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SpaceX To Refly a Dragon Cargo Spacecraft (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the reuse-and-recycle dept.

Thelasko writes: Tomorrow's scheduled resupply mission to the International Space Station will mark the second time its Dragon capsule has visited the station. Ars Technica reports: "This particular Dragon spacecraft was sent to the International Space Station in September 2014, and it delivered nearly 2.5 tons of cargo to the orbiting laboratory. The Dragon returned to Earth about a month later, splashing down into the ocean. It is not clear how much processing SpaceX has had to undertake to ready the spacecraft for its second flight to the station, nor has the company released a cost estimate. It also had to manufacture a new 'trunk,' the unpressurized rear section of the vehicle, and solar panels."

5 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. s/time its Dragon/time this particular Dragon/ by phayes · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dragon has flown to ISS on multiple occasions but this will be the first time that a Dragon capsule that has previously flown to ISS is being launched for a second visit.

    --
    Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
  2. Tomorrow = actually today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Story was written yesterday. The launch is today (Thursday) at 21:55 UTC.

  3. Pre-launch NASA briefing by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Informative

    The pre-launch briefing was live yesterday and a recording is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?... . It has a lot details both about the Dragon and its cargo.

  4. not much work needed for reuse. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Late 2017 or early 2018 they are aiming to re-fly a falcon within 24 hours of landing, with no refurbishment (just refiling the tanks)

    The first one that was reflown had much more extensive work done on it (all components that can wear were replaced)

    The grids used to steer during re-entry are currently aluminum and replaced after each flight. They are going to replace them with titanium (at which point these will be the largest titanium castings anyone knows of in the world from what I've heard), at which point they expect to not need to replace them after each flight.

    The stated goal is to be able to fly 10 times with minimal work and then get a refurbishment for another 10 flights (repeated up to 10 times)

  5. Re: why do they ditch the solar panels? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It takes 3-4 days to reach the ISS (due to phasing). That's far from a trivial amount of time to run off batteries.