Cargo spacecraft "Dragon CRS-14" (SpX-14)

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  43267 / 18032A Launch date - time  02 Apr 2018 - 20:30:38 UT Launch site  CCK, SLC-40 Launch vehicle  Falcon-9 v1.2 (B1039) Spacecraft  Cargo Dragon C110 Manufacturer  SpaceX Dimensions cabine  Height: 6.1m (20 ft) - Dia: 3.7m (12 ft) Dry mass   4200 kg Mass (kg)  6000 kg Cargo mass to ISS  2647 kg Pressurised  1721 kg Unpressurised)  926 kg Equipment  MISSE-FF, ASIM and PFCS Earth orbit:

Description:

• DRAGON CRS-14 is a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station, contracted to NASA. It is the X flight?? for SpaceX′s uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, and the nine?? SpaceX operational mission contracted to NASA under a Commercial Resupply Services contract. The mission brings equipment and supplies to the space station.

Mission details:

• On Apr 2, 2018 the Dragon CRS-14 cargo delivery mission was launched. The Falcon 9 first stage was B1039, on its second flight. It made a ballistic flight and tested ocean terminal maneuvers, but no recovery attempt was made. The second stage was, as always, a new stage. It placed Dragon in orbit and then made a deorbit burn to reenter over the Southern Ocean. The CRS-14 Dragon is the 16th Dragon mission. It used capsule 110, which flew previously on CRS-8, together with a new nosecap and a new trunk section.
• In the CRS-14 trunk were three payloads - MISSE-FF, ASIM and PFCS.
  • MISSE-FF, owned by private company Astra LLC, will be placed at ELC-2 Site 3 to host sample containers which expose various materials to space to see if they are good candidates to be used in building future satellites. Mass may be around 435 kg.
  • ASIM is the ESA Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor, for studying upper-atmosphere electrical discharges. It will go to the Columbus EPF and has a mass of 314 kg
  • PFCS is the Pump Flow Control System, a component of the Station&prme;s cooling system. It will be stored as a spare part outside the station, Mass of a PFCS unit is about 111 kg; this may not include the storage adapter which is probably another 50 kg.
• In CRS-14′s cabin is the 100 kg RemoveDebris payload from Surrey Satellite. It will be deployed from the ISS Kibo module and test technologies for active debris removal. RemoveDebris carries two 2U cubesat subsatellites which it will eject. It will attack one of them with a net and stalk the other one with sensors. It also will put a target card on a 1.5-metre boom and prang it with a tethered harpoon. The idea of RemoveDebris is to test tech for getting rid of space junk.
  The net around the cubesat will act as a drag sail to speed up the satellite′s reentry. The RemoveDebris payload itself carries a DeOrbitSail system to increase drag. The system was tested on a 2015 cubesat with partial success.
• Dragon CRS-14 arrived at the ISS on Apr 4. Canadarm-2 grappled it at 1:40 UTC and berthed it at Harmony nadir at 13:00 UTC.
• On Apr 6-8 the Canadarm-2 and Dextre robot arms removed the PFCS (Pump Flow Control System) and MISSE-FF payloads from the Dragon trunk.
  MISSE-FF was installed on Express Logistics Carrier 2; the DCSU-2 spare unit was temporarily removed to provide easier access to the install location and reinstalled afterwards.
• Also aboard the Dragon, as well as RemoveDebris discussed in the last issue, was a Japanese Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) carrying three cubesats: 1KUNS-PF, a 1U cube for the University of Nairobi, Kenya; the 3U UBAKUSAT for Istanbul Technical University, Turkey; and the 1U Irazu from Tecnologico de Costa Rica. They will be deployed from the Kibo module at a later date.
• On May 5, 2018 Dragon CRS-14 returned to Earth. The Canadarm-2 released it at 1323 UTC; the deorbit burn as at 1806 UTC and it splashed down at 30 N 123W around 1900 UTC.

Dragon capture

Dragon undocking

External links:

• Wikipedia: Dragon CRS-14 mission

Astrophilately covers:

Static Test firing, cancel Kennedy Space Center. Credit: #402

Launch cancel KSC. Credit: #411