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Old 03-03-2019, 04:48 AM
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Default Ripley's docking live!

Ripley, aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, is now approaching docking at the ISS: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pNfCQtQILU . Just a few more minutes to go...
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Old 03-03-2019, 05:03 AM
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Soft capture achieved! They're in the process of retracting the soft-capture ring and getting the hard-capture hooks ready to engage. They're now running the raw video with ISS/MCC communications, but the SpaceX engineers will return [CORRECTION: they're back now, and hard capture is complete!] when hard-capture is imminent or just past. They also said that the ISS crew will open up the Crew Dragon hatches and venture inside--and "meet" Ripley--in a little under two hours, after checking the hatches and pressurization. (Yesterday I heard a couple of reporters refer to Ripley as "Riley!" :-) )
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Ripley, aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, is now approaching docking at the ISS: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pNfCQtQILU . Just a few more minutes to go...
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Old 03-03-2019, 05:16 AM
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They (the SpaceX folks) are taking a 2-hour break until hatch opening, but the NASA TV feed is continuing, including with the live ISS/MCC communications--they're pressurizing the vestibule now, and the docking module interior view is on TV now. If you scroll the video backwards by about 5 minutes, they talked briefly with Bob Banken [spelling?], one of the two astronauts who will fly the next Crew Dragon to the ISS (after the Falcon 9/Crew Dragon transonic abort test at the Cape in June [it will be a spectacular fireworks display, as the booster will be destroyed!], which SpaceX is pushing to accomplish sooner than that).
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Soft capture achieved! They're in the process of retracting the soft-capture ring and getting the hard-capture hooks ready to engage. They're now running the raw video with ISS/MCC communications, but the SpaceX engineers will return [CORRECTION: they're back now, and hard capture is complete!] when hard-capture is imminent or just past. They also said that the ISS crew will open up the Crew Dragon hatches and venture inside--and "meet" Ripley--in a little under two hours, after checking the hatches and pressurization. (Yesterday I heard a couple of reporters refer to Ripley as "Riley!" :-) )
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Old 03-03-2019, 06:46 AM
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The hatch leading to the Dragon capsule's hatch is open, and the crew are inspecting the docking adapter--they're way ahead of schedule! They're looking for condensation, foreign objects that might have shaken loose during launch, and debris--but except for just a little dust, they've found none. They're anxious to get inside the Crew Dragon, and they will soon (in the next 5 minutes or so, the SpaceX folks just said) open the Dragon hatch!
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Old 03-03-2019, 07:16 AM
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And they're inside, and already moving some of the pre-packaged supplies (under the capsule seats) into the space station!
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Old 03-08-2019, 09:19 AM
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Default Recovery

Space-X Dragon 2 successfully recovered off the coast of Florida this morning.

Skip the hosts' chatter and watch the B-57 Canberra (formerly) aerial IF footage along with four big chutes on HD. Recovery looked pretty efficient. I don't think anyone had to enter the water like the frogmen of the Apollo era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlFmK1hSKZg
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Old 03-08-2019, 10:25 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
Space-X Dragon 2 successfully recovered off the coast of Florida this morning.

Skip the hosts' chatter and watch the B-57 Canberra (formerly) aerial IF footage along with four big chutes on HD. Recovery looked pretty efficient. I don't think anyone had to enter the water like the frogmen of the Apollo era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlFmK1hSKZg
Someone did, though--I saw him jump off the capsule into the water soon before it was hoisted to its "nest" (as SpaceX has named its deck fixture). One of the four parachutes--which looked like orange-on-white printed model rocket parachutes (I'm hoping that SpaceX will now also offer a Falcon 9-Crew Dragon model rocket kit!)--landed right on top of the capsule and then sank (except for an air-filled portion right on the capsule), making it look like it was in a bag. :-) Also:

The recovery ship is much smaller than the aircraft carriers of the Apollo days, but has cabins for the astronauts and recovery crew members. They said that her return--from ~240 nautical miles east of the Cape--will take about 30 hours, but that for the subsequent crew-carrying flights, splashdown will occur much closer to the Cape, only about a 2-hour cruise from Port Canaveral (presumably this landing was farther offshore to make sure that the capsule wouldn't accidentally fall on land), and speaking of this particular capsule:

They said that it will be refurbished and used for the upcoming max q launch abort test aboard a Falcon 9 at the Cape in June or sooner. *That* launch will be spectacular, because the fully-fueled (^both^ stages--a mass simulator will replace the second stage's MVAC engine, so as not to waste one) Falcon 9 will be destroyed in the process of the aborted flight, exploding in the sky--its first stage will be the "third-landing" one that very recently underwent the most stressful re-entry yet. The Crew Dragon for this summer's first astronauts-carrying mission is nearing completion at SpaceX's Hawthorne factory. (Boeing's Starliner capsule will also fly soon, and Sierra Nevada's cargo-version Dream Chaser lifting body will fly to the ISS and return next year--they got the go-ahead to build it in December.)
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Old 03-08-2019, 10:35 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
Space-X Dragon 2 successfully recovered off the coast of Florida this morning.

Skip the hosts' chatter and watch the B-57 Canberra (formerly) aerial IF footage along with four big chutes on HD. Recovery looked pretty efficient. I don't think anyone had to enter the water like the frogmen of the Apollo era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlFmK1hSKZg
Yes, I saw the re-entry as well--it looked (I think it was an infrared camera, because Dragon glowed like a burning coal even under its drogue parachutes) like the security camera footage of the asteroid that fell in Africa not too long ago! NASA's WB-57 that photographed it is one of the high-altitude, long-winged ones (see: https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/aircraft/WB-57_-_JSC ).
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http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
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Old 03-08-2019, 11:01 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
Someone did, though--I saw him jump off the capsule into the water soon before it was hoisted to its "nest" (as SpaceX has named its deck fixture).

Yes, at 2:01 a single guy in white PPE climbed on the Dragon and later jumped in the water at about 2:20. However, he could have easily got back in the boat. What I meant was that the recovery didn't have four frogmen in the water attaching flotation skirts and safeing the craft. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the rigging eventually gets updated to where they can do everything from the boat.
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Old 03-08-2019, 11:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
Yes, at 2:01 a single guy in white PPE climbed on the Dragon and later jumped in the water at about 2:20. However, he could have easily got back in the boat. What I meant was that the recovery didn't have four frogmen in the water attaching flotation skirts and safeing the craft. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the rigging eventually gets updated to where they can do everything from the boat.
Oh--from the video coverage (and the hosts' descriptions), it looked and sounded like they were doing the pyrotechnic and pneumatic safing operations from the small fast boats (as they called them). I wonder if--perhaps to save cost, time, and to simplify the operation--they've dispensed with floatation collars? I didn't see one, and neither did the SpaceX folks (nor the astronauts and NASA officials they interviewed, or ran comments from) mention one.
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http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
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