Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

Big news just 40 minutes old. Jim Bridenstine says:

"News: We're targeting an Aug. 1 departure of SpaceX's Dragon Endeavour spacecraft from the Space Station to bring AstroBehnken and Astro_Doug home from their historic LaunchAmerica mission. Splashdown is targeted for Aug.2. Weather will drive the actual date. Stay tuned."

https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/statu...2842511361

(May 27, 2020 06:20 AM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]With Bob and Doug about to go into space tomorrow, one would think that this would be a time of anxiety for their families. But in both of their cases, the wives have been there, done that.

Both Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are married to fellow astronauts.

Behnken's wife is K. Megan McArthur. She's a UCSD PhD in Oceanography who flew on the Shuttle on STS 125 where she worked the robotic arm and is the last astronaut to "touch" the Hubble Space Telescope. She's served as Capcom on several missions and I wonder if they would let her do it on this one, if her husband is the one she's communicating with up there.

And Megan McArthur has been chosen to fly on Crew-2, the third Crew Dragon manned flight (including the current DM-2 which is a test-flght) and the second SpaceX Dragon operational flight. It's penciled in for NET (not earlier than) March 2021. She will be one of four on that flight, along with NASA's Shane Kimbrough the vehicle commander, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency and Aki Hoshide of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

https://twitter.com/NASA_Johnson/status/...1267043328

This morning NASA did an interview from the Space Station with Bob and Doug, who are scheduled to undock from the Station tomorrow and descend downhill to their splashdown on Sunday.

On his wife @Astro_Megan getting picked to fly Crew-2, Behnken said: "She's super excited to be assigned to a SpaceX mission ... of course I'll have a lot of tips for her, a lot of them will be about how life on space station goes."

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/stat...4731534336

Upcoming events:

All these events will be streamed live on NASA Live

https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

On Saturday --

9:10 AM EDT (6:10 AM PDT, 13:10 UTC) Bob and Doug farewell ceremony on Space Station

5:15 PM EDT (2:15 PM PDT, 21:15 UTC) Continuous live coverage of Bob and Doug's departure begins.

Following times approximate -

5:45 PM EDT (2:45 PM PDT, 21:45 UTC) Hatch closure

7:34 PM EDT (4:34 PM PDT, 23:34 UTC) Dragon undocking

On Sunday --

2:42 PM EDT (11:43 AM PDT, 18:42 UTC) Splashdown

Due to hurricane Isaias off the east side of Florida, this looks like it will be a comparatively unusual Gulf of Mexico splashdown, off either Pensacola or Panama City. The SpaceX recovery ship Go Navigator is in position and temporary flight restrictions have been issued, with exceptions for recovery aircraft.

https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_0_7071.html

https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_0_7073.html

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/stat...6330475520

4:30 PM EDT (1:30 PM PDT 20:30 UTC) Press conference (time subject to change)

Here's a little series of descriptive animations from NASA describing each step (click on 'show this thread')

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1289241203549102080

News on SpaceX (not space) ship movements

https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet/status/1...8459272193

Both Go Searcher and Go Quest left Port Canaveral today. Go Searcher is the Atlantic Ocean Crew Dragon recovery ship, and it's believed that it is headed to the Gulf of Mexico to back up Go Navigator, it's sister Crew Dragon recovery ship that's already on station in the Gulf. Go Quest is the booster landing recovery support ship and it's believed to be headed up to Jacksonville where it typically shelters from hurricanes. OCISLY and JRTI are essentially barges with station keeping thrusters, and they will remain in Port Canaveral (where their Octagrabber robots will keep a tight grip).

Jim Bridenstine has announced that Bob and Doug's return will be at the Pensacola recovery site.

https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/statu...5572969472

Astro Bob Behnken posted this photo of Little Earth all packed up and ready to return. (All carry-on luggage.)

4:26 PM PDT (7:26 PM EDT 23:26 UTC) Bob and Doug are in the Dragon and it's set to undock in the next few minutes.

4:30 PM PDT - Undocking sequence commanded.

4:35 PM Pacific - Dragon undocked. Vehicle is backing away from the Space Station.

Dragon has exited the Keep Out Sphere around the Space Station and is now on its own. It's kind of interesting to watch the spaceflight traditions developing, based on nautical traditions, such as use of a ship's bell. Here's the traditional farewell messages:

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/stat...5735180288

10:42 PDT/1:42 EDT - 5 minutes from the beginning of Bob and Doug's landing sequence. First up, jettisoning the 'trunk', the cylindrical service module portion of the vehicle. This involves several steps, starting with unplugging electrical and fluid connections.

10:49 PDT/1:49 PM EDT - 'Claw' is being released. This contains the electrical and other connections. Dragon in trunk separation attitude. Confirmation of claw release.

10:52 PDT/1:52 PM EDT - Nominal trunk separation. Next up, the de-orbit burn. This will commit them to reentry.

They are sealing up the visors on their spacesuits, so that they can be pressurized in the unlikely even the capsule loses pressure.

10:56 PDT/1:56 PM EDT - De-orbit burn has begun! Propulsion system performing nominally. The burn takes several minutes because it is conducted by small Draco thrusters and not a big booster.

People are saying that both Elon and Gwynne are in the SpaceX mission control center. (I think that I can see them seated next to each other in the center of the front row.) Edit -- the livestream narrator just verified that it's indeed them.

11:09 PDT/2:09 PM EDT - Deorbit burn successfully completed. Bob and Doug are committed to returning now.

Nose hatch is closed and locked.

11:19 PDT/2:19 PM EDT - 27 minutes until splashdown. The capsule is being flushed with cool temperature nitrox, to help keep Bob and Doug cool during the 3,000 degree heat of reentry. Air Force aircraft ready with infrared cameras to record the reentry during the plasma-blackout period.

11:29 PDT/2:29 PM EDT - Dragon over the Pacific. Photos of Boca Chica show the parabolic antennas are pointed southwest to catch Dragon coming in over Mexico.

https://twitter.com/BocaChicaGal/status/...0126180352

11:33 PDT/2:33 PM EDT - Two minutes until reentry communications blackout. This will be the most dangerous part of the reentry. SpaceX says to Bob and Doug: "See you on the other side".

11:41 PDT/2:41 EDT - Comms reacquired earlier than expected and Doug Hurley sounds good. They were feeling about 3.5 Gs. Vehicle is over the Gulf of Mexico. Awaiting drogue chute deployment.

11:45 PDT -- Two drogues out.

11:46 PDT -- Four main parachutes are out.

11:49 PDT - SPLASHDOWN! Bob and Doug are back!!

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1289996815824117760

(NASA photo)



12:08 PDT/3:08 EDT - Several local boats are around the capsule with the astronauts still inside, Go Navigator is warning the spectator boats off. SpaceX photo from Go Navigator showing the spectator boats.



This is the first intentional manned water landing since Apollo-Soyuz in 1975. (Actually there was a Soyuz that went off course and crashed into a frozen lake...) It's the first manned landing ever in the Gulf of Mexico.

Capsule is on Go Navigator. Unfortunately there are indications of NTO (nitrogen tetroxide, a hypergolic propellant) vapors at higher than desired levels outside Bob and Doug's pressure hull, so the ground crew is conducting an inert gas purge of the spaces between the pressure hull and the outer skin. The thrusters and propellant tanks live in there. (We all remember that Crew Dragon that blew up, so better safe than sorry.)

Latest readings show propellant gasses within NASA's conservative safety limits, so go for hatch opening.

12:59 PM PDT -- Hatch is now open.

1:12 PM PDT/4:12 PM EDT - Bob and Doug are both out. They are undergoing a short medical exam, then a helicopter will fly them to Pensacola Naval Air Station, where they will board a NASA jet that will fly them to Houston.

Doug Hurley out of the capsule and Elon and Gwynne leaving mission control in Hawthorne.

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/stat...9902875648

NASA's post-flight news conference

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Thank goodness that's over with, and successful. With NASA supposedly losing confidence in Starliner, I'd hate to ponder what return to the dark ages of needing Russian spacecraft they'd be in if Crew Dragan had gone tragically awry on the final leg of its mission.

Hey, you've heard about the boats. Well, the DM-2 astronauts weren't innocent either. You may have wondered what they were doing in the hour or so between splashdown and hatch opening. Well, it seems that SpaceX had outfitted the Crew Dragon with a satellite phone, I suppose intended for if they had to come down in some remote part of the planet in an emergency. Part of their task after landing was to test it out.

"Five hours ago we were bobbing around in a spacecraft making prank satellite phone calls to whoever we could get ahold of," Doug Hurley said, in one of the best post-landing quotes ever.

One of those who got a call was the mission Flight Director, Anthony Vareha.

I received one these calls at the flight director console. It started with an opening line like "Hi, its Doug and Bob and we're in the ocean." I think my response was "Yeah, I can see that."

After the call ended, my witty Capcom Megan Levins suggested that my response SHOULD have been "oh crap, was splashdown supposed to be TODAY?"

https://twitter.com/Enterprise_Flt/statu...6070275072

And here's a photograph of the Crew Dragon aboard Go Navigator in Pensacola.

https://twitter.com/Kyle_M_Photo/status/...4491964418

NASA photograph of a pensive Bob and Doug inside the SpaceX helicopter flying them from Go Navigator to Pensacola Naval Air Station where a NASA plane picked them up to return them to Houston where they now are. (Their Crew Dragon actually had a roomier interior.)

(Feb 11, 2020 10:16 PM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]Huge personnel news.

SpaceX has just hired William Gerstenmaier, NASA's head of human spaceflight. (He was program manager for the International Space Station before that, and on the Shuttle program before that.)

Ellie in Space (a space-nut Youtuber) was at the very recent AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) SciTech Forum where she was able to snag an interview with Bill Gerstenmeier, currently SpaceX's Vice-President for Build and Flight Reliability.

She asks him about differences between SpaceX and NASA's philosophies. Gerst replies by saying that NASA was once very willing to take risks. Just think 'Apollo Moon landings'. He says he got his start at NASA right before the Space Shuttle flew for the first time. There had been no uncrewed prototype test flights and the first time it flew it had two men in it. Hugely risky! But subsequent to that NASA got increasingly risk-averse. He sounds very happy to be back in an environment more like the heroic years of NASA, surrounded by young people so much like him when he got his start. He loves feeling excited each day when he goes to work.

Now SpaceX is kind of channeling the early NASA spirit and enthusiasm, with its pressure to do big exciting things fast and take risks. But Gerst (he's SpaceX's VP for flight reliability after all) seems to think that SpaceX is in a good place in that regard. They won't be flying humans in Starships until the vehicles are ready and they are taking great care not to risk anyone on the ground. He did say that the first Starship orbital attempt should come in the next couple of months, and he hinted that he doesn't expect it to be fully successful. But SpaceX has additional vehicles under construction and losing a few is ok with them if they get good data from them that allows them to locate weaknesses in the design and engineer improvements.

Gerstenmeier says that he sees his role at SpaceX less as a brake to slow down their headlong progress, and more like a clutch that will allow them to shift gears so as to better facilitate even faster and more successful future progress.

Ellie asks him about Cape Canaveral progress and Gerst says that everyone can see where they are at by watching the construction. He says that early R&D test flights will be from Boca, not the Cape which sounds like it's intended to be more of an operational base than a test site.