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

SpaceX Falcon 9 - Nusantara Satu

  SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - Nusantara Satu - Launching February 21/22, 2019

Photo: Screenshot from Tim Dodd: SpaceX Falcon 9 with NUSANTARA SATU (PSN IV)

Mission Rundown: SpaceX - Nusantara SATU (PSN IV)

Written: January 9, 2021

Lift Off Time	February 22, 2019 - 01:45 UTC February 21, 2019 - 20:45 EST
Mission Names	NUSANTARA SATU (PSN VI) Beresheet, Lunar Lander & S5 - Spaceflight GTO-1
Launch Provider	SpaceX
Customers	Indonesia’s PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara Spaceflight Inc. SpaceIL US Air Force Research Laboratory
Rocket	Falcon 9 Block 5 serial number B1048-3
Launch Location	Space Launch Complex 40 - SLC-40 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Payloads	Nusantara Satu PSN VI - Telecommunication Satellite Beresheet - Lunar Orbiter with a Lunar Lander S5 - US Air Force Research Laboratory Minisatellite
Payload mass	PSN VI - 4 735 kg or 10 439 pounds Beresheet - 585 kg or 1 290 pounds S5 - 60 kg or 132  pounds 5 380 kg or 11 861 pounds total mass
Where are the satellites going?	Super Synchronous GTO - 260 km - 69 036 km at 27.55° Deployment of Beresheet: Moon Orbiter and Lander PSN VI + S5: Geostationary Orbit at 35 800 km
Will they be attempting to recover the first stage?	Yes - OCISLY are being towed due east
Where will the first stage land?	Of Course I Still Love You is located 674 km downrange (Coordinates N 28 19 22 W 73 55 47)
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings?	No - Mr. Steven is returning to port with a problem on two mast holding the net used to catch fairings
Are these fairings new? Fairing types described in last chapter	Yes - Type 2.2 boat hull sized fairings - 34 x 17 feet with 8 evenly spaced ventilation ports in a circle
This will be the: Until this launch there has been 6 maiden flights of Falcon 9 Block 5 rockets which today gives 6 reflown Block 5 boosters. 14 boosters flew twice before Block 5 boosters took the lead as the main launch vehicle. FH 1 side boosters both flew on a mission before being rebuilt.	– 68th flight of all Falcon 9 rockets – 20th re-flight of all Falcon 9 boosters – 12th flight of  Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket – 6th re-flight of  Falcon 9 Block 5 booster – 1st east coast attempt to catch a fairing half “Scrubbed” – 40th SpaceX launch from SLC-40 – 34th booster landing – 2nd mission for SpaceX in 2019
Where to watch Where to read more in depth	SpaceX link - Lunar lander failure - Beresheet link Tim Dodd on NUSANTARA SATU February 22, 2019

Launch debriefing (This is what happend)

- T-00:11:27 Hosts: T 00:00:00 T+00:01:22 T+00:02:40 T+00:02:49 T+00:03:40 T+00:06:26 T+00:08:08 T+00:08:11 - T+00:26:38 T+00:27:05 - - T+00:32:02 - T+00:44:40 - -

Pre Launch Run Down from 0:01 then Q&A SpaceX live feed at 18:06 Kate Tice and Jessica Anderson watching the moon rise Liftoff at 29:40 MaxQ at 31:02 MECO 32:19, stage separation 32:21 SES-1 at 32:28 Faring separation at 33:19 Entry burn 36:06 by 3 Merlin 1D# for 19 seconds Landing burn 37:48 by 1 Merlin 1D# for 24 seconds SECO at 37:51 and coasting Q&A with explanations until 56:10 SpaceX resumes live feed at 56:12 SES-2 - SECO-2 in 65 seconds gave a velocity boost from 26 550 km/h to 35 423 km/h at 56:39 Q&A with tweeting until 1:02:59 SpaceX doesn’t shows deployment at 1:03:25 Q&A, explanations and replay until 1:13:15 SpaceX shows deployment at 1:14:16 Q&A with tweeting and explanations from 1:15:06 Rap up from Tim Dodd at 2:04:06

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

Let’s go to the Moon because we want to

SpaceX will be launching the Nusantara Satu telecommunication satellite aka. PSN IV for Indonesia’s telecommunication company PT Pasifik Satelit. The Space System Loral built satellite Nusantara will ride a Falcon 9 to Geostationary Orbit (GEO).

Nusantara Satu is equipped with 26 C-Band, 12 Extended C-Band and 8 Ku-Band spot beam transponders. The satellite will be located at an orbital location 146 east and provide voice, data and video service to the Indonesian archipelago.

SpaceX is targeting Thursday, February 21 for launch of the Nusantara Satu satellite from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

The 32-minute launch window opens at 20:45 EST, or 1:45 UTC on February 22. Falcon 9 will also deliver the Beresheet lunar spacecraft and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) S5 spacecraft to orbit.

Deployments will occur at approximately 33 and 44 minutes after liftoff.

Falcon 9’s first stage for the Nusantara Satu mission previously supported the Iridium-7 mission in July 2018 and the SAOCOM 1A mission in October 2018.

Iridium-7 NEXT	July 25, 2018	Nusantara Satu	February 21/22, 2019
SAOCOM-1A	October 7, 2018

Following stage separation, SpaceX will attempt to land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Payloads

Nurantara Satu getting ready to be tested by NASA. (Credit:)

The primary payload on this Falcon 9 launch was Nusantara Satu, a high-throughput communications satellite that will be operated by Indonesia’s PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN). However, much attention in the build up to this launch has been paid to the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft that is piggy-backing on the Falcon 9 launch.

Previously known as PSN VI or PSN-6, the Nusantara Satu satellite was built by Space Systems Loral around the SSL-1300 platform. Bound for a slot in geostationary orbit above the Earth’s equator at 148 degrees East, Nusantara Satu carries 26 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders and eight Ku-band transponders which will produce spot beams. The satellite offers a total bandwidth of 15 gigabits per second.

The 4,100 kilogram (9,040 lb) Nusantara Satu spacecraft is expected to operate for at least fifteen years. It will provide communications links to rural parts of Indonesia, allowing PSN to expand broadband internet services into these regions. Nusantara Satu is equipped with electric propulsion which will be used for orbit-raising maneuvers: Falcon 9 will drop the satellite off in an elliptical supersynchronous transfer orbit, with Nusantara Satu using its own engines to reach its final geostationary slot.

Tagging along for the ride

Two additional payloads will be riding to space as a part of the GTO-1 rideshare mission organized by Spaceflight Inc. It will test the feasibility of using the microsat constellation for space situational awareness and updates to the GTO space catalog.

The second stage will first deploy Beresheet, the Lunar orbiter and lander mission placed on top of Nusantara Satu five and a half minutes after SECO-2, and then the second double deployment will take place eleven minutes after the first deployment.

Once Nusantara Satu has arrived in geostationary orbit, it will deploy its subsatellite, S5. This is the US Air Force Research Laboratory’s space situational awareness experiment – a 60 kilogram (130 lb) spacecraft that will detect and track objects in orbits close to the geostationary belt.

Screenshot of S5, who will be lurking around in geostationary orbit

S5 was constructed by Blue Canyon Technologies, with its instruments provided by Applied Defense Systems. The data it collects will help the Air Force to update its satellite catalog with accurate orbital parameters for these spacecraft and debris objects. S5 is intended as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that low-cost miniature satellites can be used for accurate tracking of geostationary satellites. It only operates for one year.

SpaceIL is a non-profit organization that was formed to compete for the Google Lunar X-Prize, a competition organized by the X Prize Foundation and financed by Google which would have awarded twenty million US dollars for the first privately-funded spacecraft to land on the Moon, with a further ten million dollars for other achievements.

The rules initially stipulated that the prize would have to be claimed by the end of 2014, and while this was extended several times no competitor was able to launch their mission. The contest came to a halt, when it was determined that none of the teams competing would reach the Moon before the March 30, 2018 extended deadline.

Although it will attempt to become the first privately-operated spacecraft to land on the Moon, Beresheet will not be the first commercial spacecraft to visit the Moon.

In late 1997 the Blok-DM3 upper stage of a Russian Proton-K rocket malfunctioned, leaving the AsiaSat-3 communications satellite stranded in an unusable orbit. Renamed HGS-1 and under the ownership of Hughes Space and Communications, the satellite flew past the Moon in May 1998 to gain a gravity assist as part of a complex series of maneuvers that eventually saw it reach geosynchronous orbit.

Beresheet was constructed by Israel Aircraft Industries, the country’s largest aerospace manufacturer, and incorporates guidance and control, communications, power-generation, propulsion and landing systems as well as cameras and scientific instruments. The lander has four legs that will support it and provide a stable footing on the surface – these include aluminum honeycomb shock absorbers that will be crushed on touchdown, absorbing energy to protect the rest of the spacecraft. Solar panels provide power.

At launch, Beresheet has a mass of 600 kilograms (1,320 lb), including the propellant that it will expend getting to the Moon and making its landing on the surface. By the time it has landed on the Lunar surface, this mass will have fallen to around 160 kilograms (350 lb). Beresheet stands 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) tall, with a diameter of 1.5 meters (4.9 feet).

In addition to scientific instruments, a digital time capsule and Israeli flag are also aboard the lander. Once on the surface, Beresheet will use a magnetometer to study magnetic fields at its landing site. Mare Serenitatis was chosen because of known magnetic anomalies that the spacecraft will be able to study.

The first Israeli lunar spacecraft, named Beresheet, about to be shipped to SpaceX.

After being deployed from the second stage of Falcon 9, the Beresheet will slowly raise its orbit over the course of 40 days until it is captured by the Moon’s gravity. It will then slowly decrease its orbit over a 6 day period until it reaches a 15 km perilune over its landing site at Mare Serenitatis.

If all goes according to plan, the lander will be on the surface of the Moon April 11, 2019.

Unfortunately the Beresheet Lunar Lander lost one of its two Inertia Measurement Units IMU in the middle of the descent towards the surface. The flight computer rebooted at the worst possible moment, and being out of control it crash landed with 3000 km/h velocity on the Moon’s surface. Left alone was the Beresheet Orbiter, who now is delivering high resolution surface pictures of the Moon.

The fairings were going to be recovered over 700km downrange. The first attempt to catch a fairing halve is canceled, because Mr Steven is returning to port with two damaged arms meant to hold the fairing catching net.

Mr Steven has been relocated from Santa Barbara to Port Canaveral, Florida, where it will be even busier attempting to catch fairings. The Pacific was just a training ground.

Author: John Rumpf  IT professional/Spaceflight enthusiast link

Coauthor/Text Retriever: Johnny Nielsen link to launch list