SpaceX | Space Exploration Technologies Corporation

Started by l3x, March 27, 2012, 03:31:51 PM

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l3x

Stiri, noutati, informatii si discutii despre SpaceX



valexandru

Te referi la:
Quote
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, cunoscută ca SpaceX, este o companie privată din Statele Unite ale Americii dedicată realizării de vehicule pentru transportul în spațiul cosmic, fondată ca o companie pornind de la zero de către co-fondatorul companiei PayPal, antreprenorul Elon Musk.
?
"O conştiinţă împăcată nu ţine seama de minciunile zvonului"
Click aici pt informatii la zi despre autostrazi
Principiul romanesc: "Facem azi ca sa avem ce strica maine"

l3x

#2
In primul rand, scuze Ionut pentru intarzierea de jumatate de an :)

Informatii generale despre companie
(sursa wikipedia.org)

Type                         Private
Industry                 Aerospace
Founded                 2002
Headquarters         Hawthorne, California
Key people             Elon Musk (CEO and CTO)
                             Gwynne Shotwell (President)
Products                 Orbital rocket launch
                             Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
Employees              > 1,500 (Early 2011)[2]
Website                 www.spacex.com

"Produse"

Falcon 1/1e   : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_1         
Falcon 9        : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9
Falcon Heavy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy
Dragon         : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_%28spacecraft%29

Si un video, biggest SpaceX achievement so far:

http://www.youtube.com/v/cdLITgWKe_0

Quote from: valexandru on March 27, 2012, 03:34:05 PM
Te referi la:
Quote
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, cunoscută ca SpaceX, este o companie privată din Statele Unite ale Americii dedicată realizării de vehicule pentru transportul în spațiul cosmic, fondată ca o companie pornind de la zero de către co-fondatorul companiei PayPal, antreprenorul Elon Musk.
?

Salut valexandru! Da, la ei ma refer :)

Next launch:

QuoteApril 30     Falcon 9  •  Dragon C2
Launch time: 1622 GMT (12:22 p.m. EDT)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the second Dragon spacecraft, called Dragon C2, to demonstrate rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station for cargo-delivery. The company is building the Dragon to fly on operational resupply missions to the orbiting lab. Delayed from June 6, Oct. 8, Nov. 30, Dec. 19, Jan. 7, Feb. 7 and March 20. See our Mission Status Center. [March 15]

http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html

valexandru

^^
Mersi de raspuns :cheers: .
Pe 30 aprilie cea mai apropiata lansare?
Se vede ca sunt mai harnici decat NASA:cheers:
"O conştiinţă împăcată nu ţine seama de minciunile zvonului"
Click aici pt informatii la zi despre autostrazi
Principiul romanesc: "Facem azi ca sa avem ce strica maine"

Ionut

@l3x: bine ai revenit!!! Nu-i bai de intarziere, e bine ca ai revenit. Multumesc pentru updateuri! :cheers:

l3x

Quote
Half-ton of cargo on Dragon's space station manifest

Technicians will load more than 1,000 pounds of food and clothing into SpaceX's Dragon capsule next month for delivery to the International Space Station on the commercial craft's first flight to the outpost.

Working inside the company's hangar adjacent to the Falcon 9 launch pad, technicians will carefully stow approximately 530 kilograms, or 1,168 pounds, of station-bound cargo inside the Dragon's pressurized section. Most of the supplies are currently scheduled to be loaded inside Dragon in mid-April.

Josh Byerly, a NASA spokesperson, said the cargo is comprised of mostly low-value items such as food, water, and clothing to supplement supplies delivered this week aboard Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle.

"It's not one-of-a-kind [hardware], but it's important cargo, all the same," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.

Future Dragon flights will be filled with more than 3,500 pounds of cargo.

Widely anticipated by NASA, lawmakers and space enthusiasts, the flight is due to blast off no sooner than April 30 at 1622 GMT (12:22 p.m. EDT) from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Beginning a two-day high-speed chase of the space station, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will lift the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft into orbit a few minutes after launch.

The SpaceX flight will also carry some research payloads, including student experiments and scientific gear for NanoRacks, a company which designs low-cost research platforms for the International Space Station.

The space station crew will unload cargo from the Dragon spacecraft after its scheduled arrival at the orbiting lab May 3. The astronauts will replace the supplies with 660 kilograms, or 1,455 pounds, of equipment for return to Earth.


Besides Russia's Soyuz crew capsule, the Dragon will be the only spacecraft able to return space station hardware and experiments to Earth. After about a three-week stay at the space station, the Dragon will parachute into the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California for recovery by a maritime retrieval team.

Supplies for the Dragon mission are already arriving at the Kennedy Space Center, where they are being packaged and prepared for flight inside the Space Station Processing Facility, according to George Diller, a NASA spokesperson at KSC.

Measuring 9.5 feet tall and 11.8 feet wide at its base, the Dragon's pressurized cabin has a volume of about 245 cubic feet, according to SpaceX.

The cargo aboard the Dragon craft's first flight to the space station will not go toward the commitment in SpaceX's $1.6 billion contract to transport 44,000 pounds of supplies to the complex over 12 operational flights.

"This was additional cargo that was added so that we could fully check out the cargo capability on the demo mission," Byerly said.

SpaceX's operational Commercial Resupply Services missions could begin as soon as August, assuming the upcoming test flight goes well.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/120330cargo/

l3x


QuoteIndustry Leaders Lend Expertise As Company Prepares for Astronaut Flights

Hawthorne, CA – Today, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), one of the leading private companies working to restore America's ability to carry astronauts to the Space Station, announced it has assembled a team of outside experts to help the company create the world's safest human spaceflight system.

"When it comes to manned spaceflight, safety is our top priority," said SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer, Elon Musk. "These experts will provide us with important insights as we prepare to carry astronauts on the next generation of American spacecraft."



sursa: http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20120329

l3x

Flight Readiness Review complete for SpaceX flight

QuoteNASA and SpaceX officials will proceed with preparations for the scheduled April 30 launch of a commercial demo flight to the International Space Station, managers decided during a Flight Readiness Review on Monday. But more software verifications are needed before officials give final approval for the mission.

The Flight Readiness Review concluded SpaceX's launch date target of April 30 is realistic, but more discussions are planned in the coming days before final launch preparations begin.

An internal SpaceX readiness review is on tap for April 22, followed by a meet-up between SpaceX and NASA officials April 23.

Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said more "in-the-loop" testing between hardware and software is scheduled over the next few days.

There are also several software validation steps remaining before flight, according to Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.

Liftoff on April 30 would occur in a brief launch opportunity at 12:22 p.m. EDT (1622 GMT). The Dragon spacecraft will berth with the space station May 3.

http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/status.html

Ionut

Ce bine se misca! Vesti legate de Virgin Galactic ai? Nu am mai urmarit in ultima vreme... :)

l3x

N-am nicio noutate despre Virgin Galactic... aaa, am vazut/citit pe undeva cum ca vine Richard Branson in Romania sa tina nu-stiu-ce prelegere :)

Oricum Virgin Galactic nu ma prea pasioneaza, they don't want to go to the stars... or at least LEO.

valexandru

:cheers: pt toate informatiile pe care le pui!
Imi place mult avatarul pe care ti l-ai pus.
"O conştiinţă împăcată nu ţine seama de minciunile zvonului"
Click aici pt informatii la zi despre autostrazi
Principiul romanesc: "Facem azi ca sa avem ce strica maine"

l3x

inca un articol interesant :

SpaceX to Launch First Private Craft to Space Station—Next Stop: Mars?

QuoteThe SpaceX Dragon capsule is almost ready to become the first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station (ISS), NASA and SpaceX officials announced today.

Following what's known as a flight-readiness review, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, aka SpaceX, is so far on course to launch the reusable Dragon aboard the firm's Falcon 9 rocket later this month, NASA said at a Monday press briefing.

But SpaceX founder Elon Musk already has his eyes on a bigger prize: putting people on Mars as quickly as possible.

According to Musk, all SpaceX ventures—including the Dragon mission—are being designed to advance this ambitious larger goal.

"I'm a big believer in humanity becoming a multiplanetary species," Musk said.

"At SpaceX our goal is to keep pushing innovations in rocketry and scaling things up to get to a point where we can allow people to basically move to Mars."


full article here : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120416-nasa-spacex-dragon-launch-readiness-space-station-science/?source=link_TW_02&plckOnPage=2

l3x

SpaceX flight preps continue with fueling, engine hotfire

QuoteWhile engineers analyze and tweak software coding, SpaceX will continue making physical preparations to the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 booster for a commercial launch to the International Space Station as soon as May 7, officials said Tuesday.

Managers on Tuesday officially reset the flight's target launch date to May 7. The precise launch opportunity will be at 9:38 a.m. EDT (1338 GMT). SpaceX could make a second launch attempt May 10 if officials are comfortable with flying the Dragon mission before the arrival of three astronauts aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

SpaceX decided Monday to delay the launch from April 30 to allow for more hardware-in-the-loop testing and proper data reviews. The company has conducted extensive software testing since last year to meet NASA's stringent safety requirements for approaching the space station.

The hardware-in-the-loop testing employs test units at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., and the flight spacecraft in the hangar at Cape Canaveral's launch pad 40.

"It's where you get the hardware and the software together and you make sure that they operate as you expect," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager, in a media briefing earlier this month.

SpaceX's software testing must prove the Dragon spacecraft is safe enough to fly in close proximity to the space station and its crew. NASA is responsible for ensuring the complex and its residents are not threatened by visiting vehicles.

The Dragon capsule features redundant systems, but its software must be able to recognize failures and respond properly, switching to backup strings if necessary.

"We appreciate that SpaceX is taking the necessary time to help ensure the success of this historic flight," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations. "We will continue to work with SpaceX in preparing for the May 7 launch to the International Space Station."

Launch preparations continued Tuesday while SpaceX and NASA worked on the Dragon's software reviews.

Filling of the Dragon capsule's hypergolic propellant tanks was supposed to be completed Tuesday, according to Kirstin Brost Grantham, a SpaceX spokesperson.

The spacecraft was scheduled to be rotated from a vertical position to a horizontal orientation Thursday and attached to the upper stage of the Falcon 9 launcher inside SpaceX's hangar.

The aerodynamic nose cone is set to be integrated to the forward end of the Dragon capsule Friday.

A brief firing of the Falcon rocket's nine Merlin first stage engines is scheduled for April 30. SpaceX conducts a hotfire test of the Falcon 9's engines before each launch to check their health.

A technical review meeting is planned for Friday, and a SpaceX launch readiness review is set for May 5, according to an official familiar with the Dragon mission.

As currently envisioned, the schedule would make possible a launch attempt May 7, assuming NASA and SpaceX finish software testing.

SpaceX's launch on May 7 is booked on the U.S. Air Force range after the May 3 blastoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket with a military communications satellite.

If the Dragon spacecraft takes off May 7, it will catch up with the space station in orbit for a flyby of the outpost May 9. The initial rendezvous will demonstrate the craft's ability to navigate and communicate with the space station.

If the flyby goes as planned, NASA and SpaceX will give the go-ahead for the capsule to approach the space station May 10. The Dragon will meticulously close in on the station, stopping several times at predetermined points to ensure all systems are functioning as expected.

The automated spaceship will reach a location 30 feet underneath the space station during the May 10 rendezvous, close enough for the lab's manually-operated robot arm to grab the capsule and install it on a berthing port.

NASA has signed up for 12 operational resupply missions with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. The $1.6 billion contract covers cargo delivery and return services.

The space agency has also provided $381 million to help pay for development of the SpaceX vehicles under a public-private partnership. 

sursa: http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/120424date/

l3x

SPACEX AND BIGELOW AEROSPACE JOIN FORCES TO OFFER CREWED MISSIONS TO PRIVATE SPACE

QuoteHawthorne, CA, and Las Vegas, NV– Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Bigelow Aerospace (BA) have agreed to conduct a joint marketing effort focused on international customers. The two companies will offer rides on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, using the Falcon launch vehicle to carry passengers to Bigelow habitats orbiting the earth.

According to Bigelow Aerospace's President and Founder, Robert T. Bigelow, "We're very excited to be working with our colleagues at SpaceX to present the unique services that our two companies can offer to international clientele. We're eager to join them overseas to discuss the substantial benefits that BA 330 leasing can offer in combination with SpaceX transportation capabilities".

The BA 330 is a habitat that will provide roughly 330 cubic meters of usable volume and can support a crew of up to six. Bigelow Aerospace plans to connect two or more BA 330s in orbit to provide national space agencies, companies, and universities with unparalleled access to the microgravity environment.

"SpaceX and BA have a lot in common. Both companies were founded to help create a new era in space enterprise," said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. "Together we will provide unique opportunities to entities -- whether nations or corporations -- wishing to have crewed access to the space environment for extended periods. I'm looking forward to working with Bigelow Aerospace and engaging with international customers," Shotwell explained.

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will be capable of carrying seven passengers to orbit. With the company's Falcon family of rockets, SpaceX is working to create the world's safest human spaceflight system.

The companies will kick off their marketing effort in Asia. Representatives from Bigelow and SpaceX will meet with officials in Japan shortly after the next launch of the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.


About SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches the world's most advanced rockets and spacecraft. With a diverse manifest of launches to deliver commercial and government satellites to orbit, SpaceX is the world's fastest growing space launch company. In 2010, SpaceX became the first commercial company in history to put a spacecraft into orbit and return it safely to Earth. With the retirement of the space shuttle, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will soon carry cargo and astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA. Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX is a private company owned by management and employees, with minority investments from the Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Valor Equity Partners. The company has over 1,700 employees in California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Florida. For more information, visit spacex.com.

About Bigelow Aerospace

Bigelow Aerospace is an entrepreneurial company dedicated to revolutionizing space commerce and exploration via the development of next-generation expandable habitat technology. Bigelow Aerospace's habitats will offer unprecedented amounts of volume on-orbit while providing astronauts with enhanced protection against radiation and physical debris. Bigelow habitats are also lighter and more affordable than traditional rigidized metallic structures. Bigelow Aerospace is the first and only organization to demonstrate expandable habitat technology in orbit, via the successful launch of Genesis I in 2006 and Genesis II in 2007. Bigelow Aerospace has manufacturing facilities and offices in Nevada and Maryland. For more information, visit bigelowaerospace.com.

source: http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20120510

- de urmarit pe viitor si Bigelow Aerospace. Eu am auzit de ei de mult dar aveam impresia ca nu sunt 'for real', tinand cont de site-ul lor care emana 'ieftineala'. Totusi se misca, au contracte pentru lansari cu ULA, proiecte foarte interesante si doua demo-uri de mici dimensiuni ce sunt deja pe orbita. Pentru cei interesati mai multe informatii se gasesc aici http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigelow_Aerospace si aici http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/. (poate ma invata cineva pe pm cum sa pun description la link).

- SpaceX Falcon9/Dragon demo are acum data de lansare pe 19 Mai. Daca demonstratia asta iese cum trebuie va insemna un MARE lucru atat pentru industrie cat si pentru explorarea spatiului.

l3x

in sfarsit o veste buna, a crescut mult probabilitatea ca zborul asta sa nu se amane iar (pt. a n>10-a oara):

QuoteNASA's space station management team on Tuesday approved plans to launch SpaceX's first commercial flight to the complex Saturday, signing off on software changes governing the privately-built capsule's final approach to the orbiting outpost.

The 157-foot-long rocket will roll out from its hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday to be rotated vertical on top of its seaside launch pad.

Liftoff is set for Saturday at 0855 GMT (4:55 a.m. EDT). The Dragon spacecraft should be grappled by the space station's robot arm at about 1211 GMT (8:11 a.m. EDT) on May 22.

Officials have delayed the launch from the beginning of 2012 to review the Dragon spacecraft's software, particularly the code which controls the capsule's final rendezvous with the space station and detects and responds to system failures during the Dragon's delicate maneuvers near the complex.

Tuesday's Flight Readiness Review evaluated results from software tests over the last few weeks.

"The teams reported all remaining work had been completed and everyone is 'go' for launch," NASA posted in a statement on its website. "SpaceX reported that the Dragon spacecraft and its systems are ready for the mission."

Mike Horkachuck, NASA's project executive for SpaceX, said the space agency is comfortable with SpaceX's readiness for the flight.

"We closed out a lot of work over the last couple of weeks," Horkachuck said. "There was a lot of software that's been rechecked and validated by the space station program. They did an end-to-end test of the data system, as well as another stage test, checking all the software functionality as it relates to the space station. We looked at a lot of the changes that have been done on the software and gotten comfortable that all those changes were acceptable."

Astronauts Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers replaced a GPS navigation unit aboard the space station Monday after ground controllers noticed a failure last week. The GPS instrumentation is mandatory for Dragon's navigation system during the craft's final approach to the complex.

SpaceX plans an internal Launch Readiness Review on Thursday.

The flight is a crucial test for SpaceX, which holds a $1.6 billion contract for 12 cargo delivery flights to the space station. SpaceX could begin executing operational flights under the contract later this year if the upcoming test mission goes as planned.

Sursa Mission Status Center - Spaceflightnow.com