Less than 24 hours before the Falcon launch and the return of human spaceflight to American soil. Pretty exciting shit. I saw the launchpad last year when I was at the Cape (as well as the launchpad being built for future Mars launches). I figured this was an event worthy of its own thread, versus the more generic SpaceX thread.
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are about to fly together in one of the most important launches NASA has attempted in years Bob and Doug you say?
launch window for 27May (wednesday) and alternate windows if tomorrrow's is scrubbed. SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, May 27 for Falcon 9’s launch of Crew Dragon’s second demonstration (Demo-2) mission from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This test flight with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board the Dragon spacecraft will return human spaceflight to the United States. The instantaneous launch window [for Wednesday 27May] opens at 4:33 p.m. EDT, or 20:33 UTC, with backup instantaneous launch opportunities available on Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT, or 19:22 UTC, and on Sunday, May 31 at 3:00 p.m. EDT, or 19:00 UTC. Tune in here to watch the launch webcast. Coverage will begin about 4 hours before liftoff. Entire mission profile detailed here at spacex. If you obsess about being in on all the action start watching tomorrow (Wednesday) around 12:30PM EDT or wait until 3:45PM when stuff begins to happen. The Worm is Back (ok with some help from Spacex)!
What's sad is that none of the Mercury 7 astronauts are alive to see this moment. Glenn was the last one to pass and he died in 2015. It would have been rather cool for at least one of them to be there at the launch, if not taking a ride on that candle.
Are those SpaceX suits actual pressure suits, or are they just levelled up Nomex racing suits? You know, thermal protection.
They aren't designed for EVA's but they are pressure suits that will withstand loss of cabin pressure. the company's founder Elon Musk had to reassure concerned Instagram followers after the reveal: "It definitely works. You can just jump in a vacuum chamber with it, and it's fine." source
The suits look great and the capsule looks sleek and clean. Wonder how it compares to the Boeing model?
Apollo 1 isn't funny. Like I said, 53 Buick. Boeing Starliner interior mockup (gopro housings and the fire-extinguisher are serving suggestions I'm thinking): ETA: here's a panoramic view of a more realistic one:
Neither is continually awarding government contracts to a company that has a history of overcharging, underdelivering, and knowingly selling planes that were dangerous to operate. But here we are. And Boeing has been notoriously tight-lipped about what all went wrong with the test flight of the crash, other than saying it had a "number of software issues." I couldn't help but notice that in their statements about their failed test flight they didn't address the issues of how well the life support systems functioned. Just that they almost certainly won't be sending a crewed mission up this year.
Test flight of the crash? It didn't crash. Here is an article detailing the errors. It was pretty bad: https://qz.com/1799365/how-boeings-starliner-test-failed/
Whatever. It had a number of problems and as I recall, came down a bit harder than it was supposed to because there was an issue with one of the chutes.
