SpaceX Jason-3 Mission is set to launch from Vandenberg AFB at 1:42pm EST (10:42am local time)

The Jason-3 Mission launch is targeted for a 10:42am PT launch from Space Launch Complex 4E at the Vandenberg AFB in California. This mission will use the last of the "pre-upgrade" SpaceX Falcon 9.1 rockets.

The mission is to deliver the Jason-3 satellite to LEO. Jason-3 is a combined effort of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration ), CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales - the French space agency), and EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites).

The usual secondary objective pf landing the Falcon 9 first stage will be attempted, with the target being the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions”. Following SpaceX's first successful landing last month at their new, solid-ground landing site, the chances for success seem high. However, the challenge of landing on a floating platform, coupled with the fact that last month's mission used an upgraded version of the Falcon 9, means that the likelihood of success is lower than it will be for upcoming missions.

SpaceX to test fire the upgraded Falcon 9 in preparation for a possible December 19th launch

[Update] Current schedule is looking at a two hour launch window from 8:25 p.m. to 11:26 p.m. EST this Sunday, December 19th.  Launch site is SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

According to the recent tweet from Elon Musk, "Aiming for Falcon rocket static fire at Cape Canaveral on the 16th and launch about three days later", it would appear that SpaceX and all the other involved parties are satisfied with the investigation of the CRS-7 mission failure in June.

The Falcon 9 static test fire will be conducted on the pad and is a prelude to a possible launch on December 19th. Following the test fire, engineers will review the all of the data, and if everything checks out an attempt can be made during the three hour launch window that opens at 8:25 p.m. EST (0125 GMT on Dec. 20). The launch will attempt to deploy 11 second-generation Orbcomm (OG2) communications satellites, delayed several times from its initial December 2014 schedule.

The SpaceX team has been making steady progress in preparing Falcon for it's return to duty. The struts that hold the pressurized tanks in place have been scrutinized and no doubt upgraded, being that they were implicated as the apparent cause of the launches failure. According to Elon Musk, "the likely cause was a broken bracket holding a high-pressure helium reservoir inside the Falcon 9’s second stage liquid oxygen tank. The strut apparently fractured under the stresses of launch, causing the helium tank to break free and rupture the upper stage while the first stage was still firing about two minutes after liftoff".

But, as always, the company is not standing still, and has changed the booster to provide a 33-percent increase in performance according to SpaceX's Lee Rosen (Vice President of Mission and Launch Operations). The slightly taller Falcon 9 "has the same engines that we’ve flown before, but with some upgrades and things like that to increase reliability and performance" according to Mr. Rosen. The upgraded Falcon 9 was test fired on Sept. 21st as can be seen in this video. Sited among the changes are increases in the thrust of both the first and second stages, modifications to the landing legs and grid fins (most likely to increase the chances for a successful landing), and many more tweaks. Contributing to the increased thrust is "densified propellant" - chilling the RP-1 fuel more in order to pack more fuel into the same space.

A return to operations will mean that SpaceeX will be able to chip away at it's mounting launch manifest (which was heavily loaded even before the almost half a year hiatus), with several space station resupply missions to make up in addition to the backlog of commercial launches. However, prior to the failed June mission, the company was demonstrating record turn around times, and so if all goes well it has the ability to get a lot of cargo into space in a relative short amount of time. And, with the successful November 23rd flight of the Blue Origin suborbital rocket - which landed safely after reaching the 100-kilometer (62-mile) boundary with space, the desire to stick the landing with the Falcon 9 rocket has to be an increasing important goal. One that the has been getting closer and closer each flight.

Next up for SpaceX - Pad Abort Test for Dragon, Tomorrow (May 6th) [Updated]

Update: May 6th. The Pad Test was successfully executed this morning.  The video from the Lifestream broadcast is below.

Before getting into the subject of this post, I'd like to acknowledge that this blog has become very SpaceX centered. That wasn't the intent - and still isn't - but it seems that SpaceX news fills the limited amount of time I have to devote to blogging. And they are doing such innovative and imaginative work that deserves to be shared. I do follow other commercial space companies, as well as NASA and other space agencies, but its likely that something extraordinary would have to occur with them in order to be shared here at this point.

On with the post.

With the Thales (TürkmenÄlem) mission complete, and the next launch scheduled for June, SpaceX will squeeze in the first test of the escape system for the human rated Dragon, now dubbed "Crew Dragon" in SpaceX's news release.

Pad Abort Test Infographic [click image to see a larger version]

This first test is the Pad Abort Test, which tests the spacecraft's emergency crew escape capability for an emergency that may occur while the rocket is still on the launch pad. An upcoming second test will test the escape capability from an in-flight rocket.

While these tests may not seem as exciting as full launch - especially one that attempts to drop the Falcon rocket onto a small floating landing pad - it is actually a very difficult process with some very impressive metrics. For example, Dragon's eight SuperDraco engines will produce 120,000 pounds of thrust to propel the spacecraft 328 ft (almost 100 meters) in 2 seconds, and 1/3 mile (more than half a kilometer) in just over 5 seconds.
To put that into perspective, that's just about the same as the national record for the 1/4 mile (drag race), which is currently 3.701 seconds. One hell of a ride for sure!

Another point of interest is that SpaceX is attempting to improve on the traditional, familiar escape "tower" that was stuck to the nose of spacecraft from almost the beginning of the U.S. space program. This tower contained a cluster of rockets that would effectively pull the spacecraft off of - and away from - the rocket. While this was effective when the rocket was on the pad, and for the first part of the ascent, it becomes ineffective within a couple of minutes. The built in SuperDraco thrusters on the other hand remain operational, and are maintained throughout the flight. These are also the thrusters that will enable Dragon to "land propulsively on Earth or another planet with the precision of a helicopter".

Read the full news release for details.

SpaceX "coming attractions" - what's next? [Updated]

The next mission kicks off in just 10 days, followed by a packed launch manifest for the remainder of the year and beyond.  Here is the schedule as it stands now.

April 27th [Updated]

TürkmenÄlem, the first telecommunications satellite for Turkmenistan

May TBD

Dragon V2 (manned spacecraft) pad abort test - while not actually a "flight" is worth noting (NASA)

June TBD

Second launch of Orbcomm satellites to complete the OG2 constellation

June 19

ISS resupply mission CRS-7 (NASA)

July TBD

SES-9 geo-transfer orbit (GTO) mission, with the SES-9 spacecraft joining the previously launched SES-8 in geosynchronous orbit

July 22

Jason 3 Earth observation satellite for monitoring and measuring the world’s oceans (NOAA)

Sept 2

ISS resupply mission CRS-8, Bigelow Aerospace's Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) - an expandable (as in inflatable) compartment (NASA)

Sept TBD

The second dual-GTO mission for the Eutelsat 117W B and ABS-2A satellites

Dec 9

ISS resupply mission CRS-9 (NASA)

Mar TBD (2016)

Falcon Heavy Test Flight!

TBD

AMOS-6 satellite
JCSat 14 satellite
SAOCOM 1A and 1B Earth observation satellites (separate launches).

Launch postponed until tomorrow (4/14)

The launch of the SpaceX NASA CRS-6 mission has been delayed due to a potentially hazardous weather-related launch condition (the anvil cloud rule for thunderstorm clouds).  The next launch window is tomorrow at 4:10 PM (eastern).  Watch live on the SpaceX Lifestream channel.

This launch will include the latest attempt at landing the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage, hopefully advancing the goal of a reusable rocket,  This capability has been called a game changer by Elon Musk, shattering not only the launch price, but also the interval between launches.
 
So far 2015 has been very busy, with three flights in as many months.  With as many as 12 more flights slated for this year - including tomorrow's CRS-6 - this year should see more than twice the number of launches as 2014 (six missions) - and may include the first Falcon Heavy demo flight.

Exciting times for this visionary, but still quite young, company.

SpaceX Launch Tonight - DSCOVER Mission

First, my apologies for not having any posts in a while.  Hopefully I'll be back to a regular posting schedule going forward.

SpaceX will (hopefully) launch the DSCOVR mission this evening at 6:03 PM EST.  This will be the third launch window, the first two attempts being scrubbed for technical and then weather reasons.

This mission represents another milestone for SpaceX: it's first deep space mission.  The mission will attempt to place the DSCOVR satellite into the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point - a point where the gravitational forces of the Sun and Earth are equalized, allowing a satellite to maintain its position with minimal effort.  Why this is a big deal for SpaceX is that the Sun-Earth L1 is 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth.  That's four times farther than the Moon, and over 40 times farther than any previous SpaceX mission.  While the satellite will be deployed 35 minutes after launch, it will take 110 days for it to arrive at its destination.

I haven't found any information about  plans to recover the Falcon 9 rocket.  SpaceX stated that they would be working towards a soft landing of the first stage on each mission, but the past SpaceX mission to geostationary orbit required so much fuel that an attempt wasn'
t possible, and it seems that would also be the situation with this launch.

Links:
The official SpaceX press kit
Watch live on Livestream starting at 5:45 PM EST.

Orbital Sciences completes the first launch of its Antares rocket

Orbital Sciences completed its first launch of the Antares rocket - as well as the first launch from its new facilities at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, VA.

The launch took place on April 21st at 5:00 PM local time (EDT).

This launch is the first step towards demonstrating Orbital's capability to resupply the International Space Station (ISS), for which it will use the company's Cygnus spacecraft.  Orbital Sciences is one of the two companies providing services under  NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, SpaceX being the other.

Once the Cygnus spacecraft has completed its demo missions, orbital will begin fulfilling its contract with NASA is for eight resupply missions, which are anticipated to start by the end of this year (2013).

Another first for SpaceX

As I wrote previously, SpaceX used the Dragon spacecraft's unpressurized "trunk" to carry additional large cargo pieces to the ISS this trip.  The unpressurized trunk section is separated from the main, pressurized, section and is not accessible via the docking hatch.  So the space station's robotic arm had to be used to unload the cargo from the "trunk".  This represents another SpaceX mission first, and clears the way for addition cargo in CRS-3 and CRS-4 later this year and early next year.  Both of these have cargo on the manifest that will fly in the unpressurized trunk.
A really good article about the robotic unloading (and the mission as a whole) is here on the nasaspaceflight.com site.

CRS-2 is in orbit after a successful launch.
Currently the SpaceX team is working a problem with the spacecraft's thrusters, which has delayed the deployment of the solar arrays.  SpaceX commanded them to reset, which brought them on-line, and they then commanded the solar arrays to deploy.  The solar arrays have been deployed and the spacecraft is on towards its rendezvous with the ISS tomorrow (Saturday).

Congratulations on another good launch!

SpaceX CRS-2 press kit and Livestream event page are on line.  Static fire has been completed and and everything appears to be good for the Friday morning launch.
SpaceX Press Kit
Livestream Event Page

SpaceX CRS-2 mission a "go" for this Friday.

NASA has the launch scheduled for 10:10 am EST on March 1st.  The mission will be launched from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40 (the site of the previous SpaceX launches).

The mission will deliver around 1,200 pounds of supplies to the ISS and, more importantly (as pointed out in this post), return more than 2,300 pounds of equipment and experiment samples to Earth.

SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft being prepared for launch at Cape Canaveral.

The seemingly small 1,200 pound payload is due to the fact that, like the first resupply mission, the majority of the cargo will be flown in the pressurized capsule section.  However, unlike the first mission, the unpressurized trunk will be used for the first time.  The trunk will be used to send a pair of "heat rejection subsystem grapple fixtures" - presumably too large to fit into the pressurized capsule.  But accessing the trunk requires new procedures - which will be a big objective of this mission - because the trunk is not accessible via Dragon's docking hatch.  Accessing the trunk requires the ISS's robotic arms: the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM also known as Dextre) and perhaps the the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS also known as the Canadarm - and is the same arm that grabs the Dragon to pull it into the ISS dock).
These systems are routinely used for remote manipulation, and accessing the Dragon's trunk should be no problem for these systems, but it is a major milestone and key to unlocking the Dragon's full lift capability.

For further reading, the most comprehensive article I've found on CRS-2 (aka, SpX-2) here at NASASpaceflight.com.

The Smithsonian has created a new exhibit at the Air and Space Museum named "Moving Beyond Earth".  This new exhibit is at the main museum location (on the National Mall).  Information, including many videos, is here at the exhibit's page.

SpaceX CRS-2 Mission is just weeks away.  Yes, its that time again.The launch of the second cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under SpaceX's CRS contract with NASA.  CRS-2 is scheduled for March 1st from Cape Canaveral.

On another note, SpaceX is still holding to their Falcon Heavy launch in 2013 forecast, and are still working on the new Merlin engine.  I found this article, which I though was a good backgrounder on some of the current work.  It has some videos from the early days of the company.  They're old but very good quality and still very informative.

Older Posts

This is my new blog, which will be dedicated to Space.  Primarily, Commercial Space and especially the news from commercial companies that are advancing human exploration and space tourism, such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, Bigelow Aerospace and others.  My original posts were mixed into a blog that contained everything I blogged about, and an index to them is below.

12/18/2012 SpaceX winning more commercial space launch business. Busy year ahead.

11/20/2012 SpaceX Grasshopper takes another hop

10/30/2012 SpaceX Dragon is home, safe and sound

10/23/2012 SpaceX COTS Demo 2/3 mission launched May 22nd also a memorial to "Mr. Scott" and others

10/12/2012 SpaceX's Secondary Payload, the Orbcomm satellite falls from orbit

10/11/2012 SpaceX Dragon completes first leg of mission

10/08/2012 SpaceX Dragon on it way to ISS

10/06/2012 SpaceX: All systems are "Go"