Cargo spacecraft "Dragon CRS-5"

Spacecraft nº:

SpaceX spacecraft nº: 6

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  40370 / 15001A Launch date - time  10 Jan 2015 - 09:47 UT Launch site  CC, SLC-40 Launch vehicle  Falcon-9 v1.1 Spacecraft  Cargo Dragon C107 Manufacturer  SpaceX Dimensions cabine  Height: 8.1m (27 ft) - Dia: 4m (13 ft) Launch mass   6000 kg Total cargo mass (kg)  2317 kg Earth orbit:    - Perigee / Apogee  403 x 411    - Eccentricity      - Inclination  51.65 °    - Period  95.70 min

Description:

• DRAGON CRS-5, also known as SpX-5, is a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station, contracted to NASA. It is the seventh flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, and the fived SpaceX operational mission contracted to NASA under a Commercial Resupply Services contract. The mission brings equipment and supplies to the space station.
• After the retirement of the space shuttle, the Dragon spacecraft is the only vehicle capable of returning large amounts of cargo from the space station to Earth. Russia's crewed Soyuz capsule can only accommodate limited cargo when landing with a three-person crew.
• The Dragon spacecraft is packed with more than 2.5 tons of scientific experiments, provisions and maintenance items. Among the supplies packed inside are spacewalk tools and equipment to help prepare the space station to receive commercial crew vehicles, an IMAX camera for filming during four space station increments, and science payloads that will enable model organism research using fruit flies and will study flatworms to better understand wound healing in space. The Dragon's total internal payload includes 1,272 pounds of science and research gear, 1,080 pounds of crew provisions, 1,495 pounds of vehicle hardware, 35 pounds of computer tools, 51 pounds of spacesuit equipment, and 86 pounds of Russian hardware. NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Transport System is bolted inside Dragon′s unpressurized trunk. The space station's robotics system will unpack the CATS instrument and mount it outside the station to monitor cloud and aerosol coverage, which directly impacts global climate.

Dragon cargo approaching on Jan. 12 2015 for its grapple and berthing. Photo: SpaceX.

Dragon after recovery.

Mission details:

• Dragon CRS-5 (SC7) was launched from Cape Canaveral on Jan 10, 2015 into a 206 x 353 km x 51.6 deg orbit.
  The 208-foot(63.4-m) tall Falcon 9 launcher fired its nine Merlin 1D main engines and throttled up to full power 1.3 million pounds (5.8 million N) of thrust, before climbing into the sky at 4:47:10 a.m. EST (0947:10 UT).
• The nine-engine first stage shut down at about T+plus 2 minutes, 40 seconds, and pneumatic pushers engaged to nudge the booster away from the Falcon 9's second stage, which ignited its single vacuum-rated Merlin 1D engine for a nearly seven minute burn as the rocket tracked northeast parallel to the U.S. East Coast.
• The first stage booster was programmed to turn around and guide itself back to Earth. SpaceX has tested the flyback maneuver into the Atlantic Ocean on previous launches, but Saturday′s flight was the first time engineers attempted to complete the booster′s descent with a controlled soft landing on a vessel specially outfitted to receive the rocket.
  The Falcon 9's first stage was supposed to re-light a subset of its nine Merlin engines three times to fly back toward the landing vessel, dubbed the autonomous spaceport drone ship by SpaceX. Some of the maneuvers were visible to observers at Cape Canaveral, as the booster appeared as a flickering bright orange star low on the northeast horizon.
• Four grid fins were added to the booster for aerodynamic stability, and the rocket stage was supposed to extend four carbon fiber-aluminum honeycomb legs that were folded against the cylindrical booster during liftoff.
  Emblazoned with the SpaceX logo and a bullseye, the autonomous spaceport drone ship's deck extends 300 feet [91.4 m] long and features deployable wings for a maximum width of 170 feet [51.8 m].
• The Falcon 9 first stage performed a fly back attempt to land around 360 km downrange at circa 78W 31N. The stage made a 'hard' landing on the ASDS (Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship). The first stage was destroyed when hydraulic fluid depletion made it tip over and hit the deck sideways, but the incident did not cause serious damage to the ship.
• The 9700 kg spacecraft carries 1823 kg of internal cargo and the 494 kg CATS lidar experiment from NASA-GSFC in the trunk. Inside Dragon are two PlanetLabs Flock-1d' cubesats and the AESP-14 1U cubesat from Brazil´s space agency AEB and the ITA technical institute. On Jan 12 Dragon was grappled by the SSRMS arm at 1054 UTC and berthed on the Harmony module at 1354 UTC. The cubesats were transferred internally to the Kibo module and will be deployed from the Kibo airlock. CATS was grappled by the Dextre robot on 2015 Jan 22 and unberthed from Dragon around 0700 UTC; it was then handed off to the JEM-RMS at around 1030 UTC and installed on the Kibo Exposed Facility at location EFU3 at about 1400 UTC.
• The Dragon CRS-5 cargo vehicle was unberthed form Harmony at about 17:00 UTC Feb 10, 2015 by the SSRMS arm, which released it at 19:10 UTC. The Dragon made its deorbit burn at 23:49 UTC, with trunk separation at 00:05 UTC Feb 11 and splashdown at about 00:44 UTC.
  Six of the PlanetLabs Flock-1b cubesats (Nos. 3, 4, 13, 14, 19, 20) were returned to Earth aboard CRS-5 without having been deployed, after 212 days in space.

External links:

• Spaceflight 101: Dragon SPX-5 mission
  
• Wikipedia: Dragon CRS-5 mission.

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel Cape Canaveral. Credit: #401

Launch cancel KSC. Credit: #401

Docking cancel Hawthorne. Credit: #401

Splashdown cancel Hawthorne. Credit: #401

Launch and unberthed cancel Moscou, ISS bordcancel. Credit: #401

Falcon crashes on the landing pad, cancel CC. Credit: #401