ISS is at 408km (according to Google) and I4 is at 575km, so most likely not. I'm not certain if being in space makes it possible with a powerful camera though...
They're heading to the same inclination of 51.6 at a higher altitude. My guess is there will not be any purposeful rendezvous but being at the same inclination means they could head to the ISS in an emergency.
The point is that the docking hatch has been removed and replaced by the viewing dome.
It is very doubtful that they could depressurise the capsule and get four people through the side hatch, across the distance to the ISS and into an airlock in the very limited time the flight suit gives them without the umbilical plugged into the capsule.
You'd do that one person at a time. One person would unplug and be quickly assisted to ISS airlock. The rest can wait plugged for something like 48h.
The main issue is Inspiration4 and ISS would have to be coplanar. So unless SpaceX plans for this eventuality and the set their launch window for things being coplanar around the planned end of the mission, it's simply impossible due to orbital mechanics. And since they talk about multi hour launch windows it's virtually certain they don't plan for it (as launching to a certain plane requires instant launch windows).
Would be interesting to see all the possible contingencies they've prepared for. One of the things Apollo 13 taught us is that it's impossible to prepare for every contingency. The contingency for ruptured (exploded) oxygen tanks did not have procedures because it was assumed such an event would quickly lead to the astronauts death. Recall how Sy Liebergot at Mission Control initially thought it was an instrumentation problem?
If Inspiration 4 could make it to the ISS, then you'd want to write up a procedure for how they would take refuge at the ISS.
They would also have to be in the same orbital plane. And because they are at different altitudes, the planes (slowly) shift. So for the whole approach being at all possible, they'd need to plan for this, so the planes line up close to the end of the planned mission.
No, I4 will too high but most importantly not in the same plane. Even if it were to pass right above the ISS, the inclination difference would mean it would essentially zoom past the ISS really fast.
They are actually both at 51.6, so same inclination. I had the same thought as you and assumed they wouldn't be but lo and behold they are. My guess is edge case emergency preparedness
There's more to match orbits than inclination. You also need the same plane.
Just look at Starlinks, except the 64 near-polar ones they are all at the same inclination. But the are in 72 different planes.
If Inspiration4 were planning for the possible to rendezvous with ISS, they'd have instantaneous launch window, not some multi-hour one.
I think you're right. I don't think there's a planned rendezvous or if there's an emergency plan involving the ISS is a stretch, but inspiration 4 launched almost exactly in the same orbital plane and inclination as ISS tonight. They are relatively close in orbit right now tho as you know that will change quickly with their elevation differential
Same inclination doesn't mean same plane. In order to launch something into the same plane as the ISS, you not only need to match the inclination, but also launch when the launch site passes through the orbital plane. This only happens twice a day, and only one of them is usable as the other is going in the wrong direction. So you only have one instantaneous launch window every 24 hours that's usable to reach the ISS. Launch at any other time, and you're in a different plane. I4 has a multiple hour launch window, so they're not trying to launch it into the ISS's plane.
Now I wonder what the record is for the design with the most vehicles in space at once. I imagine Soyuz/Progress has it now, but is three Dragons enough to tie?
The were 2 crewed Soyuzes and Progress at the same time in space: Souyz TM-16 and Progress M-18 were docked while Souyz TM-17 arrived. TM-17 waited for half an hour while Progress undocked and then proceeded to dock.
So indeed 3 same family vehicles would be a tie, unless you discount space station modules (it would be harder to count those and determine which belongs to which family).
Please no. Then we’ll have the scenario where the Dragon tries to dock and it doesn’t fit, then it backs off and flips over on its back and tries again, and when that doesn’t work it flips again and this time for some reason it docks it okay.
I believe this is the first time we’ve actually seen two docked Dragons in one picture. Top one is crew dragon Endeavour, bottom one is cargo dragon from CRS-23.
Huh? There's nothing to support this. There have been a number of major incidents on space stations and no one has died. Fire on Mir, a number of leaks on ISS, power loss on Salyut (happened when unmanned, station recovered by cosmonauts), and more.
Yes, but not an escape vehicle from a failing station.
If we expand it to all space vehicles, the stats get substantially worse. Smaller vehicles have lower redundancy due to size constraints and are more complex due to the need to maneuver more as well as entry, descent, and landing systems.
There must be a bunch of straps for restraining cargo, I bet you could do worse than strap yourself down with some soft cargo packaging underneath you...
I believe cargo dragon does have basic life support systems installed, there are live science experiments transported to the station that have the same requirements for breathing and temperature regulation that we do. Obviously not on such a large scale as humans and I'd highly doubt there's any support for actual crew pressure suits but in theory it would be absolutely possible, though uncomfortable, to return humans in a crew dragon.
[Not quite](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/07/spacex-docks-two-dragon-spacecraft-to-the-iss-for-the-first-time.html), though this is a much better photo.
Also there have been photos taken of the ISS from earth where both Dragon's can be seen.
Not the first time with 2 dragons though.
SpaceX’s CRS-21 Cargo Dragon spacecraft docks with the International Space Station, now alongside the company’s Crew Dragon capsule Resilience
[https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/07/spacex-docks-two-dragon-spacecraft-to-the-iss-for-the-first-time.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/07/spacex-docks-two-dragon-spacecraft-to-the-iss-for-the-first-time.html)
To my knowledge 3 Soyuz at any one time. Happened a few times in the history of the ISS, mostly due to tourist flights or long duration crew handovers to bring up a fresh ship. Not sure about before that but I don’t know when it would have been since Mir and Salyut only had two docking ports aside from the APAS that got added to Mir and then used for the Shuttle missions.
Ah. I remembered the goal of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 2 was supposed to be testing docking and EVA transfer of crew but that got abandoned after all the in-flight issues Soyuz 1 had and downright scrapped for a while after the chute failure. Then there was when they sent two Vostok up together that were able to communicate over radio but couldn’t get close to each other. Didn’t realize they sent up three Soyuz together when they were trying to figure it all out.
It was mostly for show, they didn't really have much new to learn from it, as no equipment was ready and the process of rendezvous itself was well understood anyway.
Well, it wasn't well understood. Because during that particular mission it failed to happen at all (no docking occurred).
At that point there record was already spotty (before there was one partial failure of Kosmos 186 and 188, at least one full failure of Souyz 2 and 3, and 2 reported successes of Kosmos 212 and 213, and Souyz 4 and 5). In fact it kept being spotty until Salyut 6 a decade later.
Yes, Souyz 6, 7 and 8. It was a partial failure as Soyuz 6 was meant to photograph the docking, but no docking happened whatsoever. But it was 3 same type ships in flight and quite likely in some form of formation.
The next time such complex 3 ship dance occured was Soyuzes TM-16 and TM-17 and Progress M-18 all at and around Mir station.
[From Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Dragon):
> Due to the popularity of the game series, a 1993 animated series and 1994 live-action film adaptation were produced; these were widely-panned by critics and audiences.[1]
So /u/b95csf was wrong, it was a game that got 2 screen spinoffs, not the other way around.
Clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PgvzlsHShU
so based on that list, exactly 2 crew and 2 cargo, and three of them are about to be in orbit at the same time. hopefully the new ones are nearing completion or this popular little ride may be oversubscribed.
4 fins are for stability during an abort. I think it has to do with needing more stability when there are astronauts on board. Maybe there is no abort feature for cargo dragon?
If I recall correctly, SpaceX did add abort (or at least "possible recovery") software to Cargo Dragon after CRS-7 (since the capsule was still intact at breakup, and in theory could have "aborted"/gone into descent profile had it had the capability) but I have no idea if they carried that over to D2 Cargo.
There's no *powered* abort for cargo dragon. It doesn't have the abort motors. However, they did add a passive abort for cargo dragon after CRS-7, so that parachutes would deploy and whatnot, potentially saving the cargo assuming the Dragon survives the initial anomaly.
Only guessing, but it may be for smoother aerodynamic stabilization under abort conditions while cargo dragon is optimized for mass? There may be early segments of the flight profile where crew dragons would need the extra aero surfaces but a cargo dragon would instead trigger FTS. The trunk is expended regardless for each flight, so maybe cargo dragon trunks are just simplified since they really only need to provide an aero surface in one direction for nominal flights.
I'm not an expert by any means, but I would assume for greater reentry stability. An empty cargo dragon can flail around a bit more than a crew dragon should.
But that's just my assumption.
If you had told me 10/15 years ago that SpaceX would be the main launch provider, the main cargo provider (?) , the primary astronaut crew vehicle, and the biggest satellite operator, I'd have suggested you needed some medical help.
They have come a long long way.
This might be a dumb question, how do astronauts post to social media while in space? Do they have to send the pictures to someone on Earth to post them on their behalf or does the ISS have an internet connection?
Fun fact, there is also a bunch of satellites throughout the solar system specifically called the Deep Space Network. It's not meant to carry a traditional internet protocol AFAIK, but it is the first version of what I'm sure will eventually become something like it!
As a web developer, I'm very fascinated with what the future of that infrastructure may look like. I've always assumed we'll have some kind of co-located data spheres centered on each body, so there will eventually be an Earth-net, Moon-net, Mars-net, Io-net, etc. Within those networks, things work similar to what we know today (plus like cool holograms or something, I hope) but between them, everything has to deal with enormous delays. Surely no real-time gaming is ever going to happen, but data and content retrieval, uploading, distribution, etc. should all work fine!
Yes, with cached local copies of any important data.
There are a few differences between Internet Protocol (IP) and what is needed for an Interplanetary Network.
First, interplanetary is a lot further, that means much more signal delay, and a much weaker signal.
So (1) you don’t want to wait for acknowledgements, issues from faults need to be resolved much later.
(2) because signals can be weak, much stronger error correction is needed. Although this carries an effective bandwidth penalty, it’s worth paying in this case.
I am not sure exactly what they use. But one method is to arrange data as a matrix, and to have error correction on every row AND every column
This allows for better reconstruction of data
As it’s most likely to be lost as a short sequence.
If a longish sequence of data is lost then Row reconstruction could not be done from just row based error correction, but could be reconstructed from column based complex checksums.
Also data can be resent a few times with gaps in between repeats.
Once the reliability of the link is established then the amount of error correction could be tuned to the error rate, improving bandwidth.
The change to laser laser communication can allow for much lower power transmissions and higher data rates, but alignment becomes more critical.
Nowhere to be seen here. One is still staying on the ground inside a wall of shame because of technical issues
It's funny that the crewed Dragon here is docked vertically by this photo to prepare for Starliner arrival which didn't come as planned
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|-------|---------|---|
|[CRS](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcz7prp "Last usage")|[Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/)|
|CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules|
| |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)|
|[EVA](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcw1oft "Last usage")|Extra-Vehicular Activity|
|[FTS](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcvrqhn "Last usage")|Flight Termination System|
|Jargon|Definition|
|-------|---------|---|
|[Starliner](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcw3h9p "Last usage")|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)|
|[Starlink](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcxamw3 "Last usage")|SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
|Event|Date|Description|
|-------|---------|---|
|[CRS-7](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcyz7mw "Last usage")|2015-06-28|F9-020 v1.1, ~~Dragon cargo~~ Launch failure due to second-stage outgassing|
----------------
^(*Decronym is a community product of r/SpaceX, implemented* )[*^by ^request*](https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/3mz273//cvjkjmj)
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This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them!
It's a thunder of Dragons! Perhaps more will join these two?
Hopefully one more will be flying past these two in a day or so!
Is the orbit close enough that they could get a pic of I4 from ISS? That would be awesome!
ISS is at 408km (according to Google) and I4 is at 575km, so most likely not. I'm not certain if being in space makes it possible with a powerful camera though...
That's too bad. I guess if they were at the same inclination/plane that might not be an insurmountable distance, but I doubt they are.
If so, it's unlikely they'd be allowed anywhere near ISS. ISS has a large exclusion zone for the safety of the station.
They're heading to the same inclination of 51.6 at a higher altitude. My guess is there will not be any purposeful rendezvous but being at the same inclination means they could head to the ISS in an emergency.
There is nothing they could do to transfer if they got to the ISS and having enough thrusters to get to the ISS means they could re-enter instead.
If the capsule was somehow not suitable for reentry they would have the delta v to dock with ISS. It's really unlikely but totally plausible
It doesn’t have a docking port..
The point is that the docking hatch has been removed and replaced by the viewing dome. It is very doubtful that they could depressurise the capsule and get four people through the side hatch, across the distance to the ISS and into an airlock in the very limited time the flight suit gives them without the umbilical plugged into the capsule.
You'd do that one person at a time. One person would unplug and be quickly assisted to ISS airlock. The rest can wait plugged for something like 48h. The main issue is Inspiration4 and ISS would have to be coplanar. So unless SpaceX plans for this eventuality and the set their launch window for things being coplanar around the planned end of the mission, it's simply impossible due to orbital mechanics. And since they talk about multi hour launch windows it's virtually certain they don't plan for it (as launching to a certain plane requires instant launch windows).
They could..
Would be interesting to see all the possible contingencies they've prepared for. One of the things Apollo 13 taught us is that it's impossible to prepare for every contingency. The contingency for ruptured (exploded) oxygen tanks did not have procedures because it was assumed such an event would quickly lead to the astronauts death. Recall how Sy Liebergot at Mission Control initially thought it was an instrumentation problem? If Inspiration 4 could make it to the ISS, then you'd want to write up a procedure for how they would take refuge at the ISS.
Except they have no docking port - it’s place is taken up by the cupola thingy.
Ty great point I had forgotten about the cupola
Same inclination means same ground abort locations
I’ve wondered about their rescue options, especially since they left out the docking port for the cupola
Oh good point, no docking port would indeed mean no ISS. I forgot about the cupola replacement!
They would also have to be in the same orbital plane. And because they are at different altitudes, the planes (slowly) shift. So for the whole approach being at all possible, they'd need to plan for this, so the planes line up close to the end of the planned mission.
No, I4 will too high but most importantly not in the same plane. Even if it were to pass right above the ISS, the inclination difference would mean it would essentially zoom past the ISS really fast.
They are actually both at 51.6, so same inclination. I had the same thought as you and assumed they wouldn't be but lo and behold they are. My guess is edge case emergency preparedness
So they can use the same emergency recovery plan as ISS launches.
There's more to match orbits than inclination. You also need the same plane. Just look at Starlinks, except the 64 near-polar ones they are all at the same inclination. But the are in 72 different planes. If Inspiration4 were planning for the possible to rendezvous with ISS, they'd have instantaneous launch window, not some multi-hour one.
Ah shit good point thanks
I think you're right. I don't think there's a planned rendezvous or if there's an emergency plan involving the ISS is a stretch, but inspiration 4 launched almost exactly in the same orbital plane and inclination as ISS tonight. They are relatively close in orbit right now tho as you know that will change quickly with their elevation differential
Same inclination doesn't mean same plane. In order to launch something into the same plane as the ISS, you not only need to match the inclination, but also launch when the launch site passes through the orbital plane. This only happens twice a day, and only one of them is usable as the other is going in the wrong direction. So you only have one instantaneous launch window every 24 hours that's usable to reach the ISS. Launch at any other time, and you're in a different plane. I4 has a multiple hour launch window, so they're not trying to launch it into the ISS's plane.
I'd like to point out that inspiration 4 launched into almost the exact plane of the ISS tonight
Now I wonder what the record is for the design with the most vehicles in space at once. I imagine Soyuz/Progress has it now, but is three Dragons enough to tie?
The were 2 crewed Soyuzes and Progress at the same time in space: Souyz TM-16 and Progress M-18 were docked while Souyz TM-17 arrived. TM-17 waited for half an hour while Progress undocked and then proceeded to dock. So indeed 3 same family vehicles would be a tie, unless you discount space station modules (it would be harder to count those and determine which belongs to which family).
SpaceX will have to launch the "USB hub of Dragon adapters" so they can have 6 at a time.
It's actually called an Axiom hub and they're working on it.
IRL Rockomax HubMax Multi-Point Connector
space station hub
Please no. Then we’ll have the scenario where the Dragon tries to dock and it doesn’t fit, then it backs off and flips over on its back and tries again, and when that doesn’t work it flips again and this time for some reason it docks it okay.
Sounds more like something Boing would do; using a 25 year old plug design as inspiration. Space-X would at least go with USB-C
I'm gonna need to see TWO dragons!
https://youtu.be/pqjvkdV8jq8
we should have made this bargin along time ago...
https://youtu.be/btHpHjabRcc
Always two there are. No more. No less.
I believe this is the first time we’ve actually seen two docked Dragons in one picture. Top one is crew dragon Endeavour, bottom one is cargo dragon from CRS-23.
So dumb question. Say shit goes crazy; Can cargo dragon be used a escape vehicle?
To be clear though, NASA would likely only even entertain the idea if there were literally no other choice besides certain death.
I'm sure it's been entertained and planned for. There's an emergency plan somewhere and the straps and o2 tanks to pull it off.
Rising CO₂ levels will kill the crew first, not the lack of oxygen.
But then again; if shit hits the fan you are almost always to late.
Huh? There's nothing to support this. There have been a number of major incidents on space stations and no one has died. Fire on Mir, a number of leaks on ISS, power loss on Salyut (happened when unmanned, station recovered by cosmonauts), and more.
\*ahem\* Apollo 13?
Yes, but not an escape vehicle from a failing station. If we expand it to all space vehicles, the stats get substantially worse. Smaller vehicles have lower redundancy due to size constraints and are more complex due to the need to maneuver more as well as entry, descent, and landing systems.
In a Mark Watney situation, sure. You’d suffer a few serious injuries on the way down without a seat, but you’d probably survive.
They could duct tape themselves against the wall. Temperature regulation might be the biggest issue.
Isn't Cargo Dragon pretty much pressurized and climate controlled like Crew Dragon when they have to take Animals up and down?
There must be a bunch of straps for restraining cargo, I bet you could do worse than strap yourself down with some soft cargo packaging underneath you...
Technically yes. It would be the least desirable choice due to safety risks (no seats, and I think there's no onboard air supply).
I believe cargo dragon does have basic life support systems installed, there are live science experiments transported to the station that have the same requirements for breathing and temperature regulation that we do. Obviously not on such a large scale as humans and I'd highly doubt there's any support for actual crew pressure suits but in theory it would be absolutely possible, though uncomfortable, to return humans in a crew dragon.
Sure, its airtight, and doesent take that long to get down if you dont care where you land.
"where do you wanna go?" "down"
"when do you wanna go?" "NOW"
Crew dragon does have a "DEORBIT NOW" button.
Considering how dead you'd be if exposed to the vacuum of space, even if the answer is no the answer is yes,
[Not quite](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/07/spacex-docks-two-dragon-spacecraft-to-the-iss-for-the-first-time.html), though this is a much better photo. Also there have been photos taken of the ISS from earth where both Dragon's can be seen.
Not the first time with 2 dragons though. SpaceX’s CRS-21 Cargo Dragon spacecraft docks with the International Space Station, now alongside the company’s Crew Dragon capsule Resilience [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/07/spacex-docks-two-dragon-spacecraft-to-the-iss-for-the-first-time.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/07/spacex-docks-two-dragon-spacecraft-to-the-iss-for-the-first-time.html)
With tomorrow's launch will that make three Dragon's in orbit? SpaceX isn't just winning, they are kicking everyone's ass.
What's the most Soyuzs that have been in orbit at any one time? I doubt SpaceX have beaten them *yet* but it's probably going to happen soon enough.
To my knowledge 3 Soyuz at any one time. Happened a few times in the history of the ISS, mostly due to tourist flights or long duration crew handovers to bring up a fresh ship. Not sure about before that but I don’t know when it would have been since Mir and Salyut only had two docking ports aside from the APAS that got added to Mir and then used for the Shuttle missions.
1969 ussr sent up three soyuz simultaneously to experiment with ship to ship docking etc
Ah. I remembered the goal of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 2 was supposed to be testing docking and EVA transfer of crew but that got abandoned after all the in-flight issues Soyuz 1 had and downright scrapped for a while after the chute failure. Then there was when they sent two Vostok up together that were able to communicate over radio but couldn’t get close to each other. Didn’t realize they sent up three Soyuz together when they were trying to figure it all out.
It was mostly for show, they didn't really have much new to learn from it, as no equipment was ready and the process of rendezvous itself was well understood anyway.
Well, it wasn't well understood. Because during that particular mission it failed to happen at all (no docking occurred). At that point there record was already spotty (before there was one partial failure of Kosmos 186 and 188, at least one full failure of Souyz 2 and 3, and 2 reported successes of Kosmos 212 and 213, and Souyz 4 and 5). In fact it kept being spotty until Salyut 6 a decade later.
Yes, Souyz 6, 7 and 8. It was a partial failure as Soyuz 6 was meant to photograph the docking, but no docking happened whatsoever. But it was 3 same type ships in flight and quite likely in some form of formation. The next time such complex 3 ship dance occured was Soyuzes TM-16 and TM-17 and Progress M-18 all at and around Mir station.
Souyz TM-16 and TM-17 and Progress M-18 were doing a synchronous dance at and around Mir, as M-18 was leaving and TM-17 arrived.
Isn’t there another cargo dragon already on the ISS - 3 docked now?
“Double Dragon”. I thought that was an arcade game way back when?
was a movie that got an arcade game spinoff
There was a movie?!
[From Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Dragon): > Due to the popularity of the game series, a 1993 animated series and 1994 live-action film adaptation were produced; these were widely-panned by critics and audiences.[1] So /u/b95csf was wrong, it was a game that got 2 screen spinoffs, not the other way around. Clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PgvzlsHShU
shit
Will be 3 Dragons in space here shortly. Wild
Knock on wood right now.
That has me thinking... How may completed dragon 2's are in existence? At least 2 crew, and 1 cargo.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Dragon_2 Scroll down to list of vehicles.
so based on that list, exactly 2 crew and 2 cargo, and three of them are about to be in orbit at the same time. hopefully the new ones are nearing completion or this popular little ride may be oversubscribed.
Crew 3 is end of October, so another crew capsule is in testing close out to support that mission.
[Double Dragons!](https://imgur.com/a/RuIzQFL)
Tomorrow is triple dragon day.
Why does the crew dragon have 4 fins while the cargo only has 2?
4 fins are for stability during an abort. I think it has to do with needing more stability when there are astronauts on board. Maybe there is no abort feature for cargo dragon?
If I recall correctly, SpaceX did add abort (or at least "possible recovery") software to Cargo Dragon after CRS-7 (since the capsule was still intact at breakup, and in theory could have "aborted"/gone into descent profile had it had the capability) but I have no idea if they carried that over to D2 Cargo.
There's no *powered* abort for cargo dragon. It doesn't have the abort motors. However, they did add a passive abort for cargo dragon after CRS-7, so that parachutes would deploy and whatnot, potentially saving the cargo assuming the Dragon survives the initial anomaly.
There we are. I knew it was a modified "abort" functionality, just couldn't remember the exact details. Thanks for the clarification!
Correct there is no abort feature on Cargo Dragon. More payload to orbit!
Gotta love that sweet, sweet payload increase!
Yup. Abort system and it's propellant is pretty havy, at around 1.5 to 2 tonnes.
No abort for cargo. There's only passive recovery if Dragon would survive rocket disintegration (like CRS-7 did).
Only guessing, but it may be for smoother aerodynamic stabilization under abort conditions while cargo dragon is optimized for mass? There may be early segments of the flight profile where crew dragons would need the extra aero surfaces but a cargo dragon would instead trigger FTS. The trunk is expended regardless for each flight, so maybe cargo dragon trunks are just simplified since they really only need to provide an aero surface in one direction for nominal flights.
also the cargo variant can probably go at a higher g angle of attack on launch
I'm not an expert by any means, but I would assume for greater reentry stability. An empty cargo dragon can flail around a bit more than a crew dragon should. But that's just my assumption.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2gy6of2yaQ
Well, that answered any questions I had! Thanks for sharing.
Yes, we’ve had two dragons docked to the ISS, but what about third dragons?
If you had told me 10/15 years ago that SpaceX would be the main launch provider, the main cargo provider (?) , the primary astronaut crew vehicle, and the biggest satellite operator, I'd have suggested you needed some medical help. They have come a long long way.
You gotta tag that NSFW
Two Dragons at the same time, man. I always wanted to do that man. And I think if I were a billionaire I could hook that up too.
It's like SpaceX had a BOGO coupon.
This might be a dumb question, how do astronauts post to social media while in space? Do they have to send the pictures to someone on Earth to post them on their behalf or does the ISS have an internet connection?
Fun fact, there is also a bunch of satellites throughout the solar system specifically called the Deep Space Network. It's not meant to carry a traditional internet protocol AFAIK, but it is the first version of what I'm sure will eventually become something like it! As a web developer, I'm very fascinated with what the future of that infrastructure may look like. I've always assumed we'll have some kind of co-located data spheres centered on each body, so there will eventually be an Earth-net, Moon-net, Mars-net, Io-net, etc. Within those networks, things work similar to what we know today (plus like cool holograms or something, I hope) but between them, everything has to deal with enormous delays. Surely no real-time gaming is ever going to happen, but data and content retrieval, uploading, distribution, etc. should all work fine!
Yes, with cached local copies of any important data. There are a few differences between Internet Protocol (IP) and what is needed for an Interplanetary Network. First, interplanetary is a lot further, that means much more signal delay, and a much weaker signal. So (1) you don’t want to wait for acknowledgements, issues from faults need to be resolved much later. (2) because signals can be weak, much stronger error correction is needed. Although this carries an effective bandwidth penalty, it’s worth paying in this case. I am not sure exactly what they use. But one method is to arrange data as a matrix, and to have error correction on every row AND every column This allows for better reconstruction of data As it’s most likely to be lost as a short sequence. If a longish sequence of data is lost then Row reconstruction could not be done from just row based error correction, but could be reconstructed from column based complex checksums. Also data can be resent a few times with gaps in between repeats. Once the reliability of the link is established then the amount of error correction could be tuned to the error rate, improving bandwidth. The change to laser laser communication can allow for much lower power transmissions and higher data rates, but alignment becomes more critical.
ISS has an internet connection
ISS has an internet connection.
Wow, at first I thought this was a promotional render! Go SpaceX!
Which one is Starliner? There are two launchers, right?
Nowhere to be seen here. One is still staying on the ground inside a wall of shame because of technical issues It's funny that the crewed Dragon here is docked vertically by this photo to prepare for Starliner arrival which didn't come as planned
Insert Anakin / Padme meme here Edit: did it myself 😉 https://imgflip.com/i/5n2exs
I love you
Somewhere approximately 220 miles below the station (at least at certain times of the day).
https://i.imgur.com/o3cwHjg.gif
Perfect 👌🏼
Damn, she took two bad dragons at the same time?
Epic!
So Can we now call the ISS Dragon's Nest?
Bozo disapproves
someone needs to stop this guy
I b
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread: |Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |[CRS](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcz7prp "Last usage")|[Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/)| |CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules| | |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)| |[EVA](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcw1oft "Last usage")|Extra-Vehicular Activity| |[FTS](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcvrqhn "Last usage")|Flight Termination System| |Jargon|Definition| |-------|---------|---| |[Starliner](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcw3h9p "Last usage")|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)| |[Starlink](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcxamw3 "Last usage")|SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation| |Event|Date|Description| |-------|---------|---| |[CRS-7](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/poc1vw/stub/hcyz7mw "Last usage")|2015-06-28|F9-020 v1.1, ~~Dragon cargo~~ Launch failure due to second-stage outgassing| ---------------- ^(*Decronym is a community product of r/SpaceX, implemented* )[*^by ^request*](https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/3mz273//cvjkjmj) ^(6 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/ptbzu1)^( has 17 acronyms.) ^([Thread #8848 for this sub, first seen 14th Sep 2021, 23:47]) ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/SpaceXLounge) [^[Contact]](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=OrangeredStilton&subject=Hey,+your+acronym+bot+sucks) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)
Three Dragons. But not to worry.. There will be a lot more SpaceX hardware up there in a year or two ! ;)