Business, Space, Technology and Society

We Have A Launch Date

9 Comments

9 thoughts on “We Have A Launch Date”

  1. Interesting to note DM-2 has a 110 day on orbit endurance capability while docked to ISS. I’m expecting a 60 to 90 day mission, depending on when the USCV-1 capsule shows up at the Cape. The high end of that gives some margin for landing delays (e.g., if there’s a hurricane in the western Atlantic when the time comes). The August 30 launch date for USCV-1 is looking more and more likely.

  2. Here’s a stupid question– What’s the limit to the number of American capsules that can be docked at the same time? Do they have to share ports with cargo capsules?

    1. Dragon uses the CBM ports, which are the same ports for cargo. I think there are 3, but I’m not current on the ISS configuration. I think the 2 primary locations are Node 1 nadir and Node 2 nadir.

      Starliner will may dock at the PMA 2 or 3.

        1. Thanks. I tried to look it up, but I couldn’t find good information other than that Dragon used CBM. That didn’t make sense to me, as the CBM’s are slow and are meant for long duration connectivity. In an emergency, you wouldn’t want to wait all that long.

      2. IDS-1 went in the sea with CRS-7, so there’s just the two that made it up. I don’t think there’s a spare berthing port to mount another PMA either. When/if Axiom starts adding its modules, that’ll add 3 or 4 more docking ports.

  3. There are two IDS docking ports on ISS USOS, to be used by crew and cargo Dragons and Starliner. Soyuz and Progress use the three Russian docking ports (APAS still?) and Cygnus and HTV use the two remaining open berthing ports. I think there’s a third one that can’t be used because there’s other stuff in the way.

  4. This may be a preposterous question, but that never stops me; what will happen with the flag?

    There’s a US flag on ISS, left there by the last Shuttle mission, for the first US astronauts to arrive on a US vehicle.

    Will NASA let the DM-2 crew bring it home? Logically, of course they will – but will they really? I would not rule out it going to Boeing, sometimes next year, even if DM-2 flies to ISS in May of this year.

    1. The question isn’t preposterous but your notions about NASA anent Boeing are.

      It becomes clearer by the day that the erstwhile nexus of blatant Boeing favoritism at NASA was Bill Gerstenmaier. Since his ouster as HEOMD head last year Boeing has pretty obviously lost its “some animals are more equal than others” privileges there.

      The recently released NASA document detailing the decision criteria and vendor rankings in the Gateway Logistical Services competition recently won by SpaceX clearly shows former interim HEOMD head Ken Bowersox to have been no business-as-usual seat-filler pending the eventual arrival of Doug Loverro. It’s simply impossible to imagine the dismissive language describing the Boeing submission ever having been permitted to be placed in an official NASA document on Gerst’s watch, especially as the horror show that was OFT-1 had yet to occur.

      Loverro, once in place as long-term HEOMD head, could have countermanded all or part of Bowersox’s GLS evaluation but chose to let it stand. NASA HEOMD has, I think, now quietly passed the word to Chicago that Boeing is, in essence, on probation and that, far from enjoying its erstwhile “most-favored nation” status at NASA, now has something very like “least-favored nation” status instead.

      The flag will be coming home with Bob and Doug.

Comments are closed.