Inspiration4 Crew Dragon over the old Leiden Observatory

click to enlarge

 

The image above, which I shot yesterday evening (16 September 2021) around 19:24 UT, shows the SpaceX Crew Dragon Inspiration 4 with astronauts Hayley Arceneaux, Christopher Sembroski, Sian Proctor and Jared Isaacman onboard, over one of the domes of the old Leiden Observatory. This observatory is located in the center of Leiden, the Netherlands, close to my home.

The photograph is a stack of 37 1-second images taken between 19:24:05 and 19:25:19 UT with a Canon EOS 80D and EF 2.5/50 mm lens (at 800 ISO). The dome is the dome of the 50-cm Zundermann telescope. The brightest "star" is Jupiter, and the second trail near the bottom of the image next to the dome is an aircraft.

Inspiration 4 is the first Crew Dragon mission that was not commissioned by NASA and does not go to the International Space Station. Instead it will orbit for 3 days at an altitude of 570 x 580 km. The orbital plane is inclined by 51.6 degrees and does match the ISS orbital plane, although not the ISS orbital altitude. It was chosen so that the launch could use existing emergency and abort facilities on the launch track. 

Inspiration4 (2021-084A) was launched from pad 39A at Cape Canaveral on 16 September 2021 at 00:02:56 UT. The launch coincided, with a difference of only a few minutes, with a pass of the ISS:

 

While I was photographing the pass (which was a low elevation pass in late twilight at 25 degrees maximum elevation) from a spot at the Witte Singel opposite the observatory, my video setup was running on an automated schedule from my loft window and captured the spacecraft as well (WATEC 902H2 Supreme camera with 1.4/35 mm lens at 25 fps):

The trajectory of the upcoming Crew Dragon Demo-2 launch, returning the US to crewed spaceflight

Photo: SpaceX

UPDATE: the Crew Dragon launch has been postponed to NET 30 May, 19:22 UT

Below is the original text and maps, which are however no longer valid!
New maps in a new, separate post.

If everything goes well, SpaceX and NASA will launch the Crew Dragon Demo-2 flight with astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on 27 May 2020. The launch is slated for 20:33:33 UT (note: some sources now say 20:33:31 UT), from LC-39A.

This is a historic flight, because after a 9-year hiatus it will return NASA to a crewed flight capacity. It is the first crewed flight launching from US soil on a US rocket since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. Over the past 9 years, US astronauts had to hitch a ride on Russian Soyuz spacecraft in order to get to space.

The Crew Dragon Demo-2 will fly this approximate flight trajectory, bringing it over Europe some 23 minutes after launch:

click map to enlarge

click map to enlarge

The times in the map above are in UT (GMT): for CEST add +2 hours; for BST add +1 hour. I created the maps using the (uncrewed) Crew Dragon Demo-1 test flight from March 2019 as a proxy.

Based on that same Crew Dragon Demo-1 flight, I estimate these orbital elements for the first orbit:


CREW DRAGON DEMO-2   
1 70000U 20999A   20148.85443285 -.00003603  11390-4  00000+0 0    03
2 70000  51.6423 089.9835 0122953  45.6251 315.4951 15.99554646    09 

estimated initial orbit for launch at 27 May 2020, 20:33:33 UT


You can use this so called TLE (for an explanation of these numeric lines click here) to make pass predictions and maps of the trajectory in your local sky for your own location, using prediction software like HeavenSat.

Be aware that it is approximate: so allow for a possible error of 1-2 minutes in the time it will pass in your sky, and a small cross-track error (I expect this latter to be less than 1 degree, i.e. less than two moon diameters).

Weather willing,  the Crew Dragon containing the astronauts and the Falcon 9 upper stage will be visible from much of Europe some 23 minutes after launch.

Northwest Europe has it pass in twilight, but Dragon's tend to be bright, so twilight should be no problem and the Dragon and Falcon 9 should be easily visible by the naked eye, except perhaps from the British Isles where it is still quite light.

I do advise using binoculars once you have located the spacecraft, as the Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9 upper stage will be close together, and with binoculars you will see them separately (you can see some photographs of a pass of a just launched Cargo-Dragon and its Falcon 9 upper stage from March this year in an earlier post here).

If you are lucky, you might even catch some small corrective thruster firings as small "puffs", like in this movie which I shot of a pass of the Dragon CRS-20 in March this year (look for the "puff" going upwards around 05:13:00 UT in the video):




(the two slowly varying objects astride the Dragon and Falcon 9 stage in the video above are the two ejected solar panel covers. The Crew Dragon does not have these, as far as I know).

The Falcon 9 upper stage will be deorbitted some 55 minutes after launch, over the southern Indian Ocean west of Australia.

photo: SpaceX

Below are my predicted sky tracks for a number of places in West and Central Europe, valid for launch on 27 May at 20:33:33 UT .

Times listed in the plots below are in local time (generally CEST, except for London which is BST). Please be aware that there is an uncertainty of about 1 to 2 minutes in the actual pass time!!! The track placement in the sky should generally be correct though. Bottom of the plots is either South or North, depending on the location (see the annotations on the plots).


Note added 25 May: the Heavens-Above webservice now provides you with custom predictions for the Crew Dragon for your observing site.

Amsterdam

Berlin

Brussels

London

Paris

Prague

Vienna

Hamburg

Lyon

Marseille

Munich

Reims

Strassbourg

Dragon CRS-20, 23 minutes after launch, with thruster firings

click image to enlarge

SpaceX launched the Dragon CRS-20 cargoship to the ISS this morning at 4:50:31 UT. Some 23 minutes after launch from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida, it was visible from the Netherlands around 6:13 local time (5:13 UT) in morning twilight. There were some fields of clouds in the sky, but I nevertheless got a clear view of the four objects associated to the launch, all still closely together.

The image above is a 2-second exposure at 800 ISO which I took during the pass, using a Canon EOS 80D DSLR and a SamYang 1.4/85 mm lens. The image shows the trails of  four objects, two of which are tumbling. In the annotated image below, I identify what is what:

click image to enlarge

The Dragon cargoship, the Falcon 9 upper stage and the two solar panel covers were easy naked eye objects. The Dragon and Falcon 9 upper stage were very bright and steady, while the two solar panel covers slowly flashed alongside them. These solar panel covers varied in brightness between invisible (with the naked eye) and magnitude +1.5. The Falcon 9 upper stage and Dragon were about +1.5 to +2: with the naked eye, being very close together they seemed one object, while on the photographs they are clearly two.

The image below, taken a few seconds after the previous image, shows one of the tumbling, slowly flaring solar panel covers at its brightest, rivalling the Dragon and Falcon 9 upper stage in brightness:

click to enlarge

The slow regular flashing behaviour was nice to see: the two tumbling solar panel covers were alternating, when one of the two was bright, the other was faint (clearly visible in the image above and the video below). Due to the alternatingly flashing panel covers above and below the Dragon, it looked a bit like an aircaft.

I also captured a small part of the pass on video, using the WATEC 902H with a 1.8/50 mm lens on a fixed tripod in autonomous mode (I was outside myself witha sceond tripod and the photo camera). In this video segment (below), a thruster firing is visible as a cloudy upwards moving "puff"starting at 5:13:00 UT:



Dragon CRS-20 will berth to the ISS on Monday 9 March near 11:00 UT.

This was the last flight of a Dragon 1, and the concluding flight of a contract awarded in 2008. All future Dragon supply flights will be done by an updated model, the Dragon 2 as well as the crew-rated Crew Dragon variant of the latter.

An interesting CRS-19 Falcon upper stage deorbit area (UPDATED)

click map to enlarge

The Maritime Broadcast Warnings with the hazard areas for the upcoming December 4 SpaceX DRAGON CRS-19 supply mission to the ISS have appeared a few days ago.

These include a Broadcast Warning for the Falcon 9 upper stage deorbit area. And that deorbit area (depicted in red in the map above) has an odd position and timeframe:

HYDROPAC 3933/19

SOUTHERN INDIAN OCEAN.
DNC 02, DNC 03, DNC 04.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, SPACE DEBRIS
042302Z TO 042344Z DEC, ALTERNATE
052240Z TO 052322Z DEC
IN AREA BOUND BY
58-52S 050-29E, 55-59S 052-23E,
55-26S 059-28E, 54-58S 065-18E,
54-08S 073-22E, 52-46S 083-57E,
51-25S 091-09E, 49-01S 100-13E,
46-34S 108-49E, 44-49S 113-54E,
46-47S 116-19E, 52-02S 109-55E,
52-57S 108-32E, 56-09S 102-10E,
59-05S 092-54E, 61-08S 081-09E,
61-48S 071-27E, 61-08S 060-26E.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 060022Z DEC 19.//

Authority: PACMISRANFAC 250217Z NOV 19.

Date: 290929Z NOV 19
Cancel: 06002200 Dec 19


With DRAGON CRS launches, the Falcon 9 upper stage deorbit usually happens in the second part of the first revolution, south of Australia or in the southern Pacific. See e.g. the deorbit area for the Falcon 9 upper stage of CRS-17 from May this year, depicted in blue in the map above.

But not this time. The Maritime Broadcast Warning above suggests that the CRS-19 upper stage deorbit happens much later, about 5.5 hours or 3.5 revolutions after launch. In addition, the area is shifted southwards compared to the CRS-19 ground track, indicating a deorbit from an orbital inclination clearly higher than the 51.6 degrees orbital inclination of the DRAGON. In fact, it fits an orbital inclination in the order of of 57-58 degrees, i.e. some 5 degrees higher in inclination.

So that is odd.

The prolonged on-orbit time might be a coasting test with an eye on future missions that require coasting over several revolutions. The indicated inclination change might likewise be a test for a future mission requirement.

I have been entertaining the possibility of an undisclosed cubesat rideshare, to a ~58 degree inclination orbit. But that remains pure speculation and is perhaps not very likely.

Note: in the map in top of this post, the dashed white line is the DRAGON CRS-19 trajectory up to 23:45 UT (Dec 4), the end of the timewindow given by the Maritime Broadcast Warning for the Falcon upper stage deorbit.


UPDATE 4 Dec 2019 10:15 UT:

During the CRS-19 pre-launch press conference yesterday, the SpaceX Director of Dragon Mission Management, Jessica Jensen, said the Falcon 9 upper stage is doing a "thermal demonstration" after the CRS-19 orbit insertion, that amounts to a six-hour coasting phase:




In reply to reporter questions she provided slightly more details somewhat later in the press conference, adding that the test is done at the request of a customer for future missions that require a long coast. During the long coast phase, they will a.o. measure the thermal environment in the fuel tanks. The apparent ~5 degree orbital inclination change was not mentioned:

The Mating Call of the CUCU [updated]

The ISS is seeing busy times. On July 20, Soyuz MS-13 was launched from Baikonur bringing a new crew to the ISS. Then, on July 25, SpaceX launched the Dragon CRS-18 cargoship to the ISS from Cape Canaveral, docking today (July 27). And it will get even busier: in a few days, currently slated for July 31,  a Progress cargoship will be launched from Baikonur towards the ISS as well.

Soyuz MS-13

As is usual these days, the Soyuz MS-13 launch from Baikonur on 20 July 2019 was a fast-track mission, launching at 16:28:21 UT (20 July) and docking at 22:48 UT, a mere 6 hours 20 minutes later.

One orbit before docking, near 21:05 UT, the Soyus-ISS pair was visible chasing each other in a still bright twilight sky over Leiden, the Netherlands, the two objects being some 20 degrees apart. In the image below, the leading bright streak is the ISS, the fainter trailing streak near the clouds is the Soyuz (enlarge the image to see it). Visually, the Soyuz was about magnitude +1 and easy to see:

click to enlarge

During the next pass, near 22:40 UT , they already were too close to visually separate, but I could hear the kosmonauts onboard the Soyuz talk (in Russian) at 121.75 MHz FM during this pass, only minutes before docking to the ISS at 22:48 UT. Here is a recording of the best part received:

 

The Mating Call of the CUCU

Only 5 days after Soyuz MS-13, on 25 July 2019, the SpaceX Dragon CRS-18 launched from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral. The timing of the launch, 22:01:56 UT, was unfavourable for initial sightings from the European mainland (Ireland and western UK did have sighting opportunities) as it already was in earth shadow while passing over mainland Europe 20 minutes after launch.

The next night did see visible passes, that unfortunately for me in Leiden were clouded out. I did however detect related telemetry signals at 400.5 MHz during two passes (19:22 UT, in daylight; and again during the clouded out 20:59 UT pass).

The three peaks in the frequency diagram and broad yellow bands in the spectrogram below (from the 19:22 UT pass) are the CUCU signal. CUCU stands for the "COTS UHF Communication Unit":

CUCU signal on 400.5 MHz

CUCU is a duplex telemetry broadcast that allows the ISS to communicate with the Dragon and vice versa, homing it in for berthing. It is what you could call the 'mating call' of the pair. CUCU was not active right after launch during the first Dragon revolution (I listened), but was notably active the next day, as Dragon CRS-18 was slowly approaching and climbing towards the ISS.

The CUCU signal sounds like a humming noise and a regular sharp "Beep! Beep! Beep!". Below is an audio recording of the CUCU signal, from the 19:22 UT pass, roughly corresponding to the spectrum shown above:






Initially I thought this was the CUCU of DRAGON CRS-18 itself, but looking at the Doppler curve of the signal, it was actually the CUCU signal of the ISS calling out to the fledgling Dragon (HT to Cees Bassa for noting it corresponded to the ISS rather than DRAGON).

The spectrogram below shows the signal as received during the second pass, near 20:59 UT, with the characteristic Doppler S-curve. The diagram below it shows how this Doppler curve matches with the Doppler curve for the ISS at that time:

click to enlarge

click diagram to enlarge

This was the first time I have heard the CUCU mating call, and I was surprised by how strong the signal was. The reception was made with a homebrew 120-deg V-dipole antenna with ground plane reflector, optimized for 400 MHz, and an SDR dongle.


UPDATE 28 July 2019

Dragon CRS-18 docked to the ISS earlier today, near 14:00 UT. During the 18:33 UT and 20:09 UT passes (I did not monitor the third pass at 21:46 UT), there was again radio activity around 400.5 MHz connected to the ISS/Dragon. It was different in character than when the Dragon was still free-flying. Compare the spectrogram below, from the 20:09 UT pass, with thatfrom the previous day  above (note: the fuzzy band in this case is interference - the ISS/Dragon signals are the s-shaped lines):

click to enlarge

Cygnus OA-7 and Dragon CRS-11 chasing the ISS in a twilight sky

ISS and Cygnus OA-7. Click to enlarge

June 3, the launch date of SpaceX's Dragon CRS-11 cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), was clouded out in Leiden, much to my frustration.

But yesterday evening was (sort of) clear, albeit with cirrus in the sky and a moon that was quite a nuisance. It allowed me to observe the ISS, the Dragon CRS-11, and Orbital ATK's Cygnus OA-7, which had de-coupled from the ISS a few hours earlier, making a low elevation pass (less than 35 degrees elevation) in the southern sky.

The image above shows the ISS (the bright object near the tree) and, as a faint trail, the Cygnus OA-7 (upper right corner, in the cirrus), descending towards the SE horizon.

Below is a better picture of Cygnus OA-7, shot 25 seconds later (ISS is already behind the tree here):

Cygnus OA-7. Click image to enlarge

Cygnus OA-7 passed ~25 seconds after the ISS. One minute later, ~1m 25s behind the ISS and on a slightly lower elevation track came another object: Dragon CRS-11:

Dragon CRS-11. Click image to enlarge

I did not expect the Dragon to be behind the ISS: I expected it somewhat in front of it. So initially I was miffed that I missed it (see below, this evening did not go quite well): to be surprised by it appearing behind the ISS!

This evening did initially not go well, but in a weird way eventually turned out fine.

A number of objects would pass in a short timespan of a few minutes: USA 276, the Dragon solar panel covers, Dragon, ISS, and somewhere nearby the ISS also Cygnus OA-7.

There were no post-ISS-release elements for the Cygnus yet, so its position would be a guess, although I reckoned it probably still was close to the ISS. Cygnus are usually faint (this time too) and only naked eye objects under favourable circumstances (usually, as this time, close to shadow ingress).

For Dragon, only a day old elements were available. These placed Dragon a few minutes in front of the ISS. As it no doubt would have manoeuvered during that day, I expected it to be closer to the ISS in reality, but that it was behind the ISS, that was a bit unanticipated.

The passes occurred in twilight (sun about 10 deg below the horizon). As obtaining new astrometric data on USA 276 (see story here for as to why) was important, I had set up the WATEC video camera to capture it, from the loft window (the only spot in my house where I can view that low south). That took  me longer than expected, as I initially had some trouble finding the target area in the video view (it was still deep twilight).

When I finally had found the target starfield through which USA 276 should pass, I discovered to my dismay that the pass was already imminent within minutes. As I could not visually observe through the same loft window, nor photograph, I had to be outside for that, at the city moat near my house which offers a view low south. So I grabbed my photo gear and ran outside. Arrived at the observing spot, I found that I already missed the opportunity to visually see and photograph USA 276 (luckily, the video camera in the loft window did film it). I also feared I had missed Dragon CRS-11, as I already could see the ISS approaching in the southwest. So I said a few strong words...

As ISS had passed the moon (which was a bloody nuisance, smack in the middle of the trajectory line) and was descending into the trees low in the south-southeast, I spotted a second, not too bright object chasing it (see first two images above). As I was photographing it and it descended into the trees, I re-aimed my camera hoping to catch it in a gap on the other (left) side of the tree.

Then I saw yet another object descend into the right side of the tree, and realised this was either Dragon or Cygnus. I initially thought, to my dismay, that it would be just outside my camera FOV. Luckily, back home later it turned out it still was in the FOV (I used a 35 mm lens).

The first, faint object on the same trajectory as the ISS some 25 seconds behind it I for this moment identify as Cygnus OA-7. The second, brighter one, on a trajectory just south of that of the ISS some 1m 25s behind it, I for the moment identify as the Dragon CRS-11.

Observing USA 276, the odd NROL-76 payload

click image to enlarge

The image above shows USA 276 passing over the roof of my house last night. USA 276 is the mystery payload of the May 1 SpaceX NROL-76 launch from Cape Canaveral.

Also visible in the image are three rocket boosters: the r/b of the classified Milstar 3 launch, and two Russian objects. Skies surely are crowded these days...

The photograph above was shot near 3:07 local time (1:07 UT) during the second of two consecutive passes. During the first pass, near 1:30 local time (23:30 UT), I obtained this video record:


USA 276 was quite faint during the first pass (I could not see it by naked eye from Leiden town center). During the second pass it was brighter, attaining mag. +3 near culmination, visible to the naked eye without problem. Due to its low orbital altitude it was very fast: the object is in a 389 x 409 km, 50.0 degree inclined orbit.

After its May 1 launch, there was a lot of discussion among our observers. The launch azimuth seemed to suggest a 50 degree orbital inclination. That would be odd (see below), so not everybody was willing to believe this. Some suggested a dog-leg manoeuvre towards a 63.4 HEO orbit. Because of the lack of precedent, orbital altitudes could only be guessed, making a quick recovery by observers more troublesome.

It took a while (23 days) before the payload was finally observed and the orbit could be confirmed. On May 23-24, the night before I obtained the imagery above, Leo Barhorst in the Netherlands finally found the payload. And it was in a 50 degree inclination, 389 x 409 km Low Earth Orbit.

The purpose of this payload in this odd orbit is a bit of a mystery. The orbital inclination of 50.0 degrees does not match common orbital inclinations attached to specific functions: US military radar satellites (ONYX, TOPAZ) tend to be in 57 degree LEO orbits or their 123 degree retrograde equivalents; SIGINT sats in 63.4 degree orbits (either LEO or HEO); optical reconnaissance satellites in 98 degree sun-synchronous LEO orbits; the X-37B space plane was in a 39-degree inclined very Low Earth Orbit. An orbital inclination of 50.0 degrees, as shown by USA 276, is odd and unusual.

The common opinion is that USA 276 is some technology demonstrator, somewhat similar to the ill-fated USA 193 from 2006, blown from the sky with a SM-3 in 2008. But what technology does it demonstrate?

click map to enlarge

Orbital inclination and orbital altitude are in fact very (some would say oddly) similar to the ISS (see diagrams above and below, showing how close the orbits currently are): the two objects in theory (and based on the current USA 276 orbit) can potentially even make quite close approaches, to within a few km (!), as Ted Molczan showed in a private communication.

click image to enlarge

I have found that on June 4, USA 276 will in fact be very close by when (if all goes according to plan)  the SpaceX DRAGON CRS-11 should arive at the ISS at this date. That is, if USA 276 doesn't change its current orbit before then.

Observers in Europe might see the three objects close together in their evening twilight of June 3, with USA 276 some 15-30 degrees distant from the ISS.

The diagram below shows the position of USA 276 relative to the ISS on the European evening of June 3, if USA 276 has not manoeuvered by then:

click image to enlarge

Due to slightly different rates of precession of their orbital nodes, the orbits will slowly diverge from their current close coincidence over time, unless USA 276 makes a corrective manoeuvre.

I have pondered the question whether this all is coincidental or not. While I can in fact think of a potential goal where this all would be on purpose, that would be a very wild thing to do, so perhaps it is not so likely. For the moment, let's better chalk it up to coincidence until new developments seem to point otherwise.

SpaceX Dragon CRS-9 chasing the ISS in the sky

ISS and Dragon CRS-9. Click to enlarge

Last night was a clear and very warm, moonlit night (21 deg C). It was warm enough to observe in shirt and shorts. I observed MUOS 5 and USA 224, but the highlight of the night came in early morning twilight: a splendid pass of the ISS being chased by SpaceX's Dragon CRS-9 cargo vehicle launched July 18 and berthing to the ISS at the moment of writing.

The image above shows them, crossing Aquila at 1:32:42 UT (3:32 local time): ISS is the brighter object in top, the Dragon is chasing it, some 20-25 seconds behind it.

It was a splendid view, seeing the two objects majestically sailing across te sky. The Dragon was very bright an easy to see: mag +2 when clearing the rooftop in the southwest, and briefly attaining magnitude 0 while decsending in the southeast.

The image was made with my Canon EOS 60D and an EF 2.0/35mm lens set at F2.2, 5 seconds exposure at 800 ISO. This was 9.5 hours before the Dragon was captured by the ISS's robotic arm for berthing.

Movie: Dragon CRS-6, The Twilight Saga!

Yesterday I did a very successful series of observations on the just launched SpaceX Dragon CRS-6, the Falcon 9 upper stage, and the two ejected solar panel covers, all still very close together at that time, 20 minutes after the launch. See the series of photographs in my previous post.

(movie is HD, click on it to enlarge: this small window will not show it well)

Today, 15 April 2015,  saw successful observations of the Dragon CRS and the Falcon upper stage again. At 19:00 and 19:02 UT (21:00 local time, Apr 15), in very deep twilight, I observed both objects during a near-zenith pass from Leiden. Using the movie function of my Canon EOS 60D, I shot the footage above (enlarge it to full screen - it is in HD- otherwise the two objects will not be well visible).

The sun was at an altitude of only -4 degrees, the sky was still bright blue with barely a star visible (only Venus and Jupiter could be clearly seen). Yet both the Falcon r/b and the Dragon CRS could be easily seen once past culmination and descending towards the east. They were both in the negative magnitudes, due to a very favourable phase angle and short observing distance. They were very fast too: it was quite a spectacular sight!

Both objects passed with a separation of about two minutes in time. The B-object, which is probably the Falcon r/b, was first. The A-object wich is probably the Dragon CRS-6 was next. Both objects were steady in brightness.

I also tried to observe the next pass at 22:34 local time (20:34 UT) but thick cirrus clouds had filled the sky by then. I did see a hazy ISS pass at 20:16 UT but the Dragon of Falcon were not seen.

SpaceX Dragon CRS-6 and debris pieces, twenty minutes after launch

On 14 April 2015 at 20:10 UTC, one day late due to an aborted launch the day before, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon CRS-6 resupply mission to the ISS.

(click images to enlarge)

Falcon 9, Dragon CRS-6 and 2 debris pieces, 20 minutes after launch

I watched the live webcast of the launch, and then 20 minutes later I watched the Dragon craft make a pass through Orion low in the West, before entering Earth shadow.

With a pass so low in the west in the evening, I expected it to be faint, but it actually was easily visible by the naked eye reaching mag. +1.5 (about as bright as the brightest stars in Orion, barely fainter than Betelgeuse which it passed close by [edit: but see below...]). It was some 30-45 seconds late on Jon Mikel's estimated initial orbit.

My images show up to three additional, fainter objects (I did not see them visually) close to the Dragon (see image above which shows them al three). These are the two jettisoned solar panel covers, and either the jettisoned nose-cone or the Falcon 9 upper stage (probably the latter). Unlike the Dragon, which is steady, these three objects are irregular in brightness, as they are tumbling.

[edit 15 Apr 10:15 UT:  according to Cees Bassa the bright object is actually the Falcon 9 upper stage, the fainter object just above and very close to it the Dragon CRS-6, while the two flaring faint objects upper and bottom are the solar panel covers]

The image below is a stack (combination) of five images taken slightly earlier, showing the Dragon Falcon stage and the flashing (tumbling) debris pieces crossing the top of Orion (Betelgeuse is top left):

stack of five 2.5 second images separated by 10 seconds

Two other single shots from that sequence, showing  the debris pieces flashing up alongside the Dragon Falcon:

Dragon and ISS will berth on April 16 and I hope to have some opportunity to observe them close together.

(many thanks to Jon Mikel for his orbital estimate)

[UPDATED & CORRECTED] Observing the SpaceX Dragon CRS-3, the ISS and two pieces of Dragon launch debris

CORRECTION (21/04/2014 12:55 UT): in the initial post, the two debris pieces were misidentified. "2014-022C" turned out to be 2014-022H, and "2014-022H" turned out to be 2014-022G.

click image to enlarge

Last Friday at 19:25 UT, SpaceX launched the Dragon CRS-3 commercial supply ship to the International Space Station ISS. It passed over Europe 20 minutes later but unfortunately I was clouded out in Leiden. In the middle and eastern parts of the Netherlands as well as elsewhere in Europe, observers were treated to a spectacular view of the Dragon, the Falcon upper stage, and two faint pieces of debris passing by as a thight group of objects.

SpaceX Dragon CRS-3
click image to enlarge

I was more lucky yesterday when the sky was clear and the Dragon and ISS made a late twilight pass culminating at approximately 26 degrees altitude in the SW near 20:06 UT (22:06 local time, sun at -12 deg.). The image above shows the Dragon CRS-3 due south already somewhat past culmination. It was easy to see with the naked eye, attaining magn. +1.5. Its brightness is more similar to a Progress or ATV then to the much fainter commercial Orbital Sciences Cygnus.

The Dragon was about 1m 12s behind the ISS, a visual distance of somewhat over 40 degrees. Pre-observation predictions based on elements a few hours old had put it in front of the ISS, so at first I was wondering whether I missed it. Then, as the ISS was descending towards the SE, I saw it approaching in the SW, chasing the ISS. A very fine sight!

The ISS passing the same sky area as the

earlier image, 1 min earlier

(click image to enlarge)

While I was photographing at the nearby city moat, I had also set up the video in my girlfriend's appartment, and this capture both objects as well: first the ISS, then a minute later the Dragon:




(the display says "GPS BAD" because my GPS time inserter failed to lock on a GPS satellite. I hope it is not broken...)

Apart from the Dragon and the ISS, I observed and photographically imaged a third debris object related to the launch. It is the object catalogued by JSpOC as 2014-022C/#39682. 2014-022H, #39687. It is either the jettisoned Dragon nose cone cover, or one of the solar panel covers   or possibly one of the Nanosat dispensers: I think it is too bright to be one of the several released nanosats itself. It was faint and slowly tumbling, alternating between invisibility and a max magnitude of about +3.5:

tumbling Dragon debris 2014-022H

(click image to enlarge)

[UPDATE:] Later I discovered a second piece of Dragon CRS-3 launch debris on my imagery. It is faint, irregular in brightness and present on two images, the best of which is this one from 20:04:07 UTC:

tumbling Dragon debris 2014-022G
(click image to enlarge)

This turns out to be the object designated 2014-022H, #39687  2014-022G, #39686. This is the other solar panel cover.