SpaceX has another historic achievement under its belt — being first to re-fly a commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station and back. The Dragon capsule it used on its most recent ISS resupply mission was used during a previous trip to ferry supplies and materials for scientific experiments to the orbital facility.
This Dragon capsule originally launched in September 2014, before being refurbished and used again on June 3. After docking with the ISS around 36 hours after launch, the spacecraft spent about a month at the station, where astronauts unloaded its payload.
Early Monday AM EDT, the Dragon capsule decoupled from the ISS and made three departure burns to begin its de-orbit. Then a few hours later, it completed its de-orbit burn, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and deployed its chutes, splashing down as planned in the Pacific Ocean at around 8:14 AM EDT.
The good splashdown is another big win for SpaceX’s vision of reusable spacecraft, which will help decrease the costs of commercial space operations dramatically.
SpaceX also aborted a launch attempt on Sunday for its Intelsat 35e mission, but it will have another launch window today at 7:37 PM EDT.
nissanpacific on July 3rd, 2017 at 21:05 UTC »
Now let's see the Falcon stage 1 rocket catch the dragon capsule in the stratosphere and return it back to the launch pad....
hue hue hue (i'm just joking, but that would be awesome)
Decronym on July 3rd, 2017 at 19:51 UTC »
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters ASDS Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (landing platform) BARGE Big-Ass Remote Grin Enhancer coined by @IridiumBoss, see ASDS BO Blue Origin (Bezos Rocketry) CRS Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA CST (Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules Central Standard Time (UTC-6) DoD US Department of Defense EM-1 Exploration Mission 1, first flight of SLS EVA Extra-Vehicular Activity FSW Friction-Stir Welding GEO Geostationary Earth Orbit (35786km) HDEV High Definition Earth Viewing experiment, fitted to ISS ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile KSP Kerbal Space Program, the rocketry simulator LEO Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km) Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations) LOX Liquid Oxygen OCISLY Of Course I Still Love You, Atlantic landing barge ship OMS Orbital Maneuvering System PICA-X Phenolic Impregnated-Carbon Ablative heatshield compound, as modified by SpaceX RCS Reaction Control System RP-1 Rocket Propellant 1 (enhanced kerosene) SES Formerly Société Européenne des Satellites, a major SpaceX customer SLS Space Launch System heavy-lift SRB Solid Rocket Booster SSTO Single Stage to Orbit STS Space Transportation System (Shuttle) TPS Thermal Protection System for a spacecraft (on the Falcon 9 first stage, the engine "Dance floor") ULA United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture) Jargon Definition ablative Material which is intentionally destroyed in use (for example, heatshields which burn away to dissipate heat) hypergolic A set of two substances that ignite when in contact monopropellant Rocket propellant that requires no oxidizer (eg. hydrazine)[Thread #1796 for this sub, first seen 3rd Jul 2017, 19:51] [FAQ] [Contact] [Source code]
Binge_Gaming on July 3rd, 2017 at 19:27 UTC »
I was curious about what specifically was re-used and found this relevant information:
The Capsule was launched again for the first time, with the hull, structural elements, thrusters, harnesses, propellant tanks, plumbing and many of the avionics reused while the heat shield, batteries and components exposed to sea water upon splashdown for recovery were replaced.