SpaceX CRS-2, also known as SpX-2, was the fourth flight for

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

's uncrewed

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

cargo spacecraft Cargo spacecraft are robotic spacecraft that are designed to carry cargo, possibly to support space stations' operation by transporting food, propellant and other supplies. This is different from a space probes, space probe, whose missions are to ...

, the fifth and final flight for the company's two-stage

Falcon 9 v1.0 The Falcon 9 v1.0 was the first member of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle family, designed and manufactured by SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. Development of the medium-lift launcher began in 2005, and it first flew on June 4, 2010. The Falc ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

, and the second SpaceX operational mission contracted to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

under a

Commercial Resupply Services Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of flights awarded by NASA for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarde ...

(CRS-1) contract. The launch occurred on 1 March 2013. A minor technical issue on the Dragon spacecraft involving the RCS thruster pods occurred upon reaching orbit, but it was recoverable. The vehicle was released from the station on 26 March 2013, at 10:56 UTC and splashed down in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

at 16:34 UTC.

History

The planned shipment of the Falcon 9 first stage from Texas to the Florida launch site was delayed due to the ongoing investigation of the engine failure that occurred on the previous flight. In late November 2012, it was reported that the CRS-2 Falcon 9 had been transported to

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

(CCAFS). A static fire test occurred for the CRS-2 Falcon 9 on 25 February 2013.

Firsts

The Dragon unpressurized trunk section, which allows the transport of unpressurized cargo to the ISS, had its first use on this flight. This cargo consisted of two Heat Rejection Subsystem Grapple Fixtures (HRSGFs), which are essentially bars to be attached to the ISS radiators to allow for future movement work.

Payload

When launched the CRS-2 Dragon was filled with about of cargo, without packaging. Included is of crew supplies, of scientific experiments and experiment hardware, of hardware for the station and other miscellaneous items, among them a CD copy of the song " Up in the Air" by rock band

Thirty Seconds to Mars Thirty Seconds to Mars (commonly stylized as 30 Seconds to Mars) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998. The band consists of brothers Jared Leto (lead vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Shannon Leto (drums, pe ...

, was premiered on board the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

(ISS) on 18 March 2013, during a

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broadcast from the station. The two Heat Rejection Subsystem Grapple Fixtures (HRSGFs) had a combined weight of and were transported to the ISS inside the unpressurized Dragon trunk as external cargo. The Dragon returned of cargo, without packaging. Included is of crew supplies, of scientific experiments and experiment hardware, of space station hardware, of

spacesuit A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...

equipment and other miscellaneous items.

Dragon thruster pods anomaly

Shortly after second stage separation, at 15:45 UTC on 1 March 2013, the Dragon spacecraft encountered technical problems involving its propulsion system. "When priming its four Draco Thruster Pods, the vehicle detected insufficient pressurization on the

oxidizer An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or " accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ). In other words, an oxid ...

(

Nitrogen Tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russia rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...

) system" of three of the pods which "caused the

Flight Computers Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can be ...

to place the vehicle in Passive Abort Mode". In this mode, Dragon is not executing any more orbital operations. Its thruster system was disabled and the solar panels were not deployed since the vehicle had not achieved its proper solar panels deployment attitude. "Dragon is programmed not to open its solar panels outside its proper attitude configuration to avoid contact with the second stage. This rule is in place for scenarios in which Dragon is not properly separated from the Falcon 9 booster. As time progressed, teams working at SpaceX Mission Control, MCC-X in

Hawthorne, California Hawthorne is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city region commonly called the South Bay. As of the 2020 US census, Hawthorne had a population of 88, ...

, started assessments of the issue". During the early minutes and hours of the mission, the mission progress news came in bits, some of it over social media. An update from

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...

on Twitter clarified:

Issue with Dragon thruster pods. System inhibiting three of four from initializing. About to command inhibit override.

At 16:12 UTC, Elon Musk announced that a "command inhibit override" would be issued as the Dragon module was "about to pass over

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...

". Initially solar panels deployment was held "until at least two thruster pods are active". SpaceX Mission Control decided to proceed with solar deployment due to array temperatures while the spacecraft was not in active attitude control at 16:40 UTC: "Thruster pod 3 tank pressure trending positive. Preparing to deploy solar arrays". At 16:50 UTC, solar arrays had successfully been deployed on the Dragon spacecraft. Three of the four thruster pods on the Dragon spacecraft must be operational for berthing to be allowed with the International Space Station. After making corrections, SpaceX regained control of all four thruster pods and would be able to correct its course to the ISS. According to Elon Musk, "All systems green". NASA officials said that the spacecraft would not rendezvous with the ISS on 2 March 2013 as was originally planned. It would instead rendezvous on 3 March 2013. Dragon was grappled with

Canadarm2 The Mobile Servicing System (MSS), is a robotic system on board the International Space Station (ISS). Launched to the ISS in 2001, it plays a key role in station assembly and maintenance; it moves equipment and supplies around the station, supp ...

by NASA Expedition 34 commander Kevin Ford and NASA flight engineer Tom Marshburn at 10:31 UTC on 3 March 2013, and was berthed to the nadir (Earth-facing) docking port of the ''

Harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

'' module at 13:56 UTC.

Remainder of mission (3 to 26 March 2013)

On 6 March 2013, the space station's Canadarm2 removed the grapple bars from Dragon's trunk. This event marked the first delivery of unpressurized cargo from a commercial spacecraft to the ISS. The spacecraft's return to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

was postponed to 26 March 2013 from its originally scheduled date of 25 March 2013 due to inclement weather developing near its targeted splashdown site in the

. The additional day spent attached to the orbiting laboratory did not affect science samples scheduled to return aboard the spacecraft. On 26 March 2013, Dragon was unberthed from the Harmony node by the Canadarm2 at 08:10 UTC by commands from ground controllers. Its release from Canadarm2 occurred at 10:56 UTC; the Expedition 35 crew then commanded the spacecraft to slowly depart from the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon fired its engines for the last time at 15:42 UTC sending it through the atmosphere of Earth for a splashdown in the

at 16:34 UTC. A team of SpaceX engineers, technicians and divers recovered the vehicle and its scientific cargo off the coast of

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, for the journey back to shore which took about 30 hours.

References

External links

NASA's SpaceX mission page

SpaceX CRS-2 Mission Press Kit (February 2013)

Video of Static Fire test - YouTube (spacexchannel)

Video of pre-launch press conference - YouTube (ReelNASA)

Video of launch - YouTube (ReelNASA)

Video of Dragon arriving at the ISS - YouTube (ReelNASA)

Video of Dragon leaving the ISS - YouTube (ReelNASA)

Video of the Dragon capsule arriving at shore and other post-flight activities - YouTube (NASAtelevision)
{{Orbital launches in 2013 SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft launched in 2013 Spacecraft which reentered in 2013 SpaceX payloads contracted by NASA Supply vehicles for the International Space Station