SpaceX Falcon 9 V1.0 - CRS-1 / ORBCOMM OG2 - Launching October 7/8, 2012
Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of CRS-1 / ORBCOMM OG2
Mission Rundown:
SpaceX Falcon 9 V1.0 - CRS-1 / ORBCOMM OG2
Written: February 6, 2021
Winning one. Losing one?
SpaceX CRS-1, also known as SpX-1, was the third flight for Space Exploration Technologies Corporation's (SpaceX) uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, the fourth overall flight for the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and the first SpaceX operational mission under their Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.
The launch occurred on 8 October 2012 at 00:34:07 UTC and successfully placed the Dragon spacecraft into the proper orbit for arriving at the International Space Station with cargo resupply several days later.
During the launch, one of the nine engines suffered a sudden loss of pressure 79 seconds into the flight, and an immediate early shutdown of that engine occurred; debris could be seen in the telescopic video of the night launch.
Picture of the engine block where corner engine 1 failed
The remaining eight engines fired for a longer period of time and the flight control software adjusted the trajectory to insert Dragon into a near-flawless orbit.
The mission plan, as published by NASA before the mission, called for the Falcon 9 to reach supersonic speed at 70 seconds after liftoff, and pass through the area of maximum aerodynamic pressure, "max Q" — the point when mechanical stress on the rocket peaks due to a combination of the rocket's velocity and resistance created by the Earth's atmosphere — 10 seconds later.
The flight plan called for two of the first-stage engines to shut down to reduce the rocket's acceleration at approximately 2 minutes 30 seconds into the flight when the Falcon 9 would nominally be 90 kilometers (56 mi) high and traveling at 10 times the speed of sound. The remaining engines were planned to cut off shortly after — an event known as main-engine cutoff (MECO).
Five seconds after MECO, the first and second stages separate. Seven seconds later, the second stage's single Merlin vacuum engine was projected to ignite to begin a 6-minute, 14-second burn to put Dragon into low-Earth orbit. Forty seconds after second stage ignition, Dragon's protective nose cone was jettisoned by injecting nitrogen gas into the void under it. The nose cone covers the Dragon's berthing mechanism.
At the 9-minute, 14-second mark after launch, the second-stage engine was scheduled to be cut off (SECO). Thirty-five seconds later, Dragon was planned to separate from Falcon 9's second stage and reach its preliminary orbit. The dragon would, per plan, then deploy its solar arrays and open its guidance and navigation control (GNC) bay door which holds the sensors necessary for enabling the rendezvous with ISS and also exposes the Dragon's grapple fixture.
NASA kept an eye on the Falcon 9 CRS-1 launch by sending a Martin WB-57 observation plane as flight/plane NASA928 from Ellington Field, Houston Texas to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The objective was to film ascent and descent of the first stage in infrared colors in order to plan future descent profiles in the thin Martian atmosphere.
Martin WB-57 NASA928 keept an eye on the weather anyway while they are there.
Radar image of NASA’s WB-57 loitering southwest of SLC-40 prior to the CRS-1 launch.
The Dragon Payload
When launched the CRS-1 Dragon was filled with about 905 kilograms (1,995 lb) of cargo, 400 kilograms (880 lb) without packaging. Included was 118 kilograms (260 lb) of crew supplies, 117 kilograms (258 lb) of critical materials to support the 166 experiments on board the station and 66 new experiments, as well as 105.2 kilograms (232 lb) of hardware for the station as well as other miscellaneous items.
The Dragon returned 905 kilograms (1,995 lb) of cargo, 759 kilograms (1,673 lb) without packaging. Included was 74 kilograms (163 lb) of crew supplies, 393 kilograms (866 lb) of scientific experiments and experiment hardware, 235 kilograms (518 lb) of space station hardware, 33 kilograms (73 lb) of spacesuit equipment and 25 kilograms (55 lb) of miscellaneous items.
The landing was controlled 40 minutes before splash down by automatic firing of its six Draco thrusters for 10 minutes before the atmospheric reentry. In a carefully timed sequence of events, dual drogue parachutes deploy at an altitude of 13,700 meters (44,900 ft) to stabilize and slow the spacecraft.
The full deployment of the drogues triggers the release of the three main parachutes, each 35 meters (115 ft) in diameter, at about 3,000 meters (9,800 ft). While the drogues detach from the spacecraft, the main parachutes further slow the spacecraft's descent to approximately 4.8 to 5.4 meters per second (16 to 18 ft/s). Even if Dragon were to lose one of its main parachutes, the two remaining chutes would still permit a safe landing.
The Dragon capsule is expected to land in the Pacific Ocean, about 450 kilometers (280 mi) off the coast of southern California. SpaceX uses a 30 meters (98 ft) boat equipped with an A-frame and an articulating crane, a 27.3 meters (90 ft) crew boat for telemetry operations, and two 7.3 meters (24 ft) rigid-hull inflatable boats to perform recovery operations. Onboard are approximately a dozen SpaceX engineers and technicians as well as a four-person dive team. Once the Dragon capsule splashed down, the recovery team secured the vehicle and then placed it on deck for the journey back to shore.
SpaceX technicians opened the side hatch of the vehicle and retrieved the time-critical items. The critical cargo items were placed on a fast-boat for the 450 kilometers (280 miles) trip back to California for eventual return to NASA laboratories, who then took care of the precious science cargo and handled the post-flight analysis of the samples. The rest of the cargo was unloaded once the Dragon capsule reached SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas.
The secondary lost Payload
For some months prior to the launch, a 150 kg (330 lb) prototype second-generation Orbcomm satellite was planned to be launched as a secondary payload from Falcon 9's second stage after Dragon deployed, it would use the remaining propellant in the second stage to transfer itself to a higher orbit and then to circulice the orbit.
The primary payload contractor, NASA, requires a greater-than-99% estimated probability that the stage of any secondary payload on a similar orbital inclination to the International Space Station will reach their orbital altitude goal above the station.
Due to the engine failure, the Falcon 9 second stage used more propellant than intended, it needed to reignite the second stage twice, thus reducing the success probability estimate to approximately 95%. Because of this, the second stage did not attempt its second burn, and Orbcomm-G2 was left in an unusable orbit and burned up in Earth's atmosphere within 4 days after the launch.
There should have been a contingency plan involving giving ORBCOMM-OG2 a lift to ISS, where it would have been parked until a kick stage engine could be brought up on the next Falcon 9 launch, but nobody had a plan, the gear to do it or the faintest idea, that it would be reality.
It would require a way to shift the ORBCOMM-OG2 from the Payload Adaptor Fitting to the empty Dragon Trunk, and a way to secure the ORBCOMM-OG2 to it, which wasn’t there. A spacewalk would be necessary to move the ORBCOMM-OG2 from the trunk to a holding station on ISS, so that wasn’t there either, and the onboard lithium batteries on ORBCOMM OG2 wouldn’t have lasted that long.
It has later come to my attention that the ORBCOMM-OG2 satellite vehicle was attached to the top of the 2nd stage PAF hidden under the trunk of the Dragon space vehicle. It should have been attached to the trunk to be deployed after departure from ISS. Of all places, that was the least practical place to put it.
It was doomed to follow the 2nd stage current trajectory, which orbit already was too low. ORBCOMM-OG2 didn’t stand a chance being there.
All in all a mute exercise to save a satellite. It does give a possibility to launch a number of kickstages into orbit, who then can be commissioned to track down derelict, spent and malfunctioned satellites, who need to be either rescued, retrieved or deorbited faster than the earth can do on its own. Sooner or later it will be necessary.
The launch countdown and flight plan
This is the long countdown with the most important events in a Falcon 9 launch. And it’s followed by the flight timeline that is specific for Dragon docking to the ISS.
The faster CRS-1 and ISS racing each other some 18 hours after launch by the looks of it
The Dragon flight schedule above is very complicated, basically it boils down to a shift in orbit altitudes from lower faster orbits to higher and slower orbits. ISS flies in a fixed orbit and Dragon plays catch up by closing in through the use of lower orbits, and if they get ahead the Dragon shifts to a higher slower orbit.
That is seen as the 400 meter loop over and under the ISS prior to parking in front the ISS docking port and from there closing in step by step. The most important thing is to avoid blasting the large Solar Panels with the Dragons maneuver thrusters. So small puffs please. No huffing and puffing, or I’ll blow your house down.
Launching on the second is all about being right under ISS orbit for easier fuel efficient access to ISS. All you need to do is raise your orbit to match ISS’s orbit and then to slip closer and closer until capture is possible by the ISS canadarm grappling hook.
“Easy peasy Japanesey'' :Brooks Hanlon in Shawshank Redemption
