SpaceX 'Go' for Dragon Cargo Ship Launch to Space Station Monday

[Buster's Uncle]

SpaceX 'Go' for Dragon Cargo Ship Launch to Space Station Monday
SPACE.com
by Tariq Malik, Managing Editor  2 hours ago



The private spaceflight company SpaceX prepares its unmanned Dragon cargo ship to launch to the International Space Station on its third official supply delivery mission for NASA.



The private spaceflight company SpaceX will forge ahead with a Dragon cargo ship launch to the International Space Station on Monday (April 14) despite a backup computer failure on the station that will force NASA to perform a spacewalk repair, possibly as early as next week.

The NASA decision sets the stage for SpaceX  to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the robotic Dragon spacecraft from a pad on Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Liftoff is set for 4:58 p.m. EDT (2058 GMT) on Monday, with the Dragon due to arrive at the station two days later.

You can watch the SpaceX's Dragon launch live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. The webcast will begin Monday at 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT). SpaceX's Dragon will deliver nearly 5,000 lbs. (2,268 kilograms) of food, experiments and other vital supplies for the station's crew when it arrives on Wednesday.

In a press conference Sunday (April 13), NASA station program manager Michael Suffredini said the decision to move forward with the SpaceX launch came after an in-depth analysis of the Friday failure of a backup computer for the station's solar arrays, robotic arm rail car and other systems. The system's primary computer is working fine, and engineers devised workarounds that would safeguard the station's power and robotic systems in case of another failure, he added.

"We're just trying to fly as soon as we safely can, which is what we believe we're doing with this [plan]," Suffredini told reporters.

The Dragon launch has been delayed since March due to unrelated damage to a ground-based tracking radar used by the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.


Spacewalk repair needed

The failed backup computer is known in NASA parlance as a Multiplexer-Demultiplexer, or MDM, and is one of more than a dozen such devices used to route commands to various systems on the space station. It failed late Friday (April 11) when flight controllers on Earth attempted to activate it.



A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship stand atop its Florida launch pad ahead of a planned April 14, 2014 launch to the International Space Station. The mission for NASA will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.


Suffredini said astronauts will eventually have to perform a spacewalk to replace the broken MDM computer, possibly as soon as April 22. The International Space Station is home to two American astronauts, one Japanese astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts. NASA plans to decide who will perform the spacewalk later today, Suffredini said.

"This would be one of the simplest that we could do," Suffredini said of the spacewalk. The actual spacewalk would last about 2.5 hours and require two astronauts to swap out one 50-lb. (22.6 kg) MDM computer one of several spares on the station.


Big science on SpaceX's Dragon

SpaceX's upcoming launch will mark the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company's third cargo delivery mission since 2012 under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for 12 resupply flights using the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rockets. Another company, company is Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., also has a $1.9 billion NASA contract for eight cargo using its own Antares rockets and Cygnus spacecraft.

For this mission, SpaceX's Dragon is carrying innovative science experiments in addition to a standard load of food, water and other basic needs. Among those experiments are:

Space legs:Prehensile legs for NASA's humanoid Robonaut 2 droid on the station.
Veggie: A mini-farm experiment to let astronauts grow lettuce in space.
MERCURRI: A microbe experiment orchestrated by NBA and NFL cheerleaders.
Phonesat 2.5: A tiny smartphone-powered satellite designed by NASA.

SpaceX will also deploy a set of four tiny pods carrying other small satellites as a secondary payload on the Falcon 9 rocket, according to Hans Koenigsmann, the company's vice president of mission assurance.

Koenigsmann said the Falcon 9 launching on Monday is also equipped with four landing legs, each one measuring 25 feet (7.6 meters) long, as part of a reusable rocket technology experiment.

Last year, SpaceX successfully demonstrated that it could launch a satellite into orbit, then relight the nine rocket engines on its falling Falcon 9 booster's first stage to slow its descent back to Earth. For Monday's test, that re-entry maneuver will be accompanied by a landing maneuver with the goal of delivering the Falcon 9 first stage to a preselected "landing" zone in the Atlantic Ocean.

If all goes well, the rocket would descend upright as if making a vertical landing, then topple over into the ocean to be retrieved by a recovery team, Koenigsmann said.

But SpaceX stresses the demonstration is an experimental technique. The chances of success are low, between 30 and 40 percent, Koenigsmann said.

"If we pull this off … we'll be super-thrilled," he added.


http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-dragon-cargo-ship-launch-space-station-monday-194826446.html

[Buster's Uncle]

NASA to go ahead with Dragon capsule SpaceX launch
AFP
3 hours ago



SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon space craft are readied on October 7, 2012 for an evening launch from Cape Canaveral, to the International Space Station (AFP Photo/Bruce Weaver)



Washington (AFP) - The launch of a SpaceX rocket and its Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station will go ahead as scheduled Monday despite a glitch affecting a computer on the station, officials said.

The Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned capsule Dragon is scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 4:58pm (2058 GMT), SpaceX vice president Hans Koenigsmann said.

Weather forecasts indicated an 80 percent probability of conditions favorable for a successful launch, the third operated by the private space company. It had originally been scheduled for mid-March.

ISS program manager Mike Suffredini said a meeting had concluded "with a go for SpaceX-3."

"We had already determined that we were ready for the launch early last week, however, Friday afternoon one of our external MDMs failed," he said, referring to a backup command computer relay box.

There are around 10 MDMs on the space station, controlling automated systems on the base. A spacewalk will be required to repair the computer.

NASA was keen for the SpaceX rocket to fire its cargo to the base as quickly as possible.

"SpaceX is carrying on board a number of critical systems, including a new spacesuit, components to fix the existing spacesuits, a couple of very critical research experiments in the trunk and quite a bit of logistics for our crew members on board," Suffredini said.

"So we need to get it onboard as soon as we practically can."

Owned by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, SpaceX became the first commercial entity to reach the space station with its Dragon cargo ship in 2012.

The company has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for a series of future supply missions.

The Dragon, a reusable, gumdrop-shaped capsule, became the first commercial spacecraft to reach the ISS in 2012.


http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-ahead-dragon-capsule-spacex-launch-203205480.html