Cargo spacecraft "Dragon CRS-3"

Spacecraft nº:

SpaceX spacecraft nº: 4

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  39680 / 14022A Launch date - time  18 April 2014 - 19:25 UT Launch site  CC, SLC-40 Launch vehicle  Falcon-9 v1.1 Spacecraft  Cargo Dragon C105 Manufacturer  SpaceX Dimensions cabine  Height: 8.1m (27 ft) - Dia: 4m (13 ft) Launch mass   6000 kg Total cargo mass (kg)

Dragon being mated to Falcon 9.

Dragon CRS-3 grappled by the ISS.

Description:

• DRAGON CRS-3 was the fifth flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft and the third SpaceX operational mission contracted to NASA under a Commercial Resupply Services contract. This was the first launch of a Dragon capsule on the Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle, as previous launches used the much smaller v1.0 configuration. It was also the first time the F9 v1.1 has flown without a payload fairing, and the first experimental flight test of an ocean recovery of the first stage on a NASA/Dragon mission.
• 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.

Mission details:

• Delayed from Februari 11, 2014.
• The Dragon CRS-3 cargo ship took off from Cape Canaveral on Apr 18, 2014 and is in a 313 x 322 km orbit on course to rendezvous with ISS. This was the first time a Dragon has flown on the uprated Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket, and the first flight of a Falcon 9 with experimental landing legs on the first stage. Falcon 9 stage 1 reignited during descent after reaching probably around 120 km, and touched down vertically on the ocean after demonstrating that it could maintain its orientation during the return from space. The Falcon 9 second stage was deorbited over the Indian Ocean and destroyed during re-entry.
• The Dragon trunk carries the OPALS and HDEV experiments for laser communications and Earth imaging respectively. They will be installed on the ISS - JSC's HDEV is slated for the Columbus module EPF, and JPL's OPALS for the ELC-1 platform. Spacesuit EMU 3003 is also aboard Dragon. Total mass of Dragon CRS-3 at orbit insertion may be around 10000 kg, larger than earlier missions, but this is speculative as SpaceX has not released the mass information.
• Dragon CRS-3 completed its rendezvous with the ISS on Apr 20 and was grappled by the SSRMS robot arm at 1114 UTC. The arm berthed Dragon on the Harmony module's nadir CBM port at 1402 UTC, with the process completed at 1406 UTC.
• The hatch to Dragon CRS-3 was closed on May 17, 2014. Dragon was unberthed by the SSRMS Canadarm-2 at about 1200 UTC May 18 and released at 1326 UTC. The deorbit burn at 1812 to 1822 UTC was followed by trunk separation at about 1824 UTC, atmosphere entry at 1845 UTC and splashdown west of Baja California at 1905 UTC.
• Dragon's return cargo includes EMU 3015, launched on the last Shuttle mission in 2011 - it was only used for one spacewalk on its current flight - by Aki Hoshide on US EVA 18- and had a cooling malfunction.
  However, EMU 3015 has been used for 30 spacewalks during its 16 flights in space since 1996. Its core component, PLSS 1015, made 8 earlier flights as part of other EMUs). It has been reported by Aviation Week that some water leaked into the Dragon cabin after splashdown, but NASA says the cargo was not damaged.
• The OPALS laser comm payload launched wich Dragon CRS-3, was destroyed on reentry when the Dragon CRS10 trunk was jettisoned following deorbit burn on 19 Mar 2017.

External links:

• CRS-3 Mission overview
  
• Wikipedia: Dragon CRS-3 mission.

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel Cape Canaveral, Hand cancel. Credit: #401

Launch cancel CC, different cancel. Credit: #411

Berthed date cancel Houston. Credit: #401