Aren't we supposed to wait till the target track is over the launch site in order to make for the most efficient rendezvous?
Hi,
generally speaking, you can wait until the Target "Orbit Plane" coincides (is "overhead") with your launch site.
If I launch at the official launch time of the scenario, my plane is not aligned with the ISS. I end up with an orbit that has an Inc of 57.85 degrees while the ISS is 54.95 and the LAN is out too. Is that expected? Was I supposed to make manual adjustments during the launch using the first or second stage engines to better align the orbit? Or am I supposed to do the Align Planes after SECO?
Yes, that's expected. Have a read of my comments in the posts containing the scenarios for reasons why. Yes, you need to do some steering with either the Upper Stage or the Dragon itself (or both!), in order to align planes with ISS.
Note: Remember orbit parameters can be expressed in either Ecliptic or Equatorial reference frames - Falcon9 control panel uses Equatorial. Also, Launch Azimuth is not equivalent to Inclination.
But if I launch when the ISS is on a ground track that is 1000kms to the west of me, my orbital plane might match the ISS but won't my LAN be 1000km different and I will have to spend a lot of fuel to align planes, to shuffle my LAN around till it matches the ISS?
If your orbital plane matches the ISS, you will have the same LAN and Inclination, by definition.
As a side note as to whether the "Align Planes" maneuver is performed by the Upper Stage or Dragon (or both) - there has to be some steering done by the Upper Stage for the ground track to pass over the Shannon abort zone, unless the Dragon makes a plane change burn immediately after separation. My hunch is that the Upper Stage does most of the Align Planes work. The first burn by the Dragon takes care of any residual error.
I saw the Dragon go over (low to the SW from here on UK S.Coast) about 20mins after launch, but I didn't see any sign of Upper Stage. So either the Dragon or Upper Stage had done some kind of maneuver within ~10 mins of Dragon separation. Maybe an Upper Stage de-orbit burn? Unless, of course, I just missed seeing the Upper Stage ;-)
Cheers,
Brian