
SpaceX Dragon Ship Falls Back to Earth - sparknlaunch
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18273811
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jarofgreen
Was I the only person who read the headline and thought "Wait, was it meant
to?". The word "falls" has very negative connotations and could have been
chosen better surely? :-)

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lnanek2
Chosen better for what? They certainly chose a good title to get people to
click...

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fghh45sdfhr3
_They certainly chose a good title to get people to click..._

And I'd like to keep "get people to click" type of content away from HN.

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cjrp
"The firm has a $1.6bn (£1bn; 1.3bn-euro) contract with the US space agency
(Nasa) waiting to be triggered on the successful recovery of Dragon from the
ocean."

So.. no pressure or anything.

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planetguy
I find it hard to believe that they didn't negotiate a contract which would
provide partial credit if things happen to go pear-shaped (or rather, pancake-
shaped) at _this_ point.

~~~
freehunter
I believe up to this point they have milestone contracts. I'm not familiar
with which milestones those trigger, but they did negotiate a failsafe in case
it got to some point successfully but then failed. From here on out though,
their forthcoming contracts are not milestone.

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ColinWright
Expected timetable as best as I can work it out:

* 13:00 UTC, 08:00 CT, update from NASA

* 14:15 UTC, 09:15 CT, Coverage restarts on NASA TV

* 14:51 UTC, 09:51 CT, De-orbit burn

* 15:09 UTC, 10:09 CT, Dragon's trunk is jettisoned

* 15:35 UTC, 10:35 CT, Drogue chutes deployment

* 15:36 UTC, 10:36 CT, Main chute deployment

* 15:44 UTC, 10:44 CT, Splashdown

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InclinedPlane
Dragon has unberthed, has been released from the ISS's robotic arm, and has
completed its final separation burn . Remaining tasks: deorbit burn,
separation from the trunk, reentry, and recovery.

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bigiain
Live stream on right now here:

<http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv>

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bdz
As watching the mission control center of SpaceX: where are the computers? Are
they running thin clients? I just see a lot of monitors and 1 or 2 two laptops
but no actual PCs.

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colomon
First parachutes just deployed...

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colomon
"Dragon is in the water."

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drbawb
"OH GOD NO, FIRE THE TORPEDOES"

"THE DRAGON IS FRIENDLY. REPEAT: THE DRAGON. IS FRIENDLY."

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sparknlaunch
> " _Scientists say that the vessel will splashdown in the Pacific Ocean
> several hours later in what they are describing as “a very challenging phase
> of the flight”."_

Impressed how space junk etc fall to Earth and almost always land in the
ocean. Not hard when 70% of the Earth surface is covered by water. However
what is the level of accuracy? I assume that it is planned to aim for a large
body of water and get within an x% threshold?

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TeMPOraL
It can be much, much more accurate than that if needed.

In 1960s America had spy satellites that dropped canisters with photo film,
that were captured _mid-air_ by planes.

See: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)#Discoverer>

~~~
sparknlaunch
Wow! Wonder if the weight of a canister and mobility of a plane may help in
connecting the two together? Or make it harder? Awesome story.

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planetguy
The canisters had little parachutes, so it's not _quite_ as amazing as it
sounds.

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JoeAltmaier
Just barely less amazing. Still like finding one particular mosquito in
Pittsburgh?

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planetguy
If the mosquito were two feet across and equipped with a radio transmitter,
yeah.

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drbawb
And I assume this was all necessary because: (a) They wanted to see if it
could be done. or (b) They couldn't yet build a digital camera and/or digital
cameras didn't work in space because of some obscure issues with radiation?

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planetguy
It was 1960. No digital cameras. The CCD wouldn't be invented for nine more
years!

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sodelate
Dragon coming back safe

