Posted: May 24, 2012 06:16 pm EDT
(Tina Sjogren) "If the rocket engines miss their target by as little as 0.2 percent, achieving your desired orbit will not be possible and the Earth will repossess your spacecraft in a not-so-gentle way," dispatched Don Pettit not long ago from ISS.
No kidding, said Elon Musk, fighting to get Falcon 9 off ground.
"This is like being two pennies short of a 10-dollar purchase," Don explained, "for the space shuttle, the difference between a trans-Atlantic abort to Spain and reaching orbit happened in the last eight seconds of powered flight. For both bull riders and astronauts, eight seconds is a long time."
Elon chimed in: "The public out there, they may not realize the space station is zooming around the Earth every 90 minutes and it's going 17,000 miles an hour," he added, "so you've got to launch up there, you've got to rendezvous and be tracking the space station to within inches, really, and this is a thing that's going 12 times faster than the bullet from an assault rifle."
To avoid shooting down the space station with Don Pettit in it, SpaceX aborted the first mission but a second attempt on Tuesday went spotless, and now you'll probably really want to check in on Don's blog.
According to CNET today (find the stream in the world news section and at the Pythom app), if all goes well, flight controllers are expected to maneuver the cargo ship to within just 30 feet of the station early Friday: at that point, Don Pettit, operating the lab's robot arm, plans to lock on and pull the Dragon capsule in for berthing around 11:30 a.m. EDT.
So far all good: SpaceX Mission Director John Couluri said "we fly by the mantra of 'train like you fly, and then fly like you train."
An earlier story by Explorersweb showed interest for the International Space Station (ISS) at 8-year record level. People's interest in space is not related, instead it seems NASA have two hits on their hands: Angry Birds Space and Elon Musk getting ready to dock with ISS.
The ever present star: a feature at Angry Birds asks if you want to know more about gravity (vital when throwing rocks at pigs) and the link goes to Don Pettit.
Commercial, private or national expeditions? In Space it seems all will be useful to reach the next frontier.
Related:
Blank bullet: SpaceX abort launch
Dat Sh*t Cray for ISS (not Space) at record high
ISS Live vs. Angry Birds Space: ExWeb App review
ExWeb Space roundup, final: The "M" word
ExWeb Space Roundup, Part 3: The Iron Man
ISS Live vs. Angry Birds Space: ExWeb App review
#Mountaineering #Space #topstory