagnostic procedures and followed protocol to quickly recover all 18 Draco thrusters from the pressurization issue. Their ability to handle problems is impressive and shows a growing maturity as they proceed towards human spaceflight. I look forward to flight of the Falcon Heavy.
No, Frank, they don't have to be winged, but they do need to be able to land close to where they will take off again, not in the dessert or Pacific Ocean. Right now, winged and runways work best. When they can hover and land like a helicopter or Harrier, I'll be even happier.
And, if they can land, unload, reload and take off again, then we will be routine. Airliners don't get months of refurbishment after every flight, just every few months or flight hours.
Awesome!!! Congrats Space X on a successful launch!
Here here! Congratulations to SpaceX on another successful launch. Here's looking forward to a bright future!
Did either of you happen to actually read the article? Or even the headline?
It was a successful launch,,,, not so much after that. This is the outfit that's going to Mars?
Boa38. I did read the article. And the headline. and thousands of other similar articles about small problems affecting big plans in the space industry. The launch was successful and as of yet there is no reason to believe the mission will not be a success. So.... Congratulations are in order, even though there is a problem with 3 of 4 thruster pods.
You'll excuse me if I keep a positive frame of mind; celebrating successes and not over-reacting to failures.
The title is "SpaceX fixes glitch on its Dragon craft after launch to space station". Clearly, the title implies that the launch was successful and the craft is in space, although not operating normally.
Further, the article plainly states that the glitch was discovered "a half-hour after launch". Again, the launch was clearly successful. The problem is being addressed, and may only delay the rendezvous with ISS by a day.
Thus, I join the chorus congratulating SpaceX on another successful launch. Glitches happen, and it appears they are working hard to resolve this one.
Boa: My reading comprehension is just fine, thank you. Did YOU read the article?
Congrats on the fix!
Charlie, different group doing the Mars Marriage Flyby, but they are looking at Space X equipment as one of the options.
@HFMudd: indeed I did and the 3:58 PM version (headline and article) looked nothing like the currently edited version--and certainly not worthy of some mindless gushing praise.
"The title is "SpaceX fixes glitch on its Dragon craft after launch to space station". Clearly, the title implies that the launch was successful and the craft is in space, although not operating normally."
Indeed. If you're a customer who intends to fly a (very expensive) satellite on a Falcon-9 at some point, that's the part you care about most...
Was watching launch on NASA TV. Just before solar array deploy, they started reruns of the lauch videos. Pretty much the same thing over and over and over again, with no word that something had gone wrong. Not happy!
I'm watching NASA TV too, they've been providing updates in real-time... basically echoing Elon's tweets as he posts them, with replays of the launch and some coverage of ISS, COTS/CCDev, and SLS mixed in.
Pretty good coverage if you ask me.
Definitely, it could be better coverage... But you really can't ask for much. It's free. It's in HD. and it's awesome. There could be more content, but then again, public relations and media sensationalism are not really NASA's strong suit. ...But I'm not so sure that really should be their strong suit.
Devils in the details as usual. To his credit Musk is generally more honest about these glitchen than NASA is!
I am not sure that that is entirely accurate. And I'm not sure the two entities are really even comparable. At the time NASA was starting out you certainly wouldn't expect the open acknowledgement of all glitches as they happen. First of all, they didn't have the communication infrastructure we have today. And the geopolitical climate of the day was entirely different. And nowadays, NASA is very open and honest. They do have their secrets but if it's NOT part of their secret R&D stuff, NASA, generally speaking, is very open and honest. But on that same token, SpaceX has their own secrets...
It's good to see how SpaceX is handling any and all glitches. But then again, would you really expect anything different? NASA is their customer in these endeavors. If they didn't provide absolute transparency then they would lose their customer. And the world is watching intensely anyways, so they probably wouldn't be able to keep secrets if they wanted to. SpaceX is trailblazing and how they operate and the successes they have will affect the future of private space industry for a long time to come.
Give it a good shake, and spit in the back. Worked on granddad's TV!
From @ElonMusk:
"Solar array deployment successful"
I hope all works as expected eventually. Without visionary, capable people like Elon Musk we'd be held captive by the political pedagogues that fund NASA. GO SpaceX!! Yee-hah!
Agreed, one clarification...
I get it....I'm cool with that.
These new space companies and their investors can pursue whatever ideas they want, but congress simply can't fund a lot of projects that we'd like. For example, congress would never fund an orbiting hotel or a resort on the Moon or Mars. One interesting private project cooking now is to mine astroids. The history of innovation should tell us that no single organization can figure out everything that can and should be done--especially congress.
One more small clarification...
I love NASA. But the control structure behind it is frustratingly bureaucratic. ...and that's from my point of view. I can only imagine what it's like for the project managers that have to deal with it directly!
Alan, no disrespect, but as the designer of Space Station Sim, I must point out that the ISS operates in micro gravity, not zero gravity.
Big props and best wishes for a successful mission to SpaceX! I expect them to make the save on this one too. Some day, Elon Musk will be known as one of the greatest minds of the 21st century.
Bill Mueller
First of all Bill,
MAD PROPS on the Space Station Sim game. Very cool. I would love to give you some personal feedback in hopes of advancing that sim.. But I won't bore you with that..
Second, I'm sure you must know that Alan is aware that micro gravity is what the station and the astronauts experience up there at the ISS. I can't speak for Alan, and I wouldn't want to, but I'm sure he knows about the difference and the realities of that situation.
Finally, I really think it's just semantics. I think we all want specific details to be accurate and represent the true reality of things, but in this specific case, for the broader readership of Cosmic Log, I think zero G and, null gravity, and micro gravity might as well be interchangeable.
For the purposes of a simulation game they probably are not interchangeable. But when you are writing something that will be read, potentially, by thousands of people... I think zero G works just fine.
And again, Space Station Sim, very cool!
I think it's debating angels dancing on a pin head - sure, you could say that you have zero g where the gravity of earth and moon balance out - but you still have the gravity of the sun! And if you get totally outside the solar system, you would still have its effectss, plus the gravitational attraction of the galaxy - so where do you get zero gravity? Nowhere around here! Just a question of how low the micro gravity is.
WychDoctor, would you really have "zero G" at legrange points? or do you just have a situation where gravity is working in such a way that it is pulling you in different directions with the same amount of tug? Does that really qualify as true zero gravity? It is debating angels dancing on pin heads.
Since gravity is an outcropping of the curvature of space-time, is there any where in the universe where it's effects can be said to be truly zero?
Lagrange points are unstable saddles in the gravity field. The null force is at a singular point, and that only cancels the forces from the two bodies defining the points. All other microgravity forces are still there and small.
So in the context of the ISS, just how "micro" is the microgravity? How long does it take to make itself known in the motion of a floating tennis ball in the cabin? If a stowaway mouse farts on the other side of the cabin, it might be a stronger influence.
It's true that there are gravity gradient ('tidal,' if you will) forces on any object with more than zero dimensions. And for some experiments and processes, it does matter. But as far as your body's physiology is concerned...it is, for all practical purposes, zero.
(For the other extreme of humans and gravity gradient/tidal forces, read Larry Niven's short story; 'Neutron Star.')
We're fortunate that Elon Musk came to this country as an immigrant. He's doing a great job. I have to wonder though, 3000 lbs of stuff coming back to earth. Is that laundry?
Maybe some of it is clothing items. But I would imagine the largest portion, by volume at least, would probably be waste and garbage. I'm not sure about that though, so don't quote me. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me will provide that answers.
But, more importantly, you bring up a very good point. This country would be nothing without the hard work of people who came here from afar to start their lives as Americans. We are, after all, descendants of immigrants. Every on this planet is, if you follow population migration back far enough. But America in particular really is a wonderful melting pot of people and ideas and I think it's our biggest strength. Sometimes it causes problems but I still view it as a major strength.
You are correct sir, if it wern't for the man that developed rockets for Hitler, NASA might not exist.
You're a fckn idiot that knows nothing about history or space. PERIOD. No need to even give someone so stupid a lesson.
That was to Dick BTW....Musk is just another Obama puppet who only got this massive contract because he fed his campaign millions in 08 FYI.
Provider, given you two comments (#8.3 and #8.4), are you really qualified to tell anyone what they know about anything?
Musk did donate almost $36,000 to the Obama presidential campaign in April of 2012. Does that mean it is singularly the reason his company got a billion dollar contract with NASA?? No.
You can try and oversimplify everything until it fits nice and neat in your pretty little boxes, but Musk is no more an Obama puppet than you or I.
And as for the hitler rockets thing... Von Braun was part of the Nazi missile machine.
It is what it is, and trying to oversimplify things gets people into the semantic debates and political arguments that really don't hit home in terms of substance.
How long before someone blames the problem on the sequester?
Any later problems in the coming months may be laid to the feet of the GOP troglodyte sequester, but that depends on the cash flow to the commercial space players. That program is likely gonna take a hit, but the devil's in the details again.
reterry, sorry to burst your little bubble there, but Obama is the one who put forth this sequester. The media has us all played, along with Obama being the master, that something that HE was in charge of, is now suddenly else's fault. Are you going to blame gas pedals being stuck in Toyota vehicles on Ford?
very funny filbert ... and we all know it was a "poison pill" meant to get something better done. who do you think you're foolin?
Borrow that Iranian monkey and send him up with some tools to fix the dang thing.
probably will return and crash into Russia like our last experiment right?.
JFK is rolling over in his grave... We were once the leader in space.. now not so much..
And who is doing better, and in what way?
John needed something that made us look better than the Soviets. To that extent, he somewhat succeeded.
Of course, when it was clear that they couldn't get to the Moon first, they denied being in a 'race.' at all...and many people in the US and elsewhere believed it, (These days, they speak openly of their former intentions, and you can see video of their N-1 heavy-lift launcher failures [4 for 4 didn't get as far as first stage separation] on YouTube.) If there was any Moon-related hoax, it's that...
Just get the two close enough, tether a dude outside the space station and have him break in with the official NASA fire ax! Now there's his next meal!! Should be mandatory to have a resident thug/gangster/burglar in all space missions. At the minimum they can think outside the spacebox. The astronaut/science guys inside the box only know how to push buttons and switches! Can send a man to the moon but can't figure out how to make a sandwhich comes to mind.
It's making a boom noise a Kaboom!
Well with these kinds of things there is so much that can go wrong especially high above the earth.
I think the fact that NASA can trouble shoot from the ground what is happening so far away is remarkable in it self.
I do think that yes one day these missions will become 2nd nature too us all, but make no mistake anything can go wrong at anytime no matter how much knowledge and progress we put into these flying machines.
I hope they do get this problem fixed well enough so that the space station occupants get what they need.
Keep up the good work NASA and keep screaming at the government for more bloody funding because space is our evolution and one day may save our species if the earth should ever become unstable due too some cosmic event.
Live long and prosper like the character Spock often said, and I truly believe we shall if we continue too advance in this kind of program.
humanity is unsaveable, and the earth won't die due to a cosmic event it will die to the hands of humanity.
And yet you bother getting out of bed in the morning...
NASA did not "trouble shoot from the ground". The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation "trouble shot from the ground".
And there wasn't any "good work" by NASA involved, it was the "good work" of the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.
"...under the terms of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. At that rate, each Dragon mission costs NASA about $133 million."
I wonder if there are any fees for delays in the deliveries?
Where's the Earth-shattering KaBoom? Oh - wait a sec... it was heard - it was Elon Musk getting his 15 additional minutes of fame.
Maybe, homie, if you could launch a rocket into space, you can just sit back in your recliner, and revel in it all to yourself.
Just wondering if this mission fails to reach the ISS will NASA get some kind of refund from SpaceX?
From the article:
And these guys are wanting to go to mars. forward! to venus. opps.
All NASA did under Obama is change contractors and brain drain the nation. More of the same probs previously solved and more cost.
Orchard fresh food? If it's spinach I they washed it or we'll have another first for the space program er or contractor program or lack thereof.
At least Arab nations feel good about their contributions to science... or....well, haven't heard much on that either.
Well, I'm wondering if the reason we love billionaires is because they're the only ones who'll be able to run big programs when "smaller government" takes over. I doubt it in the long run.
You do realize Rocket Scientist that you are using an Arabic numeral system as has been the western world for hundreds of years. I wonder where we would be without it. Just sayin'.
And 'algebra?' That's of Arabic origin, too.
And a lot of those star names you may have used a few times (Altair, Betelgeuse, Deneb, Rigel, Vega, etc...)
Looks like I'll be putting off my vacation package to space a little longer. It's one thing if my car's engine won't start, but in space Triple AAA costs a fortune.
I'll bet that if you looked real hard that you will see the government giving grants of some kind to fuel this project. It's just not one rich person doing this.I read this in a science magazine about three or four months ago if I remember correctly.
Read my post!
It's a resupply mission to the ISS, so of course NASA is paying for it. We couldn't expect a private company like SpaceX to do something that expensive as a charity! Elon Musk invested a lot of his own money setting up SpaceX and funding development, construction and testing of their rockets. He expects to turn a profit on his investment, eventually.
Here's hoping all goes well for the sake of the current ISS residents.
I guess NASA's mission is a success! You got it right! Tell them online and bill NASA 60 million now it IS good money spent to further space knowledge.
Previous post had comment about arabic language we use -which is actually latin/celtic/surfer dude
Uh.. I think he said numeral system....
It may be a good thing that the "glitch" happened with no human cargo on board. If the recovery effort was successful, that's a positive thing, better than sending a dumb container with no recovery capability.
Please send me to the moon or mars, i dont even care if i come back. The trip would be well worth it. Seriously, a man's true nature is to explore and discover! Sign me up!
Here a good place to explore, easy to get to, in need of repair, a real
fixer upper..
Polar Radius: 6,356.8 km (3,950 miles)
Equatorial Radius: 6,378.1 km
(3,963 miles)
Mean Radius: 6,371 km (3,958.75 miles)
Mean diameter: 12,742
km (7,917.5 miles)
Equatorial circumference: 40,075.02 km (24,901.24
miles)
Surface area: 510,072,000 km2 (196,939,900 miles)
Volume: 1.0832073 × 1012 km3
Mass: 5.9736 × 1024 kg