Hiccup In Space: Orbital Sciences ISS Docking Delayed By Days 51
Reuters has a quick report that "[a] software glitch will delay Orbital Sciences' trial cargo ship from reaching the International Space Station until Tuesday, officials said on Sunday. The company's Cygnus capsule, which blasted off Wednesday from Virginia for a test flight, had been scheduled to reach the station on Sunday.
... Orbital Sciences said it had found the cause of the data discrepancy and was developing a software fix. ... The next opportunity for the capsule to rendezvous and dock with the station will be on Tuesday." The WSJ has a more detailed article, and notes "The mission is a challenge for Orbital, which has invested more than five years and about $500 million of its own funds to develop a commercial-cargo capability. But it also presents a dramatic test of NASA's plans to outsource to industry all U.S. resupply missions to the space station. The agency has paid Orbital about $285 million to spur development of the Cygnus and Antares rocket system."
It's Rocket Science, folks. (Score:3)
Not much else to add except that the linked WSJ article seemed rather... well... brief (available to subscribers only)
Rocket Surgery (Score:1)
Not much else to add except that the linked WSJ article seemed rather... well... brief
Not many of the people who pay to subscribe to the WSJ could follow more than a brief overview article.
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Wow (Score:1, Redundant)
As others have said, this is rocket science, and rocket science has the reputation it does for a reason.
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Bring the main hyperbole cannon on line! Maybe you could dial back the rhetoric to 11.
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Sounds like small cheese compared to what was thrown down the rat-hole with Solyndra, et al. And when IS Obama-backing GE going to pay taxes? Ever again?
Strat
Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
As others have said, this is rocket science, and rocket science has the reputation it does for a reason.
Building something that gets into orbit successfully, much less performing a rendezvous with another object already in orbit, is something that has such a thin margin of error that almost anything can prevent success and a whole lot of things can cause a failure.
I see this more as a glass is half-full kind of thing where it is just freaking amazing that Orbital has been able to get this far and even get near the ISS, much less be in a position to actually dock. Not only that, but this is the very first time that this launch vehicle + spacecraft has done something like this. And you expect it to be perfect on the very first try?
The cargo itself isn't all that valuable BTW, so "hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds" are not on the line. Orbital is only going to be paid for cargo delivered, although NASA did send them some money earlier for meeting previous manufacturing objectives. It should also be pointed out that Orbital wasn't even the original contractor [wikipedia.org] who was supposed to be taking cargo into space, but rather Kistler Aerospace [wikipedia.org]. NASA justifiably dumped that service contract and awarded it instead to Orbital after some pretty stiff competition from some other very worthy alternatives.
If anything, it sure is a heck of a lot cheaper in terms of the few hundred million dumped into the COTS program than the tens of billions that have been wasted on Constellation and SLS, where there has yet to be anything even close to flying. Those were both programs that were supposed to be operational before the Space Shuttle flights ended, but instead won't even be considered for an initial flight before 2017, and likely will be delayed well past 2020. Without this program, the $100+ billion dumped on the ISS would be wasted because the ISS would have to be splashed by now. That 1000x difference in orders of magnitude for these programs really makes the amount spent by NASA on Orbital to be real chump change and insignificant, especially with the results that have already been earned by Orbital.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
I should add that the items in the Cygnus spacecraft [orbital.com] is mainly a bunch of food, what amounts to be toilet paper for the sanitary facilities in the ISS, personal items for the astronauts on this and future missions, and a new computer printer to replace one that broke down on board the station as well as some minor spare parts needed for station maintenance.
You would be hard pressed to find this whole load of cargo to be worth more than a hundred thousand dollars, although its value is important for the people on the ISS and the fact that it is so expensive to haul anything up to that altitude. Hopefully a competitive cargo delivery service can improve that cost as an issue.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
Well, this is a test run. As such nothing critical is on board. The first Dragon payload was the same thing – low priority stuff that would not be missed in case of failure.
"The glitch is fixed!" (Score:5, Funny)
"We have the glitch fixed!"
"Outstanding! Resume ramming speed!"
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You realise that the "I" in ISS stands for "international" so Russia doing some of the work doesn't really mean that NASA is outsourcing.
Shit, I always mess up some mundane detail (Score:2)
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Testing, smeshting, light the damned thing up. What is this, science or somethin'?
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Extended downtime on the forums... (Score:1)
Cargo my ass... (Score:1, Troll)
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So a company who is launching satellites for the military is also delivering cargo to the International Space Station. Did I miss something?
Or do you really think that the ISS is a part of some global conspiracy to conquer the Earth?
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So a company who is launching satellites for the military is also delivering cargo to the International Space Station. Did I miss something?
Or do you really think that the ISS is a part of some global conspiracy to conquer the Earth?
I think what djupedal is saying is, why conquer the Earth when you can hold the nations hostage and demand ONE... MILLION... DOLLARS?
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Our cheap energy is running out and the value of putting people into tin cans in low Earth orbit will be highly questionable. Your fantasies will be totally impractical by then.
The Sun outputs roughly 4*10^26 watts of power, all of it free for the taking. And the Earth intercepts a part of that.
Also, we'll just have to find other sources of cheap energy.
As to who owns what in the Solar System, I'll just wait and see what happens. The US doesn't have a lock on space development nor is it doing much for the vast sums it spends on space development.
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Your definition of "free" seems to include massive technologies that simply don't exist, and if they did would require the resources of several Earths to use.... Very interesting use of the word "free".
Here's how I would use the word: your posts are fact-free. How you like that you uncritical Space Nutter?
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Your definition of "free" seems to include massive technologies that simply don't exist
Like a tree.
Here's how I would use the word: your posts are fact-free.
I note two facts in my so-called "fact-free" post, the power output of the Sun and that no one is charging you to use energy from the Sun. Two things is not zero things.
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You mean the things that grow on this planet only
And which need only a degree of gravity, sunlight, and the right mix of nutrients. Those can all exist elsewhere just as they do on Earth.
New or old data link format? (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a data link between the ISS and docking vehicles. A new version of that was developed recently. [businesswire.com] Here's the presentation on that. [nasaspaceflight.com] But it doesn't seem to be operational yet. NASA has been talking about the new C2V2 system for years, and commercial spacecraft were supposed to be designed to use it. But it's not ready yet.
So Space-X and Orbital Sciences had to also develop a temporary capability to use the old automated docking system, which, I think, is derived from the Soviet-era Kursk system.
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If I only had mod points, or an account.
...or something interesting to say.
Re:New or old data link format? (Score:4, Informative)
iirc OS capsule just goes close enough and then they dock it with the robot arm.
Hahahaha (Score:5, Interesting)
NASA was not a success from the jump. (Score:1)