SpaceX will try again today to launch two NASA astronauts to the Space Station. Liftoff is set for 3:22 pm Eastern and all the same channels and sources from NASA TV to YouTube will carry it live. Weather is iffy again, however, with T'storms predicted for all afternoon. If they can't go today, there is another chance tomorrow. Launch opportunities are set by the path of the Space Station, with only a narrow variance of inclination allowed in its ground track to be able to catch it. It has to pass almost directly over the launch site.
Rocky, question for ya. After the capsule drops these guys off, is the capsule bringing other people back? If not, does the capsule stay there for a while, or do they bring it home right away? When it does come back, how and where do they land it? Still a "splash down"?
For this launch, the two guys will remain at the Station for a while (they have not yet figured out how long) and then they will come back down in it, to a splashdown in the ocean. Assuming this all goes well, the capsule and system will be declared operational and as many as seven astronauts can ride it at a time. If launches are frequent enough, that could mean that some go up and others use that capsule to come back down - as they do now with the Russian capsules.
The routine now is that there are enough Soyuz capsules docked at the Station to serve as "lifeboats" in case the crew has to abandon ship due to emergency. Soyuz can carry three, so there are always a multiple of three astro/cosmo-nauts there (always at least one Russian and one American), and they obviously then have one or two Soyuz craft. When it's time for a crew change, three come up and three go down, using the oldest Soyuz docked there for the re-entry.
That pattern will likely remain with Dragon and also the Boeing craft when it gets operational. There could conceivably be three types of capsule docked there at once - and larger Station crews. Even tourists!
NASA TV is now live, mostly the same yak-yak as the other day for now. Weather still iffy but a bit better than Wednesday's. Astronauts are suiting up. Vehicle looks good.
Hey Rocky, what's up with the suit configuration? Are they the new generation of suits or are they specifically designed just for riding up in the Dragon capsule?
Completely off the wall thought: since the suits are custom-made for each astronaut, do they get to keep them? My flight helmet was fitted to me and when I left flight status, they told me they didn't want it back. It sits here on my bookshelf as I type this.
Weather update: they are saying a 50/50 shot at it today. When I worked there, we always joked "Cu (cumulus) by noon, boomer at four." It was so usual that it was known as the "civil service T-storm" because we NASA pukes worked 8 to 4, and invariably we'd have to run to our cars in a deluge at quitting time. If you look at the live shot, you can see cumulus clouds forming...
If you noticed the "security vehicle" escorting the astronaut cars and heard the helicopter sounds, you might surmise that there are some serious precautions against hostiles. Most of them unseen, but I can vouch that it a multi-tiered system with some very prepared troops.
Ed, Musk and SpaceX literally turned the space program on its ear. Even 10 years ago, the "smart folks" smirked that the things SpaceX proposed were impossible - landing boosters for re-use being at the top of that list. I would love to see them not smirking now.
Elon Musk wants to populate Mars with 1 million people to save humanity
Once on Mars, crews expect to get right to work building self-sustaining colonies which could include everything from restaurants to factories. Due to Mars’ resource-rich environment —which includes water, ice, and mineral and metal deposits — Musk assures crews won’t have to worry about a shortage of job opportunities on the red planet. Musk stated he hopes the new system has the ability to make “Mars seem possible.” Citing a desire to make Mars seem fun and adventurous, the SpaceX frontman intends to put the “dream of Mars in people’s heads.” While these manned flights are still several years out, SpaceX remains committed to sending an unmanned mission to mars by 2018, additionally vowing to send a craft to Mars during each Earth-Mars rendezvous from then on.
Musk was sure to drive the point home that we face an existential threat as a species: life as we know it will either go extinct or we could choose to become a multiplanetary species, a particularly dark subject he brought up numerous times during his presentation and the following Q&A session.
That's nothing but pure left wing global warming BS.
I know. Ya'll will be pissed off that someone didn't agree with your Golden Boy... But so be it.
As I explained before, the vehicle that exploded is NOT what they plan to fly to Mars. It's a test article not even far enough advanced to even be called a prototype of the Mars vehicle.
As the the humanity in space idea, it cannot be denied that mankind either stays on Earth forever - or we don't. If we do, we are open to extinction just as the dinosaurs. That's all Musk is saying.
As I explained before, the vehicle that exploded is NOT what they plan to fly to Mars. It's a test article not even far enough advanced to even be called a prototype of the Mars vehicle.
As the the humanity in space idea, it cannot be denied that mankind either stays on Earth forever - or we don't. If we do, we are open to extinction just as the dinosaurs. That's all Musk is saying.
I thought Musk was pretty specific about Mars. He sure names it a bunch.
We know how inhospitable our own planetary system is.
Why not go for interstellar travel where you may find a more human friendly environment?
We have all watched too many Star Trek shows. Interstellar flight may never happen. The stars are simply too far apart - and we have no idea if any "reachable" ones have planets we could inhabit. Mars might be the only possible one.
Wasn't is a little suspicious we didn't see the actual stage 2 disconnect or the actual landing of the stage 1 rocket?
Everything else was cool to see, but to have the camera's miss two of the most significant events of the launch leaves the doubters room to say "old stock footage was used" for the disconnect/landing events.
Good luck on the rest of the mission Astronauts!!!
I think Musk envisions Mars as a jumping off point for future exploration of space, building on our success and learning from our failure. That’s what NASA has done in the past, is currently doing in the present and now with the incredible and unbelievable success that SpaceX has had, in collaboration with NASA, future generations will build upon the foundations laid.
We know more about outer space than we do about what lies under the waters of our oceans. Considering the vastness of space and what we DO know (or think we know) we’d be ignorant to think that we’re the only “intelligent life” or that we live on the only habitable planet in all the galaxies is myopic and akin to the flat earthers. 😂
Like him or hate him, Elon Musk has delivered some incredible technology and done so ahead of schedule and under budget when compared to NASA. I have a deep respect for NASA but injecting new “blood” (SpaceX) into the space program is precisely what was needed. The visions and aspirations of the dreaming genius is the reason why we’ve come as far as we have. Without people like Edison or Musk we’d be no different than most of Africa. 😉
The milky way galaxy alone is 100,000 light years across. So even if you had a way to travel at the speed of light, it would take 100,000 years to travel from one side of one relatively small galaxy to the other.
,...and there's billions of galaxies out there,..each of them containing 100's of billions of stars.
That looked to be a very smooth ride, especially compared to cockpit views of a Shuttle launch - which bucked and jumped like crazy.
To doubters, they usually lose video of the landing barge just before touchdown due to the rocket exhaust blowing the transmitting antenna around a bit. Can't be helped.
Wasn't is a little suspicious we didn't see the actual stage 2 disconnect or the actual landing of the stage 1 rocket?
I’m guessing that they cut it in case of failure. Wouldn’t want to have astronauts blowing up live on tv. There also my be technical design and performance features shown in those moments they’re not wanting to expose.
That looked to be a very smooth ride, especially compared to cockpit views of a Shuttle launch - which bucked and jumped like crazy.
To doubters, they usually lose video of the landing barge just before touchdown due to the rocket exhaust blowing the transmitting antenna around a bit. Can't be helped.
I wonder if the ride is smoother or the camera stabilization better ?
Damn ! I found that pretty riveting ! I didn’t notice the inch plus long horsefly biting my ankle until the second stage separation ! I killed it but my palm and ankle are covered in blood. Been there a minute or so !
Just to clarify my last post, I'm not one of the doubters, but I have a couple "Flat Earther/Moon Landing Denier" pals that will be pointing that out to me and claiming it was "models or GCI", so your reasons for the missing footage will be useful.
The most impressive thing my Wife and I noticed was really how FAST the guys got into space/orbit. The technology today is incredible.God Bless 'em and hopefully their return goes as smoothly as the launch.
Gotcha. You may have also noticed that the camera feed from the booster dropped out just before landing. That's because as it descends, it drops below the horizon from the telemetry tracking station at the Cape. First stage telemetry is tracked from the Cape, and second stage to orbit is picked up by both ground stations further along (in this case, Wallops Island, Virginia) and from our Tracking and Data Relay Satellites in geosync orbit. All the in-capsule camera foootage came from the latter, but since first stage telemetry is no longer vital after it separates, they don't devote any bandwidth to that via TDRS. Clear?
We also did see the 2ns stage separation, but it was a brief view and they went to it about a second after it happened. There were a few shots of the Dragon as it floated away that were really cool, too.
No diversity in that capsule. I think there should be a townhall meeting about that.
You should see the design team photo from SpaceX a few years ago. Almost 100% white male. A couple of Asian men. I’m not sure there was a single female or AA represented.
RR, do you know what that foil or mylar looking material just above the second stage rocket engine is used for? It sure looks wimpy for a rocket going that fast blowing around like it does.
That looked to be a very smooth ride, especially compared to cockpit views of a Shuttle launch - which bucked and jumped like crazy.
To doubters, they usually lose video of the landing barge just before touchdown due to the rocket exhaust blowing the transmitting antenna around a bit. Can't be helped.
I wonder if the ride is smoother or the camera stabilization better ?
There you go again, spoiling things by being all logical and stuff...
Just to clarify my last post, I'm not one of the doubters, but I have a couple "Flat Earther/Moon Landing Denier" pals that will be pointing that out to me and claiming it was "models or GCI", so your reasons for the missing footage will be useful.
The milky way galaxy alone is 100,000 light years across. So even if you had a way to travel at the speed of light, it would take 100,000 years to travel from one side of one relatively small galaxy to the other.
,...and there's billions of galaxies out there,..each of them containing 100's of billions of stars.
And each solar system inside each galaxy is on its own time line. Any system which might have eventually developed intelligent life, that intelligent life only existed there (or will exist at some point in the future) for an infinitesimal blink of an eye during the 14 billion years since the origin of the universe.
So it is not just a matter of searching out the point in space where such a species might exist, but also being there at the proper point in time.
Just to clarify my last post, I'm not one of the doubters, but I have a couple "Flat Earther/Moon Landing Denier" pals that will be pointing that out to me and claiming it was "models or GCI", so your reasons for the missing footage will be useful.
Tell 'em this.
400,000 people worked on the Apollo. if just one of them wanted to make $5,000,000 or $10,000,000, and had the slightest shred of evidence it was faked, the National Enquirer would publish the evidence tomorrow.
BTW: Without me it would have been 399,000. It wasn't faked.
Simon, I got to NASA after the Apollo program ended, but I witnessed the first Shuttle flight from that pad - and many more. There is nothing as spectacular as an orbital-class rocket launch. Nothing. I watched well over 100 of them from as close as most people were allowed to get - the press sites - and it didn't matter if it was a Delta, an Atlas, a Trident missile, a Titan III, or a Space Shuttle; the very ground moves, and you can feel your liver moving inside you under those intense sound waves. It is a genuine jaw-drop.
I was living in Atlanta in the summer of 1969. Drove down to Cape Canaveral with two high school buddies, my parents let us borrow the big Ford station wagon. We got there about 3 am, we were on a back road and the shoulders were packed! We went ahead and parked and we were 13 miles away. That was the closest we could get.
Even at 3am nobody was sleeping, it was a giant road side Moon Launch Party. Everybody was talking and friendly. NASA pr was top notch, they had that big rocket all lit up with giant spot lights. Even at that distance it was a sight to see! If you held your hand out at arm's length it was about 4 inches high but it looked beautiful, all painted a gleaming white. About 9am they lit it up. It was a fantastic fireball! Even from that far away it was astonishing! On thing that was surprising, there was no sound. I figured we were too far away to hear it.
I didn't have a stop watch but about 30 seconds later, the sound hit. It was overwhelming. The loudest sound I ever have heard. And it did make the ground shake. Good God what a spectacle. Made me so proud to be an American.
The conspiracy nuts say we never went to the moon. Well I don't know about that, but, By God we launched on that summer day in 1969.
This is the only launch I ever have seen. And, on tv today the guy said that Apollo 11 was 5 times more powerful than the SpaceX rocket today.
CBS will have it on the evening news if you missed it. Scratch that - was only 5 seconds on SpaceX launch and 10 minutes on the Russian space program. Go figger!?
400,000 people worked on the Apollo. if just one of them wanted to make $5,000,000 or $10,000,000, and had the slightest shred of evidence it was faked, the National Enquirer would publish the evidence tomorrow.
BTW: Without me it would have been 399,000. It wasn't faked.
I hope you didn't work on the mathematical problems.
400,000 people worked on the Apollo. if just one of them wanted to make $5,000,000 or $10,000,000, and had the slightest shred of evidence it was faked, the National Enquirer would publish the evidence tomorrow.
BTW: Without me it would have been 399,000. It wasn't faked.
I hope you didn't work on the mathematical problems.
Simon, you should have heard a Space Shuttle from THREE miles away. Or at Atlas from ONE.
I remember an early Trident missile launch in which I escorted the press videographers to a viewing site only one mile from the pad. I specifically briefed them that if it blew, they were to instantly jump down behind the dirt berm on which we were standing, because the blast wave from a high-order detonation of that kind of propellant was a high fraction of the Hiroshima bomb. It launched, got about 100 feet in the air - and blew up.
I ht the dirt, the "graphers" kept filming, and by good luck the missile did not detonate as powerfully as it could have. But it still knocked all of them enough to lose their balance and tip over their camera tripods. One helluva fireworks show! I got a dirty uniform (I was USAF at the time) and they got some very interesting video - which is the only thing they cared about.
Used to go on the top deck at work to watch daytime launches when the shuttle program was intact. All I could see ( 80 miles away) was a bright light shooting east. I missed the Challenger launch and really glad I did .
