ACRA CONTROL
Knowledge Base
SpaceX Records Video and High Speed Sensors
The ACRA CONTROL system is robust,we are always confident it will pass environmental testing.
Avionics Engineer - RF/Telemetry
Space Exploration Technologies
The Program
On December 8th 2010, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) became the first commercial company to successfully recover a spacecraft from Earth orbit. The NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (NASA COTS) Demo Flight 1 was the first unmanned spaceflight of the Dragon spacecraft and the second flight of the Falcon 9 rocket. After successfully orbiting the Earth twice, Dragon landed in the Pacific Ocean and the recorded data was successfully retrieved.
The System
To determine the structural response to acoustic loads coming from the Falcon 9 rocket engines as well as monitor the structural integrity of the Dragon in space flight, both vehicles were instrumented with ACRA CONTROL KAM-500 Data Acquisition Units (DAUs) connected to a variety of sensors. The Dragon’s system recorded acquired data for post flight playback and analysis while the Falcon 9 systems telemetered data to the ground for realtime analysis.
The Results
- First 100% successful recovery of a commercial spacecraft from Earth orbit
- Reliable test equipment in place in time for an accelerated space flight test program
- Data used to develop the docking mechanism on future Dragon spacecraft