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.
jasonmeverett on July 3rd, 2017 at 23:47 UTC »
Being an engineer working on the SLS, I see how some processes are rather inefficient... Although I would of course love to see it fly because of the countless hours I've spent working on it. And I strive to do my absolute best every day to cut out inefficiencies to the best of my ability.
What I can say is that many engineers at NASA are absolutely brilliant and have been a pleasure to work with so far. Not a single person I've met is pursuing the SLS as a "job-maker" to the project - we put our hearts and souls into our work every single day, and we love it. Even if political facades distort others' views on this, I can guarantee the lower level engineers that I've met who pull the project along are true warriors for what they do.
My opinion - as long as humans are flying, I'm happy. If SpaceX can truly "do it better", then hats off to the bright-minded individuals that had the smarts and the passion to make it happen. If the SLS isn't the way to go, then so be it - because regardless of the rocket's (or NASA's) outcome, I've learned a ton as a person and have gained invaluable experience and connections.
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 CRS Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA DoD US Department of Defense 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 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.