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SpaceX Launch To International Space Station Delayed For Code Tweaks
RogerRoast writes "The first private spaceship launch to the International Space Station has been delayed, possibly by at least a week, the vehicle's makers announced Monday. The commercial spaceflight company SpaceX was set to launch its Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket April 30 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida." The article quotes SpaceX lead Elon Musk's twittered explanation: "Am pushing launch back approx a week to do more testing on Dragon docking code. New date pending coordination with @NASA."
Maybe the just noted half the libraries were in metric
When is any project ever on time? It's not like they can release beta grade software and release an automatic update to fix it later. If they mess this up, it's going to cost them and maybe, just maybe the engineers plea for proper testing has been answered (a little late though)
"Last minute code tweaks" never go well.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Better they found it now and missed the deadline than went anyhow and exploded. You do not get too many second chances in space.
He's doing an absolutely fantastic job with his two post-paypal start-ups. I already have quite a few shares of Tesla, and when SpaceX goes public I'll pick up as well.
not sure telsa is a wise investment choice, always seem to be on the brink of going broke
Cowards!!! Launch early, launch often. (Or just give the coders the honor of being test pilots. That will make those code monkeys program it real good the first time...)
Not that SpaceX is infallible - but I think it's NASA behind this requiring an insane amount of testing. They employ the Monte Carlo method of testing which basically tests every (or at least a random sample) value of each input variable and the combinations there of. I don't care who you are, but that method of testing is going to result in "issues" coming to the surface. The problem is that the issues will be extremely rare if not practically impossible. And Musk is not in a position to criticize them, since he wants their business for cargo and crew services.
Not saying this kind of testing isn't valuable, but it doesn't lend itself well to schedules.
"ISS Seriously Damaged Because That Fucking Moron Peter Forgot To Do Garbage Collection."
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Yes, but which half?
An imperial half.
Ezekiel 23:20
im sure you'd see git comments like
--removed sound-activated LED code
restored sound activation code. needed for espresso.py
--removed callbacks, class for rancilio espresso maker. please stop this.
--added pizza ordering support for dominos, stub for pizza hut
--removed food related code for pizza, chinese food, references to 'the luther'.
-- removed orbital re-entry positioning code. two can play this game
-- re-added orbital code. this is not funny. please stop.
-- added DMX512 dance-floor lighting control module, arduino support for twitter potted plant control
Good people go to bed earlier.
I too worked in the space launch business and delays always are lastg minute because they cost so much and everyone is waiting for someone else to be the reason for the delay. If there was a delay due to cryo problems the coding issue would never come to light as they'd feverishly work to get it done while launch is delayed due to "cryo issues."
Life support systems require more rigorous testing than simple Monte Carlo. They generally require component testing, bounds case testing, and branch path analysis of the code so that every line of code gets hit during testing.
I've worked on two projects that qualified as life support systems; one was an MRI console for a GE Medical Systems MRI machine (back when it was still being called NMR before it was politically corrected to remove the word "Nuclear"), and the second was a blood gas analyzer. Incorrect operation of the code in either of those cases could have resulted in someone dying as a result of a doctor getting misinformation.
The amount of testing and the rigor of the testing involved in both of those projects was unbelievable. Even then, we were required to carry liability insurance out the wazoo on both projects in case we screwed up the code. There's a reason medical equipment is so expensive.
Space systems that can ram into an occupied space station, and which are intended to some day carry humans to orbit qualify as life support, even if they are being sent up with a load of supplies instead of a human crew. Monte Carlo won't cut it any more than it will for a system call fuzzer trying to find a sequence of three system calls in a row that , if they are called with precisely the right parameters, will trigger a kernel panic.
-- Terry
TFA says the delay is for hardware in the loop testing, not code tweaking.
One hopes normal end-to-end testing was done long before this, but given the costs and logistics of assembling the actual hardware this final phase of testing pretty much has to wait until shortly before launch.
I'm a developer and am pretty much in the camp of "if it complies and boots, ship it", but I appreciate the need for QA. When you're shooting a missile at a fragile target keeping a crew alive 200 miles above earth just maybe before you sign off on the launch you want to finish testing. It's the low delta-v docking code they're testing apparently, but docking coupling damage has happened in the past, and that or just a failure to dock would be kind of a big deal.
No where in Elon's Tweet or in the referenced article does it say they need to tweak the code... it says they need more time to "test" it.
Bill
It's my Sig and you can't have it. Mine! All Mine!
NASAspaceflight has a much better article than TFA. Go read it, if you're interested in details and facts.