September 18, 2014
The launch of NASA's International Space Station Rapid Scatterometer, or ISS-RapidScat, on board the fourth SpaceX commercial resupply services mission is scheduled for 11:14 p.m. PDT Sept. 19 (2:14 a.m. EDT Sept. 20). The instrument will monitor ocean winds from its perch on the space station. It will track hurricanes and storms, and provide a better understanding of Earth's climate.
NASA Television coverage of the launch begins at 10 p.m. PDT (1 a.m. EDT). Watch online at:
http://ift.tt/Id6pTj
ISS-RapidScat is one of several cargo items being delivered to the space station for NASA by SpaceX's Dragon capsule. The capsule will be boosted to space by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, lifting off from the company's hangar at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The launch window is instantaneous; should it pass, the next launch opportunity is Saturday, Sept. 20, at approximately 10:53 p.m. PDT (Sunday, Sept. 21, at approximately 1:53 a.m. EDT).
Seconds before launch, nine Merlin engines on the rocket's first stage will ignite. Upon release of the vehicle at liftoff, the engines will produce more than 1.3 million pounds (600,000 kilograms) of thrust. One minute and 10 seconds after launch, the rocket will be traveling at supersonic speeds. Main-engine cutoff occurs about 161 seconds after launch. Three seconds later, the first and second stages separate. Eight seconds after that, the second stage burns for seven minutes, bringing the rocket into a low-Earth orbit. During this time, the nose cone protecting the Dragon capsule opens up and falls away.
The second-stage engine cuts off at nine minutes and 40 seconds after launch. Thirty-five seconds later, Dragon separates from the rocket, reaching a preliminary orbit. The solar arrays deploy soon after, and a carefully choreographed series of thruster firings over the next two days put Dragon in reach of the space station.
As Dragon chases the station, it will establish communication with the ground and space station. On Monday, Sept. 22, a final decision to mate the capsule with the station will be made by NASA's Mission Control in Houston and the SpaceX team in Hawthorne, California. The astronauts on board the station will use a robotic arm to capture the capsule, and berth it with the Nadir docking port on Node 2.
Nine days after the capsule docks with the station, the ISS-RapidScat instrument is scheduled to be installed on the External Payload Facility SDX site of the Columbus module over a three-day period by the robotic arm with commands from the ground. ISS-RapidScat is an autonomous payload, requiring no interaction from space station astronauts.
Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are expected to activate the instrument about 12 to 18 days after launch. A two-week period of calibration and validation will follow, before RapidScat begins its two-year science mission.
For more information about ISS-RapidScat, visit:
http://ift.tt/15FAyPi http://ift.tt/1r96Ssb
For more information about SpaceX space station resupply missions, visit:
http://ift.tt/IWOEVX
Alan Buis 818-354-0474 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California Alan.Buis@jpl.nasa.gov 2014-316
Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 6 1 Name: SpaceX Count: 4 2 Name: Dragon Count: 3 3 Name: California Count: 3 4 Name: Pasadena Count: 2 5 Name: Alan Buis Count: 1 6 Name: Houston Count: 1 7 Name: Columbus Count: 1 8 Name: Space Launch Complex Count: 1 9 Name: Huntsville Count: 1 10 Name: Mission Control Count: 1 11 Name: Florida Count: 1 12 Name: Hawthorne Count: 1 13 Name: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Count: 1 14 Name: Earth Count: 1 15 Name: Alabama Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1suFCSE Title: Why NASA is turning to Elon Musk Description: Before grounding the program in 2011, NASA flew 135 missions to the International Space Station, the single most expensive object ever built, with an estimated all-in cost of $150 billion. The International Space Station is a floating laboratory in space that travels at speeds of 17,240 miles per hour, circling the planet every 90 minutes.
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