SpaceX Falcon 9 V1.1 - CRS-4 - Launching September 21, 2014
Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of CRS-4
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 V1.1 - CRS-4
Written: February 3, 2021
What can Merlin 1D engines really do?
After four successful missions to the International Space Station, including three official resupply missions for NASA, SpaceX is set to launch its next official Commercial Resupply (CRS-4) mission to the orbiting lab.
The SpaceX CRS-4 mission was bumped a day to Sunday, September 21, 2014 targeting a launch at 05:52 UTC from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Dragon C106-1 will arrive at the station on Tuesday, September 23 for a four week visit.
Dragon C106-1 is scheduled to return to Earth in mid-October for a parachute assisted splashdown off the coast of southern California.
The Dragon Payload
SpaceX CRS-4, also known as SpX-4, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station, contracted to NASA, which was launched on 21 September 2014 and arrived at the space station on 23 September 2014.
It was the sixth flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, and the fourth SpaceX operational mission contracted to NASA under a Commercial Resupply Services contract.
The CRS-4 mission carried the 3D Printing in Zero-G Experiment to the ISS, as well as a small satellite as a secondary payload that will be deployed from the ISS: SPINSAT. It also brought 20 mice for long-term physiological research in space.
NASA contracted for the CRS-4 mission and therefore determined the primary payload, date/time of launch, and target orbital parameters. The CRS-4 lifted off on 21 September 2014 with a payload consisting of 4,885 lb (2,216 kg) of cargo, including 1,380 lb (630 kg) of crew supplies.
The cargo included the ISS-RapidScat, a Scatterometer designed to support weather forecasting by bouncing microwaves off the ocean's surface to measure wind speed, which was launched as an external payload to be attached to the end of the station's Columbus laboratory. CRS-4 also includes the Space Station Integrated Kinetic Launcher for Orbital Payload Systems (SSIKLOPS), which will provide still another means to release other small satellites from the ISS.
In addition, CRS-4 carried a new permanent life science research facility to the station: the Bone Densitometer (BD) payload, developed by Techshot, which provides a bone density scanning capability on ISS for utilization by NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS). The system measures bone mineral density (and lean and fat tissue) in mice using Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA). The Rodent Research Hardware System was also carried to the ISS as part of the payload.
SpaceX has primary control over manifesting, scheduling and loading secondary payloads. However, there are certain restrictions included in their contract with NASA that preclude specified hazards on the secondary payloads, and also require contract specified probabilities of success and safety margins for any SpaceX reboosts of the secondary satellites once the Falcon 9 second stage has achieved its initial low-Earth orbit (LEO).
Upon completion of its stay, Dragon was loaded with 1,486 kg (3.276 lb) of outgoing cargo, returning it back to Earth. From a NASA pdf file.
The reentry test of booster B1010
The Falcon 9 first stage for the CRS-4 mission re-entered the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast of the United States. Its re-entry burn was captured on video by a NASA WB-57 aircraft as part of research into high-speed Mars reentry in thin atmospheric conditions.
Okay. What happens when you fly engines first into the atmosphere?
Your mission, should you chose to take it, is to fly a suicide mission with 3 engines blazing while you register speed, temperature, lack of control and what else, that happens before you lose flight control and contact with mission control. Then repeat the same mission using just one engine. Oh. Here's a lifebelt. Can you swim?
In November 2015, a panel from this first stage was found floating off the Isles of Scilly in the southwest United Kingdom. Although much of the media suggested the part came from the later CRS-7 launch which exploded, SpaceX confirmed it came from CRS-4.
Meanwhile out on the Mexican Gulf, JRTI is thinking: Why don’t they call me in?
