Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of Dragon Crew-5 - USCV-5
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 - Crew-5 - USCV-5
Written: October 4, 2022 - Edit: March 12, 2023
Five stars to the fifth Dragon
For the fifth time, SpaceX will launch four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in the Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket for the Commercial Crew Program. The rocket is set to lift off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A), Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA.
SpaceX’ crewed flights have ranged from commercial astronauts to private citizens. As of Crew-5, SpaceX will have launched eight missions with humans onboard. These include the five commercial crew program missions, Demonstration Mission-2, Inspiration 4, and Axiom 1 which all but one visited ISS. The total number of humans launched by SpaceX, upon successful completion of Crew-5, wil total 30 individuals.
After a 16 hour trip to the ISS, Endurance soft docked with the station at 21:01 UTC (17:01 EDT). The astronauts proceeded to perform leak checks in the docking mechanism and vestibule which was followed by hatch opening.
Falcon 9 took off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A), Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Wednesday on October 5, 2022 at 12:00:57 EDT - 16:00:57 UTC and hard docked to the ISS Harmony forward port IDA-2/PMA-2 about 29 hours later at 21:15 UTC.
Crew-5 is the fifth regular crew rotation mission to the ISS to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Crew Dragon Endurance C210-2 carried four astronauts to the station where they will stay for six months. Only a few days after the arrival of Crew-5, the Crew-4 astronauts currently aboard the ISS: Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti, will depart and return to Earth.
Crew-5 will join the MS-22 cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin, and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio, bringing the total crew members aboard to the station to 11 prior to departure of Crew-4.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft being used on this mission is Crew Dragon C210-2. This is the second flight of Endurance, and it will be the third time since DM-2 in May 2020 that SpaceX uses a new Falcon 9 rocket.
Since its maiden flight, Dragon 2 has flown 16 times; eight crewed and eight uncrewed.
Per current SpaceX plans, no more Crew Dragon will be built though Cargo Dragons will continue to be built. Endurance C210, Endeavour C206, Freedom C212, and Resilience C207 will be refurbished and reflown in turn as part of the Crew Dragon fleet.
Like the Space Shuttle before it, Crew Dragon 2 is reusable – the first reusable human capsule launch and reentry system in the world. Mercury, Gemini and Apollo were all built to be used one time and are now museum pieces on display.
The booster supporting the Crew-5 mission is B1077. As this is the booster’s first time to fly a mission, B1077 has been given the designation B1077-1.
After the final static fire test at 15:59 EDT on October 2, 2022 on Pad 39A and after the final check outs, the Falcon 9 rocket will be made ready for launch.
After liftoff, Falcon 9’s first stage will propel the astronauts for 2 minutes and 30 seconds to an altitude of around 75 km (~47 miles). After stage separation, Falcon 9’s second stage takes over for the second part of the flight.
Following the stage separation from 2nd stage and Endurance, the booster B1077-1 will conduct an atmosphere re-entry burn and a 35 second landing burn and will touch down on Just Read The Instruction positioned 546 km downrange on the Atlantic Ocean.
Approximately 6 minutes and 7 seconds after second stage engine ignition the second stage engine will shut down (SECO-1) and the astronauts will be in orbit.
Endurance is inserted into an initial 190 x 210 km orbit, after which a series of phasing and rendezvous burns will take place to bring the spacecraft Endurance to the Station for a hard docking on 17:15 EDT (21:15 UTC) on Thursday, October 6.
3 minutes and 19 seconds after SECO, Crew Dragon will separate from the second stage and open up its nose cone in order to expose the 4 forward facing Draco thrusters.
Once the Draco thrusters are exposed, Crew-5 Dragon will perform a number of phasing burns to align its orbit with the ISS’ one. After the phasing burns, Crew-5 Dragon will slowly approach the ISS and with the start of proximity operations it will enter the ISS’ Keep Out Sphere.
Last but not least, after around 8 hours and 30 minutes, C210-2 Endurance with Crew-5 will dock to the forward docking port. They should be called IDA-2 and IDA-3, since that is their built number. IDA-1 was lost during the CRS-7 inflight anomaly.
The Crew-5 Dragon Science Payload
Hundreds of experiments will be carried out by the Crew-5 astronauts on board the ISS, ranging from biomedical experiments to material science experiments to technology and artificial intelligence testing. This is a handful of the experiments that will be done during the Crew-5 mission.
A heart disease research study is one of several experiments that will be carried out by Crew-5 during their stay on board the International Space Station.
The only thing I didn’t find among the sources was a cargo manifest of, what I presume would be, crew supplies and science experiments in the fragile end.
The Dragon Crew-5
Crew-5 during dress rehearsal in the access arm to Crew Dragon. (Credit: SpaceX)
The Crew-5 is two NASA astronauts, one Cosmonaut and one JAXA astronaut:
NASA astronaut Commander Nicole Aunapu Mann, born on June 27, 1977 in the city of Penngrove, California. She graduated high school in 1995 from Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park, California.
After high school, Nicole Aunapu Mann attended the United States Naval Academy and earned a Bachelors of Science in mechanical engineering. After serving the US Marine Corps, commander Mann attended and received her Masters of Science in mechanical engineering, specializing in fluid mechanics from Stanford University.
Commander Mann is a Wailacki heritage; a Native American group that traditionally lives in regions of northwestern California. This heritage will make her the first Native American women to travel to space.She will also be the first female commander of a Commercial Crew Program mission.
Commander Mann was initially assigned to fly on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on the Boeing-CFT (Crewed Flight Test) mission, launched on a ULA Atlas V rocket, but was reassigned to Dragon after delays in Starliner testing and certification.
NASA astronaut Pilot Josh Cassada, born on July 18, 1973 in San Diego, California. He was raised in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
After high school, he attended Albion College where he received a Bachelors of Arts in Physics. Afterwards, Cassada went on to the University of Rochester to receive his Masters of Arts in Physics in 1997 and his Doctorate of Arts in Physics in 2000.
Cassada served in the US Navy as a test pilot and participated in 23 combat missions. His flying career started off with piloting the P-3 Orion and the VP-8. He supported notable missions such as Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
Cassada was initially assigned to fly on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on the Boeing-1 mission, launched on a ULA Atlas V rocket, but was reassigned to Dragon after delays in Starliner testing and certification.
ROSCOSMOS Cosmonaut Anna Kikina, born on August 27, 1984 in Novosibirsk, Russia.
Kikina graduated from Novosibirsk State Academy of Water Transportation Engineering. She was selected as part of the TsPK-16 Cosmonaut Group in 2012 and holds the occupation of Test Cosmonaut.
Currently, Kikina is the only woman cosmonaut active in ROSCOSMOS. Kikina will be the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on the Dragon spacecraft.
Kikina was initially assigned to fly on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft on the MS-22 mission, but was reassigned to Dragon.
JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, born on August 1, 1963 in Ōmiya, Saitama, Japan and after high school, spent most of his time at Kyushu University studying to earn three degrees.
Wakata first earned a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering in 1987, a Master of Science in Applied Mechanics in 1989, and a Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering in 2004. After this, he worked as a structural engineer for Japan Airlines.
No foe to space, Wakata has clocked over 11 months in space, making Crew-5 the mission to cross a cumulative year. Prior missions include three space shuttle missions: STS-72 retrieving a satellite, STS-92 with assembly of ISS and a long duration flight to ISS going up on STS-119 and returning to Earth with STS-127.
Wakata also took one flight on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft (TMA-11M). With this being his fourth trip to space, Wakata became the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station.
Wakata was initially assigned to fly on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on the Boeing-1 mission, launched on a ULA Atlas V rocket, but was reassigned to Dragon after delays in Starliner testing and certification.
This is his fifth trip into low earth orbit and fourth to the International Space Station.
Where to land the Dragon?
Seven hazard areas for landing Dragon C210-2 - Recovery Location LZ-4 Tampa has been chosen
An opportunity for Crew-5 to return to Earth has been determined. They are still in orbit on ISS and docked to IDA-2 now known as IDA-F airlock - F for Forward.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission now is targeting a return to Earth with undocking at 02:20 EST - 07:20 UTC on Saturday, March 11, 2023.
Crew-6 arrived in March 2023, with a fresh crew of four who will carry out a handover with Crew-5. Once this is complete, Endurance will undock and return to Earth with its astronauts after a 6-month stay aboard ISS.
The Crew-5 Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance, is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station at 02:20 EST - 07:20 UTC Saturday, March 11, to begin the 19 hour journey home. They were physically released 5 minutes early.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft will aim for a splashdown at one of seven targeted landing zones in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. Recovery is going to be in the splashdown zone 4 - Tampa - in the Gulf of Mexico at 21:02 EST - 02:02 UTC Saturday/Sunday, March 11/12.
Endurance will after the trunk is jettisoned perform its deorbit burn at 20:22:50 EST - 01:22:50 UTC and close the nose hatch cover. Then Endurance will reorient itself with its heat shield forward and enter the Earth's atmosphere.
Four minutes before splashdown, the drogue parachutes will deploy at about 18,000 feet in altitude while Crew Dragon is moving approximately 350 miles per hour, and less than a minute later, the main parachutes deploy at about 6,000 feet in altitude while the spacecraft is moving approximately 119 miles per hour.
For normal crew rescue and recovery operations, the NASA and SpaceX teams select two primary splashdown locations from the seven possible locations about two weeks prior to return, with additional decision milestones taking place prior to crew boarding the spacecraft, during free flight, and before Crew Dragon performs a deorbit burn.
NASA and SpaceX closely coordinate with the U.S. Coast Guard to establish a 10-nautical-mile safety zone around the expected splashdown location to ensure safety for the public and for those involved in the recovery operations, as well as the crew aboard the returning spacecraft.
The return will mark the end of the second crew rotation mission to the International Space Station of the Crew Dragon spacecraft developed in partnership between NASA and SpaceX as a part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
Teams on the Recovery Ship ‘Shannon’ including two fast boats, will be securing Crew-5 Dragon and ensuring the spacecraft is safe for the recovery effort. As the fast boat teams complete their work, the recovery ship will move into position to hoist Crew Dragon onto the main deck of the ship with the astronauts inside.
Once on the main deck, the crew will be taken out of the spacecraft and receive medical check ups before a helicopter ride to Tampa to board a plane for Houston. Endurance will also return important and time-sensitive research samples.
Recovery Ship ‘Shannon’ is named after NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, who flew on Crew 1, which was the first operational mission to ISS.
The discarded Dragon trunk from the Crew-5 mission, jettisoned on March 12, has now been cataloged in a 210 x 394 km x 51.3 deg orbit. 15 days later it reentered at 03:48 UTC March 27 (8:48 pm PDT Saturday evening) over the Vancouver/Calgary area.
The low apogee of 210 km in this orbit must have been the contributing factor in deorbiting the Dragon trunk section so fast. It is after all a BIG barrel or dustbin.
Timeline troubles
Due to lack of countdown clocks from NASA and SpaceX video feeds, which signal is assumed to be delayed an unknown number of seconds. Recorded times are therefore based on me watching it live and noting the number of seconds on certain events.
Splashdown was recorded at 03:02:31 UTC+1 on my computer clock. Signal delay from NASA and SpaceX was unknown. Only visual clue is a small countdown display on the Dragon control screen which I compared to the video timeline itself. This useful frame from that screen is inserted below this text.
Cropped frame from SpaceX webcast: Countdown shows T-40:10 at 25:04 videotime. T=0 will be reached at 1:05:14 and is presumed to be 21:02:00 EST - 02:02:00 UTC splashdown time
The number over Europe is presumed to be the current speed of 7.17 kilometers/hour. The next two numbers could be the current altitude and orbit apogee of 411 kilometers above Earth. The fourth number wasn’t the current speed of 29.3 mph - miles per hour. Maybe it’s the predicted perigee of 29.3 kilometers after the deorbit burn.
The last number in the top row seems to be the latitude of 51.29o south indicated by the dot on the map between Australia and New Zealand.
Cropped frame from SpaceX webcast: Splashdown time was shown at 1:05:12 videotime. That is two seconds earlier than predicted pending no known signal lag in the SpaceX webcast
Splashdown time was calculated to occur at 21:01:58 EST - 02:01:58 UTC.
Signal delay was 33 seconds. All times regarding splashdown time are now corrected.
On a personal note:
Viewers need to have a countdown clock or a studio clock to act as a public recording device in these soon to be historic documentaries on humanities space endeavors and explorations. A higher resolution on the Dragon cockpit camera’s is also needed in my humble opinion.
No comments:
Post a Comment