NASA, SpaceX and its worldwide companions meet on the Kennedy House Heart on Monday and gave the go forward for the launch of the seventh operational Crew Dragon mission to the house station.
The three astronauts and one cosmonaut of the Crew 7 mission are set to launch aboard Crew Dragon Endurance on Friday, Aug. 25 at 3:49 a.m. EDT (0749 UTC) from Launch Advanced 39A at NASA’s Kennedy House Heart.
A launch Friday units up a docking with the ISS at 2:02 a.m. EDT (0602 UTC) on Saturday, Aug. 26. In the meantime, the four-member Crew 6 group, which has been aboard the orbiting outpost since March, are getting ready to return to Earth following a multi-day handover to assist get Crew 7 acclimated.
Late Sunday, SpaceX groups rolled the rocket out to the launch pad and introduced it to its vertical place Monday afternoon forward of what’s referred to as a dry costume rehearsal the place the crew and launch groups will undergo the motions of pre-flight operations. The astronauts will board Dragon early Tuesday morning because the countdown ticks right down to a simulated T-0 at 3:49 a.m. EDT (0749 UTC).
Following that, Steve Stich, NASA’s Business Crew Program supervisor, stated groups will absolutely gasoline the Falcon 9 rocket and conduct a six-second static fireplace take a look at of the 9 Merlin engines.
“We’ll take a look at the rocket one final time to ensure the engines carry out nicely after which we’ll step again and evaluate that information collectively with SpaceX,” Stich stated.
Amid the FRR had been a few particular subjects that NASA and SpaceX needed to deal with and are available to an settlement that they’re prepared to maneuver ahead.
A type of involved what Stich described as “low-flow propellant isolation valves” that noticed some corrosion following SpaceX’s twenty eighth cargo mission to the house station, Business Resupply Providers 28 (CRS-28).
From left to proper: Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. Picture: SpaceX
He stated the groups pulled out the valves of concern from Cargo Dragon C208 to additional examine and higher perceive the basis reason behind the corrosion. They then swapped out some valves on the Crew Dragon Endurance that may fly the Crew-7 mission.
“The corrosion is attributable to oxidizer vapors mixing with a bit of little bit of moisture,” Stich defined throughout a media teleconference on Monday. “The supplies are corrosion resistant, however if you happen to get sufficient vapor from the oxidizer together with water, you possibly can type a bit of little bit of acid and get some corrosion.”
Stich stated groups with NASA and SpaceX spent the final month trying on the situation. He stated SpaceX did testing at a number of websites throughout the nation and NASA did some work at Marshall House Flight Heart in Huntsville, Alabama.
The opposite situation of observe that got here up throughout the FRR involved the drogue parachutes used throughout the return sequence of a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Stich famous that throughout the return of the Crew-5 astronauts, the newest Dragon splashdown process, one of many drogues “took nearly 5 seconds to totally inflate after the primary drogue parachute absolutely inflated.”
When a Dragon spacecraft is returning to Earth in a traditional process, two drogue parachutes will deploy previous to the deployment of the 4 predominant chutes.
The drogues had been examined in modeling of each regular and abort situations and cleared the parachutes to be used throughout launch of the Crew-7 mission. Stich stated NASA and SpaceX periodically use Cargo Dragon missions to check new upgrades that may probably profit crewed missions.
One such instance is what’s referred to as an “power modulator,” which Stich described as a “shock absorbing strap.”
“As we pull out the primary luggage from the drogue parachutes throughout that deployment sequence, we’re flying some ties on that to maintain the straps in tact and never contact different components of the system throughout deployment,” Stich stated. “So, we flew these on a cargo flight first, nicely truly on a number of cargo flights. Now, we’re flying it on the crew flight for the primary time, on Crew-7.”
“Keep hungry… Keep paranoid.”
As SpaceX prepares to launch its eleventh mission with people on board, the corporate is as soon as once more pushing for one more file 12 months of spaceflight.
Whereas groups at LC-39A had been gearing up for the dry costume rehearsal for the Crew-7 mission, two Starlink missions had been concurrently in preparation as nicely.
The group in California is monitoring a 12:45 a.m. PDT (3:45 a.m. EDT, 0745 UTC) launch of the Starlink Group 7-1 mission, sending up a batch of 21 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg House Power Base (VSFB).
And because the Falcon 9 was getting ready to be raised vertically for the crew mission, a floor transport carrying Starlink satellites inside payload fairings cruised by on its strategy to House Launch Advanced 40 at Cape Canaveral House Power Station (CCSFS).
That is in assist of the Starlink Group 6-11 mission set to launch as quickly as Tuesday night time.
A payload fairing containing a batch of Starlink satellites photobombs the horizontal Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 on pad 39A as it’s transported to pad 40 for an upcoming launch. Watch reside views from the Cape: pic.twitter.com/Qtkf5Nq4xY
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) August 21, 2023
Invoice Gerstenmaier, the vp of Construct and Flight Reliability at SpaceX, stated they’ve a number of assist groups to work these missions so that they they’re not over-stressing or over-working their folks.
Up to now in 2023, SpaceX launched 53 Falcon 9 rockets, three Falcon Heavy rockets and one take a look at flight of the total Starship stack.
Gerstenmaier stated flying 51 buyer flights on Falcon 9 in 2023 assist present vital context and information on the subject of sending folks to house.
“After we fly Starlink missions, we are going to usually fly a better thrust profile, truly run pumps at increased turbine speeds and that truly lets us see how the engines actually carry out. Then we go fly a crew mission,” he stated. “We fly that crew mission and scale back ranges with extra margin obtainable for the {hardware}. So, I believe that provides us one other good thing about getting an opportunity to see this {hardware} function in a extra tense setting.”
He stated discovering that candy spot permits them to know extra concerning the skills of the Falcon 9 rocket as their flight cadence continues to extend.
“My phrases are ‘keep hungry.’ The corporate’s phrases are ‘keep paranoid.’ I like ‘hungry’ higher than ‘paranoid,’ however the thought is that you simply simply gotta maintain trying and if you discover some small downside, you gotta actually perceive what it’s attempting to let you know as a result of later, when the large downside occurs, you’ll see the breadcrumbs that lead all the way in which again to that little downside,” Gerstenmaier stated.
“The key is to search out these little issues, broaden on these after which assist your self to fly safer sooner or later.”
