Is anyone going to watch the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft later today?

This is going to be the first manned mission launched from the United States since the last Shuttle flight in 2011. It's also going to be the first ever manned launch from SpaceX and it's scheduled to 19:22 UTC.

You can already follow it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIZsnKGV8TE

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Vasco aka Gluon

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Hello Gluon!

** On Saturday 30.05.20 - 17:51, Gluon wrote to All:

Is anyone going to watch the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft later today?

This is going to be the first manned mission launched from the United States since the last Shuttle flight in 2011. It's also going to be the first ever manned launch from SpaceX and it's scheduled to 19:22 UTC.

I had statisfactorily forgotten about it until you mentioned it! LOL

I am glad that I live in an area that is not affected by rumbling rockets
and heavy traffic nor witness the polluting of the atmosphere.

Personally, I would rather see the great resources that are being poured
into space experiments not divested from the humans beings struggling to
stay alive on this planet.

But.. rich kids will want to play.

At the time of this writing, the launch is in about 1 hr from now (3:22PM ET). OK, I'll tune in to watch it one way or another. Based on some of
the feeds I've seen sofar, they are poised to have real-time cameras
pointed at the crew, and all over the craft.


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Is anyone going to watch the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft later today?

I'm glad I got to see it live (well, live-ish), and glad that it's going
fairly well, so far. There's still continuing coverage as they do additional tests and what not, so it's still pretty neat, even without the giant rocket bits.

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Is anyone going to watch the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft later today?

This is going to be the first manned mission launched from the United States since the last Shuttle flight in 2011. It's also going to be the first ever manned launch from SpaceX and it's scheduled to 19:22 UTC.

Just finished watching the launch! Haven't seen something like that for a
very long time. Pretty awesome. My son commented on the tech, uniforms,
etc. -- "thats what we always hoped 2020 would look like!" Pretty awe-inspiring.

BUT so bizarre how we talk about "self sustaining mars colonies" like it's
not weird scifi. Totally normal. This planet's broken so I guess we need to find another...


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Gluon wrote to All <=-

Is anyone going to watch the first crewed test flight of the Crew
Dragon spacecraft later today?

My wife and I watched it live - and we have had YouTube showing it on
the Apple TV all afternoon while we've been doing other stuff. :-)

This is going to be the first manned mission launched from the United States since the last Shuttle flight in 2011. It's also going to be the first ever manned launch from SpaceX and it's scheduled to 19:22 UTC.

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On 30 May 2020, Ogg said the following...

I had statisfactorily forgotten about it until you mentioned it! LOL

Hah, sorry about that. :P

I am glad that I live in an area that is not affected by rumbling
rockets and heavy traffic nor witness the polluting of the atmosphere.

I'm equally lucky, living in a quiet place, where I can still breathe
cleanish air and listen to the birds.

Personally, I would rather see the great resources that are being poured into space experiments not divested from the humans beings struggling to stay alive on this planet.

From a political point of view I agree. There are so many real issues that affect humanity and should have top priority... That said, the technical side is what draws me in.

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Vasco aka Gluon

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On 30 May 2020, Adept said the following...

Is anyone going to watch the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dra spacecraft later today?

I'm glad I got to see it live (well, live-ish), and glad that it's going fairly well, so far. There's still continuing coverage as they do additional tests and what not, so it's still pretty neat, even without
the giant rocket bits.

Yeah, it's been flawless so far, almost looks easy. SpaceX has pretty much nailed the Falcon 9, but with a human payload it's always nail biting. I find it amazing how the whole launch, rendezvous and docking is fully automated, especially the docking, which by the way happens tomorrow.

I agree, it's still pretty neat, as for instance they'll be conducting manual maneuvering tests in orbit, just to make sure it all works, in case they need.

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Vasco aka Gluon

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On 30 May 2020, Alpha said the following...

Just finished watching the launch! Haven't seen something like that for a very long time. Pretty awesome. My son commented on the tech, uniforms, etc. -- "thats what we always hoped 2020 would look like!" Pretty awe-inspiring.

It's so cool how the space suits look like something from a scifi movie, but
at the same time are fully functional and able to keep them pressurised and
in good condition. Good that your son also enjoyed it!

Another neat detail is the fact that they were using Quindar tones during communications. What people usually call "beeps". Those were needed up to the Apollo program, so that relays on Earth could detect the push to talk press/release and alternate between transmit/receive on an half duplex analog connection. However I don't remember listening to those during the Shuttle missions and they're certainly not needed nowadays, so I guess it was down to pure nostalgia. :)

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Hello Gluon!

** On Saturday 30.05.20 - 23:19, Gluon wrote to Ogg:

Personally, I would rather see the great resources that are being
poured into space experiments not divested from the humans beings
struggling to stay alive on this planet.

From a political point of view I agree. There are so many real issues
that affect humanity and should have top priority... That said, the technical side is what draws me in.

I find the tech side amazing too. The suits seemed bulk-free and the
helmets looked like they were inspired by many recent sci-fi movies.
Makes sense to create an attractive look especially if the idea is to go commercial for the future.

Now we have to wait to see what the next rich boy Bezos will come up with
for Blue Origin.

Kudos to Musk for demonstrating that stage 1 rockets can self recover and land on their own. I bet that silenced a lot of old NASA fuddy duddies
who probably thought that would not be possible.

Can the stage 2 rocket be recovered? Are they going to use a balloon for that one?

I used up my basic 4GB data for the month a few days ago so my ISP has toggled me down to under 100Kbps. Trying to follow the live streams was brutal to impossible. I have to wait until Jun 3 for new monthy period
to reset to the higher 4G LTE speeds on mobile.

I tried calling the POTS lines to listen in, but they didn't seem to be working.

Anyway.. despite demonstrating that space tech can advance beyond well
beyond resuable Shuttle craft, it also points out that the next goal for SpaceX is to keep on doing this as often as possible for more profits.

I have to wonder how soon the same people who are wowed by these rocket launches would start complaining that the frequency of them is disturbing their quality of peaceful living.

Today marked the first success launch of two people from a commerial
company, but there are many of us who still get penalized for exceeding an allotted data quota for the month and get throttled down practically to
dial up speeds. :(


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On 30 May 2020 at 05:51p, Gluon pondered and said...

Is anyone going to watch the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft later today?

I got up around 6am this morning to watch it, after watching the first
attempt the other day. It was great to see it happen and I enjoyed the SpaceX coverage of the flight post launch. I may well get up around 5am tomorrow my time to watch the docking with the ISS too :)

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I have to wonder how soon the same people who are wowed by these
rocket launches would start complaining that the frequency of them
is disturbing their quality of peaceful living.

'
♂♂♂The sound is very relaxing to me.

I've been to Kennedy Spacfe Cente rfor a rocket launch when I was young.



IOh and I've always loved the smell.. of model airplane glue.




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On 30 May 2020, Ogg said the following...

I find the tech side amazing too. The suits seemed bulk-free and the helmets looked like they were inspired by many recent sci-fi movies. Makes sense to create an attractive look especially if the idea is to go commercial for the future.

Yeah, it's really outstanding how they look so scifi-like and yet provide the same life support as the old bulky ones. Elon Musk seems to be especially
good at nailing the marketing. Like you said, when people look at these
suits, they'll think even them could wear it easily. It's going to help commercial space flights for another set of rich boys, the space tourists. :)

Can the stage 2 rocket be recovered? Are they going to use a balloon
for that one?

I seem to remember reading about a fundamental problem with recovering the second stage, but that would be yet another milestone to save costs. On the other hand, there's Starship, which will be fully reusable, so I don't think they'll spend more R&D money on the Falcon 9.

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Vasco aka Gluon

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On 31 May 2020, Avon said the following...

I got up around 6am this morning to watch it, after watching the first attempt the other day. It was great to see it happen and I enjoyed the SpaceX coverage of the flight post launch. I may well get up around 5am tomorrow my time to watch the docking with the ISS too :)

That reminds me when I wake up at 5am in the morning to watch the Australian
or Japanese Formula 1 races. It takes some commitement.

I also enjoyed the continued coverage post-launch. As a bit of a space
geek I'll be watching the docking as well of course. On a side note, for us that enjoy some nostalgia and retro systems, it was cool to listen to the Quindar tones during the ground to spaceship comms as they press the PTT.

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Vasco aka Gluon

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On 05-31-20 09:31, Gluon wrote to Ogg <=-

I seem to remember reading about a fundamental problem with recovering
the second stage, but that would be yet another milestone to save

Probably reentry. That would be my guess.

costs. On the other hand, there's Starship, which will be fully
reusable, so I don't think they'll spend more R&D money on the Falcon
9.

Starship should render Falcon 9 obsolete for most applications.


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Hello Gluon!

** On Sunday 31.05.20 - 09:31, Gluon wrote to Ogg:

I find the tech side amazing too. The suits seemed bulk-free and the
helmets looked like they were inspired by many recent sci-fi movies.
Makes sense to create an attractive look especially if the idea is to go
commercial for the future.

Yeah, it's really outstanding how they look so scifi-like and yet provide the same life support as the old bulky ones.

From further reading, I learned that the slim suits are not intended for space-walk use. In otherwords, Bob and Doug were not expected to step outside the capsule, so a complete life-support suit was not required.

I think the suits are to demonstrate that for traditional transportation
of humans from one containment vehicle to another, the passengers can
simply don a star-trekkie jumper to feel like they are doing something special. For this flight, the astro-pilots didn't need anything beyond
a modest pressure-suit that a jet-pilot might wear.


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Gluon wrote to Adept <=-

Yeah, it's been flawless so far, almost looks easy. SpaceX has pretty
much nailed the Falcon 9, but with a human payload it's always nail biting.

Yeah, after watching Challenger explode watching a manned rocket launch
makes me apprehensive and excited at the same time.


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Gluon wrote to Alpha <=-

Another neat detail is the fact that they were using Quindar tones
during communications. What people usually call "beeps".

Anyone knows you can't go to space without Beeps!


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Ogg wrote to Gluon <=-

I have to wonder how soon the same people who are wowed by these rocket launches would start complaining that the frequency of them is
disturbing their quality of peaceful living.

At least now, people can DVR their favorite TV shows instead of complaining
to NASA that they pre-empted "All in the Family".

I don't remember Apollo 11, but I do remember watching the lunar rover on Apollo 15, and watch Apollo 17 blast off and splash down.

I tried to get my daughter to watch yesterday's blast off, thinking it was
one for posterity, but she wasn't impressed. Maybe when she's older she'll remember that her dad insisted that she watch.

The camerawork was pretty awesome...


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Ogg wrote to Gluon <=-

Yeah, it's really outstanding how they look so scifi-like and yet provide the same life support as the old bulky ones.

They reminded me of the First Order Stormtroopers. :-)




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