LIVE: SpaceX, Axiom Launch First Private Mission To ISS | NBC News
our drone ships are equivalent to the size of a football field so uh while it may have looked kind of small on your screen they're actually pretty ginormous in real life it's got to be to hold a rocket right as man as mentioned previously falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket so two rockets in one above the first stage is the second stage now the second stage has a single merlin vacuum or mvac engine which ignites after the first stage separates now the second stage is essentially a smaller version of the first stage and whereas the first stage is designed to power the vehicle out of earth's atmosphere and the forces of gravity the second stage is specifically designed to operate in the vacuum of space the second stage powers the dragon spacecraft to its specific specific targeted drop-off point in orbit the dragon spacecraft is capable of carrying up to seven passengers to and from earth orbit and beyond but for today's mission it is carrying four members of the axiom one crew it is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station and the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to earth like the falcon 9 rocket the dragon spacecraft is also reusable today will be the third flight to space uh for this dragon spacecraft uh that the axiom one crew is flying in today uh the previous flights for this this capsule supported were uh recently the crew 2 mission and before that the demo 2 mission uh which was our first human space flight mission pretty incredible yeah now as we await t0 in just under 25 minutes the ground operations teams are doing a series of system checks to make sure both dragon and falcon 9 are ready for launch let's take a look at what the ascent portion of this mission will look like right so once we hit t minus zero we will watch falcon 9 and dragon lift off from historic launch pad 39a and make their ascent at about 50 seconds into flight falcon 9's engines will throttle down to help pass through the period of maximum dynamic pressure on the rocket or what we typically refer to as max-q it's worth noting that once we hit max-q the vehicle will be going supersonic once we're through the period of maximum dynamic pressure we can throttle up our merlin engines again from there at about two and a half minutes into flight we have a series of three events that happen in rapid succession the first of which is miko or main engine cut off this is where all nine merlin engines shut off in preparation for stage separation which as the name suggests that is where the first stage detaches from the second stage with the first stage making its way back to earth for landing as the second stage continues on its journey with the third event right now scs-1 or second engine start 1 is where the merlin vacuum engine lights up and propels the second stage along with our ax1 crew into orbit as stage 2 heads towards its targeted drop-off orbit stage one will execute two burns in order to make its way back to earth the first stage is the entry burn where three of the merlin 1d engines will reignite and then shut down this helps to slow the stage down in preparation for entry back into earth's atmosphere while the first stage is heading back to earth the second stage will cut off its singular merlin engine and that was ignited right after stage separation once this happens we'll wait for confirmation of good orbital insertion about 90 seconds after dragon gets into orbit falcon 9 will land back on earth the landing burn which is a single engine burn will bring the vehicle's speed down rapidly in order to land on the drone ship at about nine and a half minutes into the mission and while falcon 9's first stage is landing dragon is preparing to separate from the second stage and about three minutes after the second stage gets into orbit we should have a great view of dragon with its four-person crew drifting away from the second stage now once dragon is a short distance away it will begin checking out its draco maneuvering thrusters to make sure dragon continues to increase separation distance from the second stage and lastly the nosecone deploy sequence will initiate just before t plus 12 minutes and finish around t plus 15 minutes uh and this sequence will expose dragon's docking mechanism in advance of its arrival at the international space station so uh as you can tell it's it's a pretty jam-packed 12-minute deal pay attention pay close attention to what you're listening to don't blink uh with all that in mind uh let's head back over to dan hewitt for an update from the iss team over at johnson space center dan hey thanks kate now inside the room the international space station flight control room flight director scott stovers leading the teams right now but just about four hours ago nasa flight director diane daly gave a go on behalf of the combined iss team to the spacex mission director just saying that iss or the space station was go for launch now to get there we've got a list of flight rules basically just guidelines for all of the major systems we have to make sure are functioning onboard station before we can give a go to launch another crew up there so we're looking at everything from those core critical command and control computers verifying we have a good communication path through our tracking and data relay satellites ensuring that the atmosphere all of the life support systems on board are functioning even the mechanical systems like the docking port where this mission is headed so we're expecting today's flight to be about a 20 and a half hour journey from launch to docking with the crew dragon endeavor headed towards the node 2 zenith that's the space facing port on the top of node 2 the harmony module on board the station and once they get there they're going to get welcomed by the expedition 67 crew which is made up of seven individuals right now four from our spacex through crew three mission with three nasa astronauts and one esa european astronaut and they're joined by three cosmonauts that just arrived on station about two weeks ago now so it's going to take them about 20 and a half hours to get there that docking right now is targeted for 11 45 gmt on saturday at 6 45 am here in houston 4 45 for the teams over in hawthorne and so once they get there they'll be able to get out of their suits on board the dragon spacecraft while the team onboard station moves into what's known as the hatch operations station commander tom martian's going to be pressurizing that small area between dragon and the station hatches we expect it to be a little under two hours from docking to hatch open and then we'll welcome the ax-1 crew on board the space station so a lot to come with that 20 and a half hour journey but all that's gonna start with a launch so i'll send it back over to hawthorne as we get into the final phases of the countdown back over to you john right well dan as you mentioned it all starts with the launch and kate it's looking like it's getting pretty busy here people are excited about seeing a launch right yeah we're just now under 20 minutes until liftoff um as you could probably tell by the the noise uh the crew here excuse me the the the crowd here in hawthorne uh we're at spacex headquarters in hawthorne california um is starting to gather just beyond mission control here in the building and you might be able to tell by the ambient noise in addition to the live production noises that you also hear you know we are in a rocket factory but yeah you can see there the crowd is starting to grow behind the mission the team there at hawthorne mission control now we saw dan speaking earlier from mission control in johnson there is a mission control center uh in florida where the spacex teams are also gathered um in firing room four and then we have the the launch of the mission control center here uh there's a shot of our firing room four there in florida at cape canaveral you can just barely make out pad 39a there in the distance there through the window um might be wondering why all the different mission control rooms the one in johnson as dan was saying you know that's really mission control for the international space station and those operations the control room that you see there is for everything leading up to launch as soon as falcon 9 lifts off uh responsibility and control transfers to mission control center here in hawthorne so just a quick explanation for why why so many rooms with computers exactly yeah and in addition to all the teams gathering here we've got teams of rhone gathering in houston at axiom headquarters you can see there on your screen axiom mission control with uh the lovely axiom family behind them looking in proudly all right well you know dan mentioned that you know first we have launch then we got around to and docking and then we've got eight days of jam-packed activity on the iso so busy yeah and docking day is not it's not just a ride to space right you you get up there you open that hatch and crew is working i got a little chance to look at some of their timeline and as soon as they open that door they are getting invited in they are getting trained on some emergency procedures and then stepping right into payload activity stowage transfers um and just generally getting acclimated but they're working before they go to sleep and the work doesn't stop there it sounds a lot like everything leading up to launch itself you know everything is scheduled planned um even you know we know that even sleep time is scheduled on the iss and something that's incredible to me is that not only do you have work to do but you know your science experiments and that kind of stuff not only do you have to get some sleep before you can but you also have to exercise right the exercise time which can be a couple hours stage two started all right so good news there we have begun locks load uh liquid oxygen loading on second stage so that is currently underway for first and second stage as well as loading of rp-1 which is our fuel on both first and second stages right right and again you know some of those things that he talked about it's all following a timeline right and we are listening for those important cues along the way that we're hearing on these nets or on the loops listening for where are we along in that timeline so we know exactly where we are in terms for launch as we count down at just t minus 15 from launch yeah so i'm looking uh at my dashboard here it looks like fuel load on second stage is now complete so we're beginning that locks load as we just heard locks load and fuel load continues on first stage axiom crew continuing to wait following along with everything happening there with the touch screen displays there above them as well as their tablets strapped to their legs right everything continuing to look nominal for liftoff in just about 15 minutes and as we approach that liftoff in these final moments of our countdown to launch axiom space founders cam gefarin and mike safradini wanted to take a moment to reflect on this mission well this moment for me and michael is a very special moment in a beginning of many beginnings right the launch of ax1 going to international space station as part of our journey to build the first private commercial space station and we're so grateful to be here and delighted at this moment as part of this incredible journey to commercialize and privatize low earth orbit on behalf of cam and i we'd like to thank the entire team that's made this historic journey possible the spacex team in particular has done a tremendous job of prepping our crew for launch on their transportation vehicle the crew itself has done a fantastic job of getting themselves ready and playing their research nasa of course we can't do this without nasa's leadership and support and to each of you in the axiom space family we couldn't have done it without you we're looking forward to a bright future together [Music] t-minus 14 minutes seven seconds and continuing to count down everything is still looking good for launch of falcon 9 and dragon that'll occur 17 minutes and 12 seconds after the hour as a recap falcon 9 began propellant loading at t minus 35 minutes we just heard loading of the rp1 fuel the kerosene fuel onto stage 2 was completed right on time at t minus 20 minutes we've still got fuel going on to the first stage looks like we're about 90 or so full right now fuel loading will finish up at t minus six minutes and we'll hear that call out in the countdown meanwhile densified liquid oxygen is continuing to load onto both the first and second stages first stage will close out at t minus three minutes the second stage we just began loading liquid oxygen at t minus sixteen and a half minutes just a few minutes ago that'll wrap up at the t-minus two minute mark now we load the liquid oxygen as late as we can in the countdown it's densified that means it's ultra cold well below the boiling point of liquid oxygen that lets us put as much as we can on the vehicle for performance and getting it on board the vehicle just before liftoff means it won't warm up where you start to lose the ability to put liquid oxygen onto the stages into the tank in the quantities we want so it stays nice and cold it doesn't bleed off and that gives us the performance we need on falcon 9. continuing on falcon 9 checkouts of the thrust vector controllers what we call tvc wiggles you may hear that term they're coming up we're also going to be doing throttle valve checkouts on the merlin engines that helps control the power of the engines as we go through flight for example you hear a throttle down and throttle up as we prepare for the period of maximum dynamic pressure as we come up on the 12 minute mark the range continues to be go roadblocks are up all the hazard areas are clear airspace sea space is good the weather is go beautiful shots you can see here blue skies i'm looking forward to some great views from the cameras as we head into space and finally on the dragon side the dragon mission director and team they're reporting no issues we've done the communication checkouts with the crew you can see the crew access arm has retracted into the launch position you can see dragon now with the strong back of the transport erector and the umbilical is going to drag and along side of it we've also armed the launch escape system and obviously the crew is strapped in the dragon capsule and they're ready to go final instructions of the crew will come in about a minute and a half at t minus 10. we'll listen to that the crew displays will be configured for launch and that setup will give the crew insight into how the launch is proceeding and it provides constant updates on vehicle health the t-minus five minutes will be in the terminal count for dragon dragon will transition to internal power going to its onboard batteries and off of the external ground power we're going to hear continued call outs on the countdown net as we go from t minus 10 to zero and then as we fly after t zero and liftoff we'll hear call outs as we head into space and that'll be letting the crew know as they reach each of the milestones now next big event coming up at t minus 10 minutes is we're going to do launch commit criteria and final instructions will be going to the crew one other thing that you will hear is during ascent you may hear one alpha one bravo two alpha these are launch escape states as the falcon 9 flies if a launch escape was required the crew on board knows where they are passing various points in the countdown and that would tell dragon what sequence of events to execute to come off of the falcon 9 and bring the crew back safely down into the parachutes in the ocean right now t minus 10 minutes let's listen into the countdown dragon spacex confirmed crew displays are configured for launch spacex and beverly confirmed their configuration copy mla and on behalf of the entire spacex team we're honored to have you aboard in denver for its third flight to the international space station axiom one marks a new step in commercial space flight and research we wish you a great mission good luck godspeed and enjoy the ride thanks for those awards arthur i've got a few of my own i'm going to let my crew made a thunder and a few minutes before launching on this journey i wish to share with you the words of the greek poet constantine kawasi that well describe the perspective of our marvelous group keep ithaca always in your mind arriving there is what you are designed for but do not hurry the journey at all better if it lasts for years to you so you are old by the time you reach the island wealthy with all you have gained on the way not expecting ithaca to make you rich itaka gave you this marvelous journey i'm going to continue far less elegantly or eloquently but if you sit here on the precipice of this new era in human spaceflight we do so on the shoulders of professionals at spacex nasa and action we want to thank all the teams at spacex falcon 9 dragon the launch team of course closeout team all of the folks in mission control um and of course our training teams this nasa boy it's been tough you know the first time there's always hard and there's no progress it's all open field running but with iss program commercial leo development and flight operations we've learned a lot and we'll continue to do so we want to thank cam and seth for their vision but especially all the people in action for putting this mission together with the amount of miracles that they perform all of you make no mistake are the men and the women in the arena the faces are marred metaphorically by their best sweat and blood and you strive valiantly will have no place with their cold intimate souls to know neither victory nor defeat the crew of the great ship endeavor is ready to sell her primary some heartfelt words there one engine chill has started all right so there was the call that uh we have begun to chill the engines on the first stage so what we're doing right now is flowing a little bit of the super chilled liquid oxygen through the turbo pumps on those m1d engines there's nine of them at the base of the first stage uh and that's essentially bringing them down to the temperature of that super chilled liquid oxygen to prevent any thermal shock to the hardware and just before that calls some really heartfelt words from commander mla and mission specialist ayton stibba um i really love hearing that commentary stage 1 rpu load is complete at this point in time the at this point in time uh fuel is fully loaded on both the first and second stage lox loading continues uh on both stages coming up on five and a half minutes kate's let us know that we've got the field load complete next is coming up with t-minus five minutes dragon will be transitioning uh configuration for terminal count and going on its internal battery power everything continues to look good as we're counting down dragon is in configure for terminal count falcon 9 tanks are pressing for strong back retracts i've heard the call out we're pressurizing the tanks for strong back retract we'll hear a sequence momentarily strung back is retracting actually that's the start of about a one minute sequence about t-minus four minutes the clamp arms that you can see there will open and then and then we will see the retract from there so we've heard the call out that's the start of the sequence doesn't mean that the clamp arms are late opening will take us a few more seconds as you can hear the excitement and the crowd is really growing here at spacex headquarters at hawthorne california there you can see the clamp arms have begun to open and next we should see the strong back begin to retract this structure is what we basically use to transport the fully integrated vehicle to and from the hangar from the hangar to the launch pad and there you can see that strong back retraction has begun everything continued to look nominal uh as we're now under three and a half minutes until launch rp-1 fuel is fully loaded on first and second stage i should be wrapping up locks load on the first stage momentarily and continuing to fill on second stage stage one lock slow just complete we're under three minutes until liftoff of the axiom one mission dragon is in terminal count and is on internal power all right there we heard that dragon is on internal power as i was saying we're getting close the crowds are growing the excitement is palpable you can see there on the left-hand side of your screen mission control here in hawthorne california just behind where john and i are um and then on the right-hand side that looks like axiom mission control it's like axiom mission control in houston texas everybody's waving and saying hey all right at this point in time that locks load on first stage is complete so the first stage is now fully loaded with all of its propellant box load on second stage continues as we've mentioned before stage two load is complete all right so there's that call at this point in time falcon 9 dragon is an auto idol dragon is fully loaded with all of its propellants nearly 1 million pounds of that propellant next event coming up started the gas closeouts we finished pressurizing the storage tanks on board the falcon 9 they gave the crew the heads up and they hear some loud landing noises we're also going to vent down the liquid oxygen line that carried the box up to the second stage generates a typical large white cloud of condensation around the strum bag big event coming up now t minus one minute all the flight computers take over let's listen in to the last minute of terminal count fts is armed falcon 9 is in startup and now controlling dragon is in countdown dragon spacex go for launch spit x endeavor acknowledge go for lunch t-minus 30 seconds t-minus 15 seconds 10 9 8 seven six five four three two one zero ignition stop go falcon go dragon got speed axiom one together a new chapter begins godspeed ax1 stage one propulsion is nominal t-plus 38 seconds into this historic mission flying crew on board dragon and falcon telemetry nominal stage 1 throttle down throttling down in the preparation for max dynamic pressure falcon 9 is supersonic [Music] xq stage 1 throttle up [Music] the crew calling out one bravo should a escape situation arise until the the dragonflight computer what profile to fly using the super draco engines but everything is looking good on falcon 9. we're getting nominal call outs from all the engineers and a great view from the ground camera and the onboard camera underway beginning to chill in the second stage turbo pump in preparation for its ignition coming up in just over half a minute from now coming up on about three and a half g's acceleration for the crew we'll begin throttling down the merlin engines to hold that period that level of acceleration next event coming up we're going to get main engine cutoffs get stage separation and ignition of the second stage engine you've heard the throttle down call out we're holding three and a half g's for the crew and mikko [Applause] successful stage separation ignition of the second stage engine on the left the titanium grid fins beginning to slowly deploy great views from the first stage camera the first stage now begins a slow flip maneuver you can see the white nitrogen gas plumes as we reorient for an entry back through the earth's atmosphere a little bit later in the plus count second stage we see the engine nozzle going red everything continuing to look good on the second stage we should be hearing call outs coming up to the crew here shortly on how the trajectory is looking dragon spacex trajectory nominal what we like to hear signal bermuda aos bermuda acquisition signal the bermuda tracking station now getting telemetry from the second stage of the falcon 9 with the dragon on top two plus 4 minutes 10 seconds everything continues to be nominal first aid coasting to apogee and then it will come back down for landing on the drone ship second stage partway through its lengthy barn to get the crew into orbit so kate four and a half minutes in everything continues to look good what a absolutely picture-perfect lift-off we got a live view of the crew inside dragon endeavor looks like uh everyone is still pretty comfy uh as john had said earlier we got trajectory nominal all right good call out there that trajectory is normal as john mentioned we got to about three and a half g's there signaled new hampshire on the left-hand side of your screen we can see the first stage as it is making its way back down to earth it's targeting a landing on our drone ship a short fall of gravitas which is parked a couple hundred miles off the coast of florida out in the atlantic ocean second stage on the right-hand side everything continues to be nominal there as the mvac engine is powering the second stage and dragon in denver it's dragon endeavor to its targeted drop-off orbit [Applause] absolutely beautiful views of both the first and second stage trajectory [Applause] all right so coming up in about a minute and a half uh the first stage will execute the first of two burns required for today's landing attempt at about t plus 7 minutes and 30 seconds we'll see the entry burn begin that's where the first stage will ignite the center engine first and then a couple seconds later ignite two more engines so a total of three engine burn which will last about 29 seconds the entry burn slows the vehicle down significantly as it re-enters back into the earth's atmosphere the first stage sees high drag which scrubs roughly 70 percent of that velocity by the time that the landing burn begins stunning view where you can see the curvature of the earth there on the left-hand side dragon spacex trajectory nominal playstyle there you can see the nitrogen gas thruster so that's the puff of gas that you see there occasionally that's used for attitude control systems we also utilize those grid fins that you see there are four of them placed around the booster and those grid fins also help steer for a precise landing um either stage one entry burn startup stage two all right there we can see that that entry burn has begun we are targeting a landing on our drone ship a shortfall of gravitas today everything continuing to look nominal with trajectory and uh mvac performance there for our second stage on the right hand side so we are conducting the entry burn previously the booster burn shut down that entry burn helps slow the booster down it was going about 25 times the speed of sound so we slow it down as it reenters the dense part of the earth's atmosphere the next event is second engine cutoff or seco one as you see it there on the timeline at the bottom of your screen attached to you in terminal guidance that's where we shut down the m back engine or second engine cutoff copy shannon stage one transonic note that our landing burn and second engine cutoff uh will occur about the same time all right we got a live view of the crew inside dragon endeavor there on the right hand side of your screen stage one landing burn landing burn has begun for the first day first stage nominal orbit insertion all right great news there dragon endeavor nominal orbit insertion spacex endeavor we copied and it's great to be here zero g and we feel fine stage one landing light deploy spacex dragon launcher as you can see this falcon 9 has landed for the fifth time all the while great commentary [Applause] confirmed landing there of the first stage booster also almost simultaneously great news uh for the second stage we've heard that there was nominal orbit insertion uh for crew dragon endeavor there you can see a live view inside our dragon looks like the crew is beginning to adjust to zero gene if you look at the right hand side corner it looks like we can see the zero g indicator that was one of mine that was one of the things i really wanted to see what they were going to bring for their crg indicators so i can't wait to see what comes on it looks i can't quite tell pokemon uh maybe okay well hopefully it'll it'll come into closer view right now we'll get to ask them later hopefully yeah great to see the crew here again starting to really getting their first taste of microgravity yeah oh it has ears oh it's a bunny is that bumper i think it might be i think that's thumper from bambi love it so right now uh the second stage is basically preparing for uh dragon separation um we are the next step now that as we said dragon has nominal orbital insertion the second stage and dragon will separate views there of our mvac engine now shut off no longer glowing that lovely shade of orange right now the second stage is about 200 kilometers above earth preparing now for stage separation excuse me for dragon separation for those of you that have just recently joined us we had an on-time liftoff of the axiom one crew they are now in space and coming up to separation from second stage at which point they will then begin to make their journey continue their journey to the international space station the view that you're currently looking at is inside the dragon trunk which as you can see has just separated from the second stage [Applause] on behalf of the falcon 19 welcome to space thanks for flying falcon 9. guys enjoy your trip to that wonderful space station in the sky do some great research for us we'll see you back here underground now stand by for some words from ld and mla and and uh that's the crew endeavor glad we got to have some fun this morning we'll probably be calling in early weekend over here at the cape pass you over to anna and the team you'll be in good hands godspeed endeavor enjoy the rest of your flight cheers hey mark it was a lot of fun i've eventually guessed we had a little bit more than you did we thank you and your launch team birth you and the falcon 19 that was a hell of a ride and we're looking forward to the next 10 days all right some nice words there from a couple of key folks our first quindar tone of the mission yeah i queued up right when i heard that there we can expect this expected loss to signal bermuda and new hampshire there we can see dragon endeavor on its way to the international space station it has separated there's a view inside next we have nominal dehumidifier activation service section draco checkouts there we can see over the shoulder of every week over the shoulder previously commander mla was on the left and pilot larry connor was on the right live view inside the cabin they just got the okay to lift their visors all right so we can see that everyone is in space we can see that zero g indicator floating around a great view there um of dragon endeavor now in space with the axiom one crew on their way to the international space station yeah i mean this is a day of first you know this is my first time getting to participate in a launch like this is the first for axiom and this is a first first base flight and it's just wonderful to see such a picture picture perfect launch it really well we saw the landing and we saw uh orbital or uh uh zero g insertion at the same time i mean that was perfect yeah it was wonderful to see all right well as i just said today's launch is one for the history books so to punctuate this milestone that nasa and commercial companies are able to achieve together we go now to kennedy space center where megan cruz is with nasa's kathy leaders i am here right now with the associate administrator of nasa's space operations mission directorate so great to have you here kathy what did you think of the lodge oh my gosh it's always like you know right in the bottom of my throat i'm holding can't breathe can't breathe yes but what a beautiful beautiful sight yeah so good to see it i i want to tell everybody working artemis one wet dress we're off the range we're off the range for axiom one and we can get moving but um you always want to hear the engine cut off you always want to hear that second stage engines lighting you always want to hear you know each of these stages and we need to just keep carefully working through the different steps to get that crew there to the international space station safely yeah what does axiom one represent axiom one and also future private astronaut missions to the international space station hey you know nasa's original goal was to enable commercial industry that was actually in our original space act agreement and so here we are you know 60 years later enabling that through our missions and so i just feel like this is a culmination of 60 years of work for us and here we are once again getting to see and for the first time the first time getting you
2022-04-12 16:39
