Acra KAM-500 Records Video & High Speed Sensor Data on SpaceX Mission SpaceX became the first commercial company to successfully recover a spacecraft from Earth orbit. The Dragon spacecraft orbited the Earth twice before landing in the Pacific. The system supplied by Curtiss-Wright Controls Avionics & Electronics comprised of Acra KAM-500 data acquistion units connected to a variety of sensors allowed the acquisition of data for post flight playback and analysis as well as the telemetering of data to the ground for real-time analysis. The Results • First 100% recovery of a commercial spacecraft from orbit • Reliable test equipment for an accelerated space flight test program • Data used to develop the docking mechanism on future Dragon spacecraft

1. SpaceX Falcon 9 & Dragon
SpaceX became the first
commercial company to
successfully recover a spacecraft
from Earth orbit. The Dragon
spacecraft orbited the Earth twice
before landing in the Pacific.
The System
Acra KAM-500 DAUs connected to
a variety of sensors allowed the
acquisition of data for post flight
playback and analysis as well as
the telemetering of data to the
ground for real-time analysis.
The Results
• First 100% recovery of a
commercial spacecraft from
orbit
Acra KAM-500 Records • Reliable test equipment for an
accelerated space flight test
Video & High Speed Sensor •
program
Data used to develop the
Data on SpaceX Mission docking mechanism on future
Dragon spacecraft

2. Acra KAM-500
The System
Lowers Risk
Proven on every platform type in
Made up of entirely commercial
all environmental conditions
off-the-shelf products, the system comprised
COTS hardware with short delivery
• 3 Acra KAM-500 Data Acquisition Units to times
acquire, record and telemeter data
Reduces Cost of Ownership
Reduced inventory of spares due
• Range of plug-in standard modules used to common product line
to capture audio, video, strain and
Lower installation, setup and
temperature maintenance requirements
Modular design greatly extends
• A High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) to
system lifetime
parse and pass high speed serial date to
the recorder FTI by Design
Designed to minimize the data
• Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) transfer time from sensor to screen
module to read sensors Guaranteed predictable data
Simultaneous sampling occurs
across the complete system
COMMERCIAL OFF-THE-SHELF
MODULAR DESIGN

3. Results I
First 100% successful recovery of a commercial
spacecraft from Earth orbit
• Valuable flight data recovered:
Structural response to acoustic loads
“
•
from Falcon 9 rocket engines The Acra system is
robust, we are always
• Structural integrity and orbital confident it will pass “
manoeuvring of the Dragon capsule environmental testing
• High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) module Jason Vance
was developed and delivered in less than a Avionics Engineer - RF/Telemetry
Space Exploration Technologies
year
WORKS ONCE
WORKS ALWAYS

4. Results II
Reliable test equipment in place in time for an
accelerated space flight test program
• The first time Acra hardware was launched in
low Earth orbit, the data acquisition hardware
was subject to rigorous environmental tests for
payload safety prior to launch
• Acra delivered a system that met SpaceX’s
tight budgets and demanding flight schedules
• The reliability of the equipment meant that not
only was data successfully recovered but the “ We have never had a
problem with any Acra
hardware in flight
“
DAUs were still fully operational following
splashdown
DESIGNED TO OPERATE IN THE
HARSHEST ENVIRONMENTS

5. Results III
Data used to develop the docking mechanism on
future Dragon spacecraft
DragonEye
The docking system for the Dragon spacecraft,
DragonEye II was tested on-board the Space Shuttle
Discovery.
Acra KAM-500 recorded LIDAR 3D and thermal
imaging video of the docking /undocking procedure
with the International Space Station.
The data that was acquired and recorded on both of
the DragonEye missions is being used to develop the
permanent docking structure of future Dragon designs.
HIGH QUALITY DATA
EVERY TIME

6. For more information visit
www.cwc-ae.com
Curtiss-Wright Controls Avionics & Electronics
cwc-ae@curtisswright.com
665 North Baldwin Park Boulevard Landscape House, Landscape Road
City of Industry, CA 91746, USA Dublin 14, Ireland
Phone: 626-851-3100 Phone: +353-1295-1264