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A Falcon 9 rocket and a Dragon supply ship, using mostly previously shipped equipment, is expected to take off Friday at Cape Canaveral during SpaceX's 15th launch on NASA's International Space Station.
The 65 meter high liquid fuel rocket will take off from the launch pad of Cape Canaveral Complex 40 at 5:42 am EDT (09:42:42 GMT), approximately 45 minutes before sunrise on the coast space of Florida.
If the clouds stay away, the launch could provide a spectacular early morning display for sky watchers in central Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket is expected to climb the sun a few minutes after takeoff, illuminating the launcher's exhaust plume in the rarefied upper atmosphere.
Forecasters at the US Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron predict a 90% chance of favorable time to launch on Friday. The clouds left by the storms on Thursday night's space coast are expected to dissipate in time for launch, but forecasters have kept a low probability of cumulus and anvil clouds remaining in the region and violating weather criteria.
According to Mike McAleenan, Air Force's launching weather officer,
SpaceX engineers were examining Thursday a problem with a thermal protection panel on the Dragon cargo ship, according to Jessica Jensen, Director of Dragon Mission Management.
Engineers perform thermal analyzes on the panel to make sure it will work as expected when it will be subjected to heating during launch and re-entry, says Jensen.
Otherwise, all systems are "ready" for launch. mission for the cargo mission CRS-15. Credit: SpaceX
The Falcon 9 rocket for Friday's takeoff will use the same first-stage accelerator as it did on April 18 with NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite. SpaceX recovered the scene at sea after sending the TESS mission, designed to find planets surrounding other stars in the vicinity of our sun, toward its perch in space.
The first step was the last one made by SpaceX. SpaceX launched the upgraded version of the Falcon 9 rocket on May 11. The design of the Falcon 9 Block 5 is optimized for reuse of the first leg, and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said the Block 5's enhanced boosters could be launched, landed and transported again in as little as 24 hours, requiring only a little more than the cost of new thrusters and processing costs.
Block 4 Configuration was not able to these fast flights, requiring disassembly of his landing legs, inspections, refurbishment and installation of new heat shield materials and grid fins used when The work took a long time and cost millions of dollars, but SpaceX officials said that the cost of refurbishing the boosters of Block 4 was lower than the cost of manufacturing a whole lot. new vehicle
Jensen told reporters Thursday. "They know what to look for, they know what signs they are looking for, they know what to replace, we've become extremely efficient and we've managed to turn the tide in just over two. month. "
The fastest launch between flights of the same first leg was about four and a half months ago
Friday's mission will be the final launch of a first leg of the Block 4, Jensen. says:
If the launch is not done Friday, SpaceX has a backup launch opportunity Sunday at 04:54 EDT (08:54 GMT). Officials plan to skip a launch attempt on Saturday because of the limitations caused by the station's position in its orbit.
Ground crews from Wharf 40 were loading sensitive cargo into the pressurized compartment of the Dragon capsule Thursday before the launch team planned to lift the Falcon 9 rocket before the countdown before Friday [19659003] Rocket kerosene is expected to begin flowing into the Falcon 9 rocket at 04:32 EDT (0832 GMT), followed by the start of liquid oxygen loading 5:07 EDT (0907 GMT). The automated sequencer of the countdown will also send commands to load the helium pressurizer into the Falcon 9 launcher.
After a final check and checks of the Falcon 9's navigation computer, the nine Merlin engines on the first floor will ignite around T-minus 3 seconds. The holdbacks will open when the countdown reaches zero, which will allow the rocket to escape Cape Canaveral with a spurt of 1.7 million pounds.
The Falcon 9 will head northeast to follow the orbit of the space station. sound speed in about a minute before stopping its first-stage engines at T + plus 2 minutes, 45 seconds.
The first stage of Friday's launch will not be picked up by SpaceX.
After the step separation, the Falcon 9 The second stage, powered by a single Merlin engine, will light for more than five and a half minutes to place the Dragon spacecraft in a preliminary elliptical orbit to about 300 kilometers above the Earth.
Deployment of the Dragon The top-level capsule of the Falcon 9 is timed for T + plus 9 minutes, 31 seconds, and the spacecraft will begin to extend its solar panels generating energy about 90 seconds more later.
As the Dragon Vessel Starts Its Three Days Jensen said: […] a warning zone described in a notice to pilots and sailors suggests that the second leg of the Falcon 9 will fall into the area. Atlantic Ocean following desorbite etching about six hours after Friday's take-off.
SpaceX has not unveiled the goal of long-lasting coastal experience, but rocket stages typically have to run for six hours and drive multiple shots of payloads, such as satellites. Clandestine military surveillance, directly on the geostationary orbit at more than 22,000 miles above the equator.
If the mission takes off on Friday, the Dragon capsule is expected to reach the space station on Monday. The station's Canadian robotic arm will grab the flying capsule at approximately 07:00 EDT (11:00 GMT), then place the spacecraft at a Harmony docking point.
The astronauts will manually unpack the contents of the Dragon Pressurized Cargo Module, which SpaceX reuses from a previous replenishment mission launched in July 2016.
The Mission is expected to deliver 5,946 pounds (2,697 kilograms) ) equipment, experiments and supplies at the research laboratory in orbit. Approximately 3,774 pounds (1,712 kilograms) of this count will be transported inside the Dragon's Inner Cabin, including: [19659030] 2,718 pounds (1,233 kilograms) of scientific investigations
Launch equipment The space station inside the Dragon's trunk includes a Canadian spare end effector for the robotic arm of the research lab, plus a 1213-pound (550-kilogram) instrument developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to be installed outside the Japanese Kibo lab module. measure the temperature of the plants from the space.
Temperature measurements tell scientists about the health of plants, the amount of water they use, and the resilience of crops to extreme temperatures. "When a plant is so stressed that it becomes brown, it's often too late for it to recover," said Simon Hook, senior research fellow at ECOSTRESS at JPL. "But measuring the temperature of the plant allows you to see that a plant is stressed before it reaches that point."
The ECOSTRESS instrument is a tool for future missions, and it will collect data from its editing outside the space station. "ECOSTRESS will allow us to track the rapid changes in crop stress in the field, enabling earlier and more accurate estimates of the impact on yields," said Martha Anderson, a member of the science team. ECOSTRESS in the United States. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland. "Even short-term water stress, if it occurs at a critical stage of crop growth, can have a significant impact on productivity."
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