Not to mention the possibilities of tornadoes occurring at the time. ;-)

Cheers.

Yeah, about noon EDT I decided not to waste the gas. So, maybe Saturday.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Just a couple of hours to go until today's attempt.
NASA TV running in the background.....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

In orbit. That's the most dangerous part of the mission over, now just to dock with the ISS, then a few days later return home.
One thing that really strikes me is the quality of the feed from Dragon especially when one thinks back the pictures from the old Saturn Vs.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Launch successful it's on it's way, woohoo.

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Launch successful it's on it's way, woohoo.

+1 :)

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Yes it was a start.

Cheers.

What struck me most was the landing of the first stage on a barge in the Atlantic. An engineering masterpiece.
Tullio

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Landing the first stage from how many miles up onto a barge in the Atlantic is quite some feat.
It was fascinating watching the second stage motor nozzle glowing red and the dark lines (presumably structural members).

To me it looked as if the initial acceleration was higher than the old Saturn V, but the actual peak acceleration was lower.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Landing the first stage from how many miles up onto a barge in the Atlantic is quite some feat.
It was fascinating watching the second stage motor nozzle glowing red and the dark lines (presumably structural members).

To me it looked as if the initial acceleration was higher than the old Saturn V, but the actual peak acceleration was lower.

That's probably due to the Thrust to Weight ratio.

I know that many different sites and YouTube channels were covering the launch and the preparations

My favourite one is http://nasaspaceflight.com

I noticed during the onboard video segments that the acceleration was very smooth. They didn't get bounced around like in earlier vehicles. They said that the seats are race car seats. Very ingenious. Race car seats are designed to take high Gs and rough treatment. They probably saved a ton of money over NASA designed seats.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Wow, time flies.

The touchdown marks the first crewed US water landing since the final outing of an Apollo command module 45 years ago.

Safe splashdown

FANTASTIC!!!

The demo and the news speaks for itself :-)


Fly safe ;-) :-)
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I hope that some day soon a crewed shuttle will be built that can land on a runway like the space shuttle did. Splashing down in the ocean is so old school.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

FANTASTIC!!!

The demo and the news speaks for itself :-)

FANTASTIC #2!!!

Starship SN5 150m Hop
wrote:

In the words of NasaSpaceFlight:
“SpaceX: Reusable rockets, disposable launchpads”

Relevant quote from the hitchhikers guide:
“The ship hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.”

Mythbusters: Can silos fly?
Elon Musk: You just look at me!

For just one live reaction, see:

Everyday Astronaut: Watch SpaceX ACTUALLY hop Starship SN-5 150m!!!

Heartfelt fantastic!!!!

Way to go!!!


Fly safe ;-) :-)
Martin

Edit:

Just FANTASTIC!!!! :-)

(And a total pork chops embarrassment to all the other contractors that NASA has to suck up to for the sake of corrupt pork funding politics...)

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Just watched SpaceX news on you-tube. They're going to test fire their new space ship some time during the next week out in Texas over the Gulf of Mexico. Musk isn't really expecting a totally successful test but plans to broadcast the entire test.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Well the Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon crew capsule on top successfully launched into orbit last night with four crew members on board.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

The Dragon spacecraft is now approaching the ISS. It will take about 27 hours from launch. The last Soyuz lanch took about four hours, but it only had three astronauts on board. From what I saw on NASA TV the Dragon craft seems bigger and more comfortable than the rather Spartan Soyuz, maybe this makes a difference.
Tullio

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... From what I saw on NASA TV the Dragon craft seems bigger and more comfortable than the rather Spartan Soyuz, maybe this makes a difference.

Yes, that makes a big difference... :-P :-)

On the Dragon, they even have the wonder of a... Toilet!


For a Soyuz launch, the ISS itself is sometimes maneuvered in advance so that the orbit for the ISS aligns exactly for the Soyuz launch so as to minimize the chase time before docking.

Also, the first parts for the ISS were launched from Baikonur from exactly the same launch stand as Soyuz. Hence, the orbital plane of the ISS exactly matches launches from that same location which makes for an easier intercept and docking.

In contrast, the ISS orbital passes for Cape Canaveral are far less favorable.


It is all a question of how much fuel you can afford to burn!

Fly safe!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

A Falcon 9 launcher has lifted the Sentinel 6 Michael Freilich satellite to orbit from Vanderberg USAF Base in California, The satellite, built by ESA, will monitor the height of oceans. The first stage has landed successfully on the same Base.
Tullio

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