SpaceX Falcon 9 - DM-1

 SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - Crew Dragon DM-1 - Launching March 2, 2019

Screenshot of Tim Dodd’s webcast - DM-1 in the dark night prior to launch - Time critical payloads can be packed in Crew Dragons Cryo freezers prior to Crew Arm retraction - Time to stowaway

Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 - Crew Dragon DM-1

Written: January 04, 2021

Lift Off Time	March 2, 2019 - 07:49:03 UTC - 02:49:03 EST
Mission Name	Demonstration Mission 1 - DM-1
Launch Provider	SpaceX
Customer	NASA - Commercial Crew Program
Rocket	Falcon 9 Block 5 serial number B1051-1
Launch Location	Historic Launch Complex 39A -  LC-39A Kennedy Space Center - Cape Canaveral, Florida
Payload	Crew Dragon serial number C204
Dragon mass + Payload	12 055 kg ~ 26 577 lb total + 204 kg ~ 449,7 lb
Where is Dragon 2 going?	C204 will autonomous rendezvous and dock with ISS Initial orbit - 231 km x 377 km x 51.64° inclination
Will they attempt to recover the first stage?	Yes - OCISLY has been towed North by Northwest
Where will the first stage land?	On the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship - OCISLY some 492 km ~ 306 miles downrange
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings?	No - Crew Dragon 2 is a independent spacecraft therefore not enclosed in any fairing panels like Cargo Dragon 1
This will be the:	– 69th flight of all Falcon 9 rockets – 13th flight of Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket – 7th maiden flight of a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket – 1st flight of a Crew Dragon type 2 - C204 – 16th SpaceX launch from LC-39A – 35th landing of a Falcon 9 booster – 3rd mission for SpaceX in 2019
Where to watch Where to read more in depth	SpaceX link plus all other events Other DM-1 live Tim Dodd mar 2, 2019

Launch debriefing (This is what happend) I’m at a loss about the exact height of DM-1. The Dragon capsule and trunk stand 8,1 meters (27 feet) of the rocket. With a 34,4 foot fairing it’s 70 meter (229 feet). The exact measurement of a Falcon 9 Block 5 with a Dragon 2 on it isn't known exactly. Right now the math says 229 feet - 34,4 feet + 27 feet = 221,6 feet or 67,54 meter but between them, is the damn neck ring… Arrrgh… How tall is that darn neck ring? Are there two rings? My precious  Whereth art thou…

T-00:45:18 T-00:45:16 T-00:44:17 - - - - T 00:00:00 T+00:01:03 T+00:02:38 T+00:02:47 T+00:07:49 T+00:09:06 T+00:09:56 T+00:11:05 - - - - T+27:01:57 143:42:57 149:55:57

Post Launch Run Down from 0:00 Tim Dodd on site SpaceX live with NASA from 0:02 Gangway arm retracted at 1:00 Greetings and explanation at 2:55 to 4:22 Q&A from 09:58 mixed with SpaceX live feed Mission partial rundown at 29:24 Explanation about the mission and Q&A Liftoff at 45:19 - 07:49:03 UTC - March 2, 2019 MaxQ at 46:22 (2-3 sec delay on downlink camera) MECO 42:57, stage separation 47:59 SES-1 at 48:06 Entry burn 53:08 by 3 Merlin 1D# for 32 seconds SECO at 54:25 and coasting Landing at 55:16 by 1 Merlin 1D# for 23 sec burn? Crew Dragon C204 deployment at 56:24 Q&A with info, explanations from 57:52 Launch day offer on merchandise at 1:14:29 Q&A and rap up from 1:15:18 Other events during the DM-1 mission were: Berthed with ISS Harmony Nadir at 10:51:xx UTC Un-berthed 5 days later at Mar. 8 - 07:32:xx UTC Splashdown near the Cape LZ 5 at 13:45:xx UTC

Spaceflight SSO-A	CRS-16	GPS III SV01	Iridium-8 Next	Nusantara Satu Beresheet
DM-1	FH-2 Arabsat-6A	CRS-17	Starlink V0.9 L0	RADARSAT

A small leap of faith for unmanned flight

SpX-DM1 is an uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft finally happened on March 2, 2019, from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This will be the first uncrewed test flight of the Commercial Crew Program and will provide data on the performance of the Falcon-9 rocket, Crew Dragon spacecraft, and ground systems, as well as on-orbit, docking and landing operations. The flight test also will provide valuable data toward NASA certifying SpaceX's crew transportation system for carrying astronauts to and from the space station.

For the first time in history, a commercially-built and operated American crew spacecraft and rocket, which launched from American soil, is on its way to the International Space Station. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off at 02:49:03 EST - 07:49:03 UTC Saturday on a brand new Falcon 9 rocket B1051-1 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Following a successful DM-1 mission, SpaceX will later conduct a second uncrewed IFA - In-flight Abort Test. This will validate Crew Dragon’s ability to pull crew away to safety in the event of a failure during launch. And we will have manned spaceflight from US soil again since the decommission of the Space Shuttle Programme.

The Dragon Payload

At 2:49:03 a.m. EST on March 2, SpaceX launched Crew Dragon’s first demonstration mission from Launch Complex 39A - LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The intent of this test flight without crew on board the spacecraft was to demonstrate SpaceX’s capabilities to safely and reliably fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

DM-1 Crew Dragon docked with the ISS on March 3 at 01:51 PST, becoming the first American spacecraft to autonomously dock with the orbiting laboratory. The spacecraft undocked from the ISS at 23:32 PST on March 7 and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean at 05:45 PST on March 8.

PST is Pacific Standard Time properly because of SpaceX headquarter in Hawthorne California. Most global oriented people use UTC Universal Time Coordinated, which used to be GMT Greenwich Meridian Time aka. London Time in olden times. Military forces use the same time, but call it Zulu instead of UTC.

Anyway the launch time is 07:49:03 UTC, because the launch is instantaneous, if you want to catch the ISS on the flyby. Watch this from Scott Manley, and pay attention to the Soyuz rocket launch seen from ISS. This is why you launch on the second with orbital speeds of 7,4 m/s and Earth's rotation also in the equation.

This is the actual Mission Timeline, I also found one on Crew Dragon’s DM-2 page, which I believe is helpful to understand just some of the things that must happen before Lift Off.

Launch Countdown	Clock:	Major Events Prior to Launch
(This is what happend)	T-00:45:00	SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for propellant load
07:07:03 UTC	T-00:42:00	Crew access arm retracts
	T-00:37:00	Dragon launch escape system is armed
	T-00:35:00	RP-1 loading begins
	T-00:35:00	1st stage LOX loading begins
	T-00:16:00	2nd stage LOX loading begins
	T-00:07:00	Falcon 9 begins engine chill prior to launch
	T-00:05:00	Dragon transitions to internal power
	T-00:01:00	Command flight computer to begin final prelaunch checks
	T-00:01:00	Propellant tank pressurization to flight pressure begins
	T-00:00:45	SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for launch
	T-00:00:03	Engine controller commands engine ignition sequence start
07:49:03 UTC	T 00:00:00	Falcon 9 Liftoff

After Lift Off, the following launch events happened.

Mission Count	Clock:	Major Events After Lift Off
(This is what happend)	T 00:00:00	Falcon 9 Liftoff
	T+00:00:58	Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket)
	T+00:02:30	1st stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
	T+00:02:34	1st and 2nd stages separate
	T+00:02:36	2nd stage engine starts SES-1
	T+00:07:12	1st stage entry burn of 33 seconds
	T+00:08:43	2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-1)
	T+00:08:45	1st stage landing burn of 20 seconds
	T+00:09:09	1st stage landing on Of Course I Still Love You
	T+00:10:02	Crew Dragon separates from 2nd stage
08:01:51 UTC	T+00:12:48	Dragon nose cone opening sequences begins

Sorry. No Screenshot from DM-1 available. Just this from January 2020 by Geoff Barrett.

And during the next few days these events happened.

Mission Highlight	Hr:Min:Sec	Major Events in Orbit after Insertion
10:51:00 UTC	T+27:01:57	Soft Docking with the ISS at the Harmony Module
11:02:00 UTC	T+27:12:57	Hard Docking with the Harmony Module forward Airlock
07:32:00 UTC	143:32:57	Departing ISS after almost 5 Days of Testing
13:45:08 UTC	149:56:05	Dragon Splashdown 320 km East of Florida

This Crew Dragon rendering is missing its concave heat shield. Crew Dragon is 16 feet tall, the trunk is 12 feet tall. Together they stack 27 feet, and there is an unknown neck ring between the 2nd stage and the bottom of the Trunk. This intermediary Payload Adapter Fitting ring is of unknown height; it seems to be ¼ trunk height, so about 3 feet.

It's been very difficult to find accurate measurements on Falcon 9 and all Dragon types.

Evolution of the capsule

Crew Dragon has undergone many changes since its ostentatious unveiling in 2014. When SpaceX founder and chief engineer, Elon Musk, presented the futuristic spacecraft, it was capable of seating seven astronauts and would land propulsively. However, the complexity of propulsively landing a capsule, and its entailing safety concerns, resulted in certification difficulties, and ultimately, SpaceX pulled the plug on the idea.

Since then, numerous changes have been made. Most notably, due to concerns regarding the g-forces crew might experience, the angle of the seats was changed. As a result of which, the three bottom seats of the original seven-seat configuration were removed, leaving a row of four and more room for supplies below them.

There were plans to use Crew Dragon as a Mars Landing Vehicle, and as a manned laboratory maybe visiting a commercial space station for space tourism or privately funded science missions. I can envision a mission to the Hubble Telescope with a set of spare instruments, batteries and gyroscopes in a Trunk section that also have an airlock, the Crew Dragon can dock with, and a small Canadarm to grab Hubble with.

There were extended trunk sections planned for the previous Cargo Dragon with an extra 10 cubic meters of space in addition to the normal 14 cubic meters of cargo space. Such space could be configured as an airlock from where astronauts could go space walking to, for instance, the Hubble Telescope or derelict commercial satellites in need of repairs.

There is the potential of repeating the Apollo programme with two Falcon 9 launches. One with a Crew Dragon and a service module as the trunk and the other with a lunar lander on a trunk equipped with landing legs, a lunar rover and a lot of supplies for an extended stay on the Moon’s surface. Well. An unmanned Lunar Lander could land a Lunar Telescope or any number of other scientific instruments on the Moon all alone.

Like they say in “The Right Stuff” movie: “No Bucks. No Buck Rogers.” 

This will be SpaceX’s last flight in its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract, making it an FAA licensed test flight. The last time this happened was in July 2011 on the final Space Shuttle mission, STS-135.

After this, NASA contracted two private-sector companies – SpaceX and Boeing – to develop next-generation spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the ISS. You can learn more about the Commercial Crew Program on NASA’s website.

For an in-depth comparison of both SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner CCP spacecraft, check out Everyday Astronaut’s video. Furthermore, if you want to learn more about launch abort systems and why SpaceX and Boeing have ditched abort towers, Everyday Astronaut also has a video covering the topic.

SpaceX and Boeing have two very different strategies towards manned spaceflight and by now SpaceX is way ahead of Boeing, who are traditionally working with taking one step at the time, development, implementation and boardroom decision on how to proceed. It’s like growing a giant petrified tree one ring at the time.

SpaceX is more like a fast growing Bamboo, where a lot of ideas are being developed, implemented and a running boardroom deciding on what works, what doesn't work, and what could work. Propulsive landing doesn't work, but we need an abort system, so let's shift direction to that. Here’s a project, some money and show us what you got later.

This fluent vibrant environment is conducive to creating just about anything.

Author Alex Crouch

Coauthor/Text Retriever Johnny Nielsen link to launch list - Edit: August 29, 2022