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  • It's just after 11:30 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, March 6, and you're looking at a live view of Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 where Falcon nine is about to launch a Dragon Spacecraft Liftoff is targeted for 11:50 p.m. Eastern time or 4 50 coordinated universal time.

  • I'm Kate Thais, a senior program reliability engineer here at Space X.

  • It's great to be here with you to cover our 20th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.

  • For NASA, tonight's mission is a special one as we bid farewell to the first version of our Dragon vehicle, which made its to be debut in 2012 as the first private spacecraft in history to visit the International Space Station.

  • To this day, Dragon is the only spacecraft currently flying that's capable of transporting significant amounts of cargo, too, and from Earth beginning with C.

  • R S 21 we're excited to be flying an upgraded version of Dragon spacecraft that will not only be capable of flying cargo but also people for tonight's mission.

  • We're targeting an instantaneous launch window.

  • If we're delayed, scrubbed or abort for any reason, we will move to our backup launch date, which is currently scheduled for tomorrow at 11:27 p.m. Eastern time.

  • We're just about to hit the T minus 13 minute mark and counting with all systems currently go at both our Kid Canaveral Mission Control Center and our headquarter mission control center here in Hawthorne, California So let's take a closer look at today's Falcon nine and Dragon Spacecraft out on the Path.

  • My name is Jesse Anderson and I'ma leave manufacturing engineer here at Space six.

  • Tonight we will be delivering approximately £4500 of cargo to the space station, including critical materials to support dozens of science and research investigations that will occur on board the our orbiting laboratory.

  • We'll go a little bit more into detail on some of that research later on in tonight's Webcast, this will be Space sexes, fifth launched this year, and we'll be launching a flight proven Dragon spacecraft, which flew twice before back on Sierra's 10 in 2017 and Sierra 16 in 2018.

  • Dragon was designed from the beginning to be reused, so this will be our third mission, flying the same vehicle for the third time to the International Space Station.

  • This marks our ninth mission re Flying Dragon.

  • We'll also be flying a reused booster, which supported our last year.

  • Asked Mission back in December.

  • It's a date we've had 80 successful launches, a Falcon nine and 30.

  • Out of that, 80 were on re flown boosters, which is almost half of those launches.

  • Tonight we will be bringing Falcon nine back to land at Landing Zone one in Cape Canaveral for use on future missions.

  • For those keeping count.

  • If we successfully land Falcon nine tonight, this will mark our 50th booster.

  • Landing above the first stage is the second state, which has a single Merlin vacuum or what we call em back engine, which ignites after the first aid separates.

  • The second stage is what will carry Dragon to its intended orbit, allowing the spacecraft to eventually rendezvous with the space station.

  • With that, let's check in with Kate to get a status update on tonight's mission.

  • It's t minus 11 minutes almost, and the Space six team is working no significant issues.

  • The go no Go poll was conducted at T minus 38 minutes, and propellant loading began shortly thereafter.

  • at T minus 35 minutes.

  • At this point, our P one is few Is plea loaded on stage two and nearly complete on stage one.

  • Liquid oxygen loading is underway on both stages and will complete at T minus two minutes to launch were also loading helium gas into both stages.

  • Falcon nine uses helium as a pressure into backfill the propellant tanks as both locks and R P one are consumed by the Merlin engines during ascent, Dragon also began its startup sequence at T minus 35 minutes when it coordinated timing with Falcon nine.

  • It's currently undergoing vehicle health checks in with the next big step at T minus eight minutes.

  • When dragon transitions over to internal battery power, the range is ready to support.

  • Now we have had our eyes on those winds going on this evening.

  • But within the last 20 minutes they have been trending in the right direction.

  • So looking good there for now, as with the launch team, Falcon nine, Dragon and Ranger reporting green and at T minus 10 minutes on the dot.

  • All systems are currently go.

  • Nice mission will be the last for this version of our dragon vehicle, which began making trips to the space station back in 2012 becoming the first privately developed spacecraft to do so since Dragons First Flight Spacecraft has spent 520 days attached to the international space age.

  • That's almost a year and 1/2 today.

  • Dragon has made a total of 20 trips to the station, flying over £95,000 of cargo and returning over £76,000 of part cargo back to and it's eight years of service.

  • Dragon has also delivered some really cool and vital scientific experiments to the orbiting laboratory, and tonight's mission is no different.

  • Dragon will be carrying dozens of research payloads from the space station, including the research in the national laboratory operated by the Center for the Advancement of Science In Space or Cases.

  • There are more than 20 payloads included on this mission, sponsored by the National Last the National Lab.

  • Payloads represent a diverse group of research investigations, all of which are intended to benefit life here on Earth.

  • Let's take a look at some of the groundbreaking research from cases that will be aboard the CRS 20 Mission.

  • Space X is first commercial Resupplies Service's mission of 2020 is absolutely loaded with research to benefit life.

  • Honor this mark.

  • Space X is 20th Resupply mission to the space station.

  • So what's on this mission?

  • Let's take a sneak peek.

  • Adidas The Shoe and Apparel Time will be sending its proprietary boost.

  • Shoot technology to station for evaluation.

  • With this experiment, Adidas will observe the flow of different sized phone particles and Michael Gravity to improve product design for athletes around the world.

  • Delta Possible Investigate water drop in formation on the space station to enhance the company's H 20 kinetic showerhead technology.

  • This technology takes an innovative approach to water conservation by controlling the size and speed of water droplets so the water pressure feels the same, even though the showerhead is dispensing less.

  • One.

  • This study will explore ways to better control water droplets to further enhance the H 20 kinetic technology.

  • In addition, both the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health are funding multiple investigations on this mission.

  • The National Science Foundation, supporting an investigation examining Ka Lloyd's and Suspensions and Michael Gravity to advance three D printing technology space based environments while in cats a branch of the National Institutes of Health continues to build on the tissue chips and space program by funding to investigations seeking new ways to study human disease and test potential drugs.

  • Lastly, several projects flying on this mission are from startups that have received funding through the Mass Challenge Technology and Space Prize awarded by Boeing and the Isis National Lab.

  • These projects are looking at drug development technology for medical diagnostics and new drug delivery methods to improve patient care on Earth.

  • There's a lot going on with this mission, and this is just a quick snapshot of some of the investigations launching on Space X e Rs 20 to get an idea about all Isis national ad sponsored payloads on this mission, I encourage you to visit our Web page at Isis national lab dot old.

  • This is just a small sample of the dozens of research experiments that Dragon will take up to the space station.

  • You can follow at Space Underscore Station on Twitter for more information on the exciting microgravity research happening on the orbiting lab.

  • Wear currently under contract with NASA to resupply the space station through 2024 as a part of our second commercial resupply service's contract aboard these missions will use the next version of Dragon, which can fly both cargo and people.

  • In fact, this past week we celebrated the one year anniversary of Demo one, which marked the first time a privately developed crew capable spacecraft visited the space station.

  • Flying NASA astronauts and helping keep the space station fully operational is a top priority for Space six, and our first mission with NASA astronauts is coming up later this year.

  • On top of that, we have more exciting news.

  • Space X has signed a contract with Axiom Space to fly four Axiom crew members on a crew dragon flight to and from the International Space Station.

  • Axiom will provide NASA certified crew training and operational management for the mission, which is set to launch as soon as the second half of 2020.

  • This'll be history's first fully private human spaceflight to the space station and the first in a series of missions that will provide unprecedented access to the orbiting laboratory.

  • All of these missions weather for NASA astronauts, international astronauts or for the regular citizen are all key steps towards making human race multi planetary.

  • We're currently just under the team minute, five minute mark and counting down to an 11:50 p.m. Eastern launch to the international Space Station.

  • In these last few minutes, Falcon nine is performing final health checks on its primary communications, avionics and propulsion systems in preparation for flight has mentioned earlier.

  • We're currently loading liquid oxygen into the propellant tanks.

  • Fuel loading for both stage one and Stage two is now complete.

  • AT T minus seven minute mark We began ended chilling that when we inject a small amount of super chilled liquid oxygen to prepare the nine em Wendy engine turbo pumps for full proper flow during flight, you might hear the call out that enters air sufficiently chilled in later in the countdown checkouts of the second stage thrust vector control actuators, or TV.

  • See Ace, as you might hear them called, are now underway.

  • You'll often hear people refer to this as an engine wiggle test.

  • This is when we moved the thrust nozzle slightly to make sure that the guidance hardware is go for flight.

  • First stage engines also wiggle, but they do that just before it's just seconds before ignition at T minus one minute.

  • Falcon nine flight computers will enter start up mode and guide the rocket through the rest of the countdown space.

  • Such basics.

  • Launch director gives the go for launch.

  • Call at T minus 45 seconds.

  • Finally, a few seconds before liftoff, the engines are ignited.

  • AT T zero.

  • The rocket is released from the hold down clamps for lift off, after which the strong back, which is white trust section that you see there behind the rocket that will fully retract away.

  • Clearing the way for F nine Cent Dragon is performing its own final health check outs to make sure all of its primary systems are ready for its rendezvous with the space station.

  • Range remains green for launch.

  • Weather winds are still.

  • We're keeping an eye on those currently showing at 18 miles per hour from north northwest, but still within our limits.

  • So with that, everything is green for takeoff just under the three minute mark before launch.

  • Let's listen in to the nets for the last few minutes of terminal count and stay shoebox.

  • Let us call it out vehicles and target isn't starting L d go for launch.

  • T minus 30 seconds.

  • Team eyes things like Ted.

  • Nine eight seven.

  • Sick 54 321 Our telemetry nominal AT T plus 45 seconds.

  • Talking nine has cleared the towers and the final dragon.

  • One flight is underway.

  • Everything looking nominal contain a supersonic.

  • We heard the call up that vehicle.

  • Supersonic vehicles is experiencing maximum dynamic pressure there.

  • We heard the call up for Max.

  • Q.

  • Coming up next.

  • Five events that will be happening in rapid succession.

  • Main engine cut off or, as you'll see in the event tracker on the bottom of your screen.

  • Miko.

  • Then stage separation, second engine start or SCS one, followed by a boost back burn of the first age and Dragon nosecone deployed.

  • Main engine cutoff for Miko is where all nine em Wendy engines on first stage will shut down.

  • This is immediately followed by stage separation, where the first and second stages will separate a few seconds later and back.

  • Or the M Merlin vacuum engine on the second stage will like night and begin to boost dragon to low Earth orbit.

  • And my kill started.

  • So again, Miko stages up SCS one all happening in quick succession.

  • Let's tune in stage separation, the wear on the right hand side of your screen and by the cheers in the crowd behind me way have visual confirmation of second engine start as that warm glow begins to build around the back theme the left hand side of your screen.

  • We have an amusing visual of the first age as it is performing its boost back burn.

  • Now this is the first of three maneuvers at the first stage will be performing as Jesse mentioned Earth's earlier, We will be landing back at Landing Zone one on the coast of Florida at Cape Canaveral, so the first age has to completely reorient itself on head back west.

  • It was flying east now is gonna flip around head back west towards during this boost.

  • Back firm should be ending in five seconds and back is looking good.

  • Everything nominal with our temperature and power readings, and we can see on the left hand side of our screen that the boost back burn has completed second stage.

  • Looking good as Dragon is on its way to the International Space Station vehicles on a nominal trajectory acquisition of signal in Bermuda in order to make its way back to landing zone won the first stage, executes a series of three burns, the first of which you just saw eyes the Bruce back burned as Kate mentioned.

  • This is meant to slow the rocket down and oriented for re entry.

  • It also helps Falcon nine laterally return to the landing zone, and shortly after this first burn is initiated, the grid fins, which are located near the top of the first age, are deployed to help guide the rocket during the scent.

  • We're not showing a live view of the first age right now because it's pretty dark, so you can't see it.

  • Um, but what you're seeing on your screen is the second stage continuing on its way to its targeted orbit.

  • So I'm following the boost back burn Falcon nine executes its reentry burn too slow itself down before hitting the dense part of the atmosphere.

  • And then the last of the three burns is the landing burn, which begins just before touchdown.

  • And that's a slow the vehicle down rapidly right before landing.

  • So far, a second stage is still looking good.

  • It's T plus of five minutes, and the second stage is taking dragon to its targeted orbit.

  • We've had an on time liftoff just a few minutes ago, and we're just about a minute away from that second burn on the first stage, that entry burn again.

  • If we do land our first stage tonight, it will be our 50th landing.

  • Second continues to follow a phenomenon trajectory, and there's that call out for a nominal trajectory.

  • If you're just now joining us, it's two plus six minutes, and we're about 30 seconds away from the first stage entry burn, which will then be followed by the landing, burn and landing of the first age on our landing zone, one in so you could see on your left hand screen.

  • This is a view from the first stage you can see Earth with all the lights lighting up the ground.

  • Once I entry burn begins, we should be able to see that light up that screen on the left side on there is entry.

  • Burn has started.

  • This burn will last about 20 seconds long Again, as I mentioned earlier, there's those grid fins that you could see on your left hand screen near the top of the first stage that's guiding the vehicle on entry.

  • Burn it to the landing zone and there's that shutdown of that entry burn.

  • We're just about 40 seconds away or so from the landing burns start.

  • The landing burn will last about 30 seconds.

  • One of four beautiful touches down second stage is still with a nominal.

  • It is a bit dark since it is night time over there in Cape Canaveral, but trains should be able to get a live view of this landing stage.

  • One landing Burns started.

  • There's that landing Brent starting stage one, leaning like deploy for the 50th time and space history.

  • Amazing, lithe, awesome do of our first days with 15 time congratulations to the entire say 16 for another successful landing.

  • This marks our 50th successful first days recovery, which is an important part of our commitments of vehicle reusability.

  • Ah, lot of excitement as we hit yet another milestone here.

  • There's a big crowd of English people behind, as you probably could tell eso at this point, second stage is performing.

  • Nominally, we had an on time lift off from Cape Canaveral, and among all the excitement we did get a call out for a second engine cut off.

  • So at this point, we're waiting to hear confirmation of good orbit on dhe second.

  • And we do have that confirmation so good over.

  • It has been confirmed, and at this point, second stage has one last major task to perform, and that's to command separation of Dragon, which should be happening in less than a minute from now.

  • Actually, hopefully just in a couple of we should have video here.

  • There we can see a view into the dragon's trunk, that section successfully deploying away from second stage that unpressurized cargo is stuff that is able to be exposed to the vacuum of space, everything that cannot endure such an environment.

  • We pack into the pressurized section, so coming up in about two minutes, we should have solar array deployment.

  • As Jesse mentioned previously, Dragon is carrying tons of cargo to the International Space Station on this mission.

  • A small portion of the cargo represent supplies for the astronauts, things like food and clothing.

  • But most of the cargo represents science going up to the space station.

  • International Space Station serves as the world's leading laboratory for cutting edge research and technology development that will enable human and robotic exploration of destinations beyond low Earth orbit, including the moon and even Mars.

  • There on the screen, we have a view of the second stage.

  • That was the end back engine that has been shut down.

  • Obviously, as you can see as Dragon is moving further away from our second stage, keep in mind that this is just the beginning of its two day journey to the space station.

  • Like I said, the next big event will have a solar array appointment coming up in under a minute.

  • We'll also have guidance, navigation control or GNC door opening.

  • But unfortunately, we won't see the DNC door opening live.

  • But we will be able to touch a solar panel deployment, which is what we're waiting to see on the left hand side of your screen.

  • Right now.

  • The solar arrays are compacted, folded up along the side of the dragon trunk, and that's the view that we see there on the left.

  • As I've mentioned a couple times tonight, this is the final cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station, using the first version of our dragon vehicle.

  • The upgraded version that we're using next has a different trunk design than the one that we're currently looking up in the new version out there.

  • We have operational deployment of the solar rays as dragons stretches its wings for the very last time.

  • I'd like to congratulate the Space X and NASA teams that have designed, built, tested and supported this spacecraft over the last decade.

  • Your hard work has paved the way for the first crew dragon flight with NASA astronauts later this year.

  • Dragon is now on its way to the space station.

  • Exciting, Dad, you can hear the crowd behind me.

  • Over the next couple of days, Dragon will perform a series of orbital height, adjust maneuvers with extra co Ngeze until it's within a few kilometers of the international space station, then dragon, well established community, a communications link with the space station.

  • No way will perform a series of checks on the vehicle.

  • And when both NASA and Space six are ready, we'll initiate a slow approach to the International Space station, pausing at several checkpoints along the way to ensure crew's safety.

  • When dragon is within 10 meters of the station, the astronauts aboard will capture Dragon using the station's robotic Canada arm in a in a process called birthday.

  • Finally, Mission Control in Houston will send commands from the ground to the station's robotic arm to rotate and install Dragon to the Harmony module.

  • Jagan will remain at the space station until the beginning of April before returning to Earth with research and return program.

  • Way had a non time lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 Beautiful Ascent and Return of Our First Date, 50th Time Landed Really Landed the Falcon nine for the 50th time on as you just saw on your screen.

  • Beautiful stretching of the Last Solar.

  • A raid deployment off the first version of Dragon Dragon's arrival.

  • Capture.

  • An installation to the space station will be streamed live on March 9th, starting at 5:30 a.m. Eastern on NASA TV Dragon will spend about four weeks attached to the space station before returning to Earth with cargo and research.

  • That's going to end our live launch coverage, but we'll be posting mission updates on NASA and Space X is social media accounts.

  • I want to give a big thanks to the range in the Federal Aviation Administration for their support today and finally thank all of you the viewers, for joining us for such an exciting mission tonight.

  • Until next time, have a great weekend.

okay.

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