The Chinese Long March 9 is now in early tech development, and is projected to achieve c 10- 11 million lbs of thrust with an LEO payload of 130 tons or so. When the vague Moon mission was canceled a few years ago, SLS+Orion should also have been canceled. SLS would be useful for a Moon program, worthless for a Mars mission, but NASA has no Moon mission planned, officially formally because they’ve already “been there, done that”. You speculate about the non-existing SLS, so the obvious answer is another speculation that another yet non-existing rocket very likely will be a much better alternative. In 15 years or so when the SLS Block II is flying its first crew, SpaceX might very well have completed an even larger rocket very much cheaper. And NASA has no plans to develop any lunar lander (Orion can only land in Earth’s oceans), sooo… And if a Falcon Heavy can take 2/3 of the payload mass to LEO as the SLS Block I can do, at a few percent of the cost, then the SLS has no advantage other than direct surface-to-surface launches of 2-3 astronauts Earth-to-Moon. Not without multiple launches that dock in LEO. SLS, if it happens, could send an Apollo style mission to the Moon, but it isn’t deeper space than that. Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and planetary science and human spaceflight news. Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of the CRS-6 launch from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The ISS cannot function without regular deliveries of fresh cargo by station partners from Earth. The ship will remain berthed at the ISS for about five weeks. Dragon cargo vessel ready for mating to SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for CRS-6 mission launch to the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for April 13, 2015. Overall CRS-6 is the sixth SpaceX commercial resupply services mission and the seventh trip by a Dragon spacecraft to the station since 2012.ĬRS-6 marks the company’s sixth operational resupply mission to the ISS under a $1.6 Billion contract with NASA to deliver 20,000 kg (44,000 pounds) of cargo to the station during a dozen Dragon cargo spacecraft flights through 2016 under NASA’s original Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.ĭragon is packed with more than 4,300 pounds (1915 kilograms) of scientific experiments, technology demonstrations, crew supplies, spare parts, food, water, clothing and assorted research gear for the six person Expedition 43 and 44 crews serving aboard the ISS. The rocket broke into pieces upon hitting the barge. The booster did make it to the drone ship, positioned some 200 miles offshore of the Florida-Carolina coast, northeast of the launch site in the Atlantic Ocean. The first attempt in January during the CRS-5 mission was largely successful, as I wrote earlier at Universe Today, despite making a ‘hard landing’ on the ASDS. This marks the 2nd attempt by SpaceX to recovery the 14 story tall Falcon 9 first stage booster on the ASDS barge. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship are set to liftoff on a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from launch pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The ASDS measures only 300 by 100 feet, with wings that extend its width to 170 feet. It is being positioned some 200 to 250 miles offshore of the Carolina’s in the Atlantic Ocean along the rockets flight path flying along the US Northeast coast to match that of the ISS. The ocean-going barge is known as the ‘autonomous spaceport drone ship’ (ASDS). The SpaceX plan is to direct the spent 1st stage on a precision guided rocket assisted descent from high altitude to accomplish a pinpoint soft landing onto a tiny platform in the middle of a vast ocean.
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