Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Civilian Astronauts to Fly Today

Impressive!

Rock,

The family drove out to a high point today and looked north.

Even the iPhone footage was decent. Very cool.

Musk is a living legend as far as I’m concerned.

Good launch, hope the splash down goes well.

NV, that's simply not the case. Yes, the capsule is autonomous. But to argue that that diminishes their deserved title of astronaut is like saying airline pilots don't deserve the title because their planes have auto-pilots. Those four are crew members, and each has a specific role to accomplish, from commander, pilot, and systems specialist to medical officer. And, in an emergency, they'd have to fly the thing on their own.

19 minutes in, pretty cool, nose cone is open.

I think they are giving the crew time to orient themselves to 0g before they show any more. In their training, the older guy threw up. They were also going into the night side of earth. We will get some more pictures tomorrow. Booster landed, that is a plus for reusability.

On the news tonight they called them space travelers, I can go with that.

What started out as barnstorming became the world's airline system, thousands of flights a day all over the world. This is how it started. It's small with only a few passengers on a high. Later it could grow into something big.
The difference, though, is where they're going. The airline system carries people between 2 cities. At the end of the flight they have family or friends, business to conduct, maybe an elk hunt. Since there are no places or people in space to visit, there is no real destination. It's up and back, just seeing the sights out of a window. I can't see it growing much beyond a few flights like this one.

Space is where their workplace will be, RC. Several companies are already designing manufacturing space stations to produce things that can't be made in gravity. What a commute, huh?

BTW, it has long been known that the first 24 hours in 0-G is a barf-o-rama. Most people experience "space sickness" until their inner ears and brain adjust.

Their flight is almost over. De-orbit burn is underway for a splashdown off Florida. LINK

Now in blackout. About 11 minutes until splashdown.

Down safe!

That was pretty sweet.

Impressive!

So, anyone know what the politics are behind these four folks being denied their official "astronaut wings"? Seems petty bullshat at first glance.

Just watched replay of the splashdown. Very cool. As a kid I used to watch the apollo launches, then space shuttle, etc. Wonderful time to be young and see history. Now as an older man I'm watching history again.

If anyone has an opportunity to visit Smithsonian Air & Space in DC or the Udvar-Hazy Center in VA to view history of space flight, do this. My son and I did this years ago, met with some 24hcf members in downtown dc, lunched at the Old Ebbitt Grill. Very very cool. 7x57 Steve, Pugs, Isaac, that lawyer who doesn't post here anymore, and a buddy of his (I figure he was bodyguard for Isaac).

I offer a "Thank You" to RockyRabb for posting these links and starting these threads on the 24HCF. Also a Thank You to Rick Binn for hosting us.

Pat

And for the record, Biden failed to acknowledge the accomplishment in any way whatsoever. When Musk was asked for comment, he answered “probably still sleeping”.