Nasa to launch first crewed mission from US in decade – Pad 39A
Nasa opening its crew doors again.

Anyone else excited to finally see a crewed launch from Kennedy Space Centre?

The rocket and the spacecraft it is carrying are due to take off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre on 27 May, taking two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
Both the rocket and spacecraft were developed by private company SpaceX.
Nasa has been using Russian rockets for crewed flights since its space shuttle was retired in 2011 after STS-135. The Falcon Nine rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft will take off from the space centre’s historic Pad 39A, the same one used for the Apollo and shuttle missions with astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board.

Walking out of the famous crew checkout door to other worlds – Apollo 11, Apollo 12, Skylab 4, STS-1,STS -135… so many amazing missions – Good luck and Godspeed guys.

Now what watches are those guys wearing…..

 

Omega X-33 Speedmaster was worn during capsule tests
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Definitely glad to see it. A friend's son is pretty high up at SpaceX, so that adds a little more personal interest as well.

 

I am fortunate to live close enough to watch all launches as they happen. And no, it never gets old. The 8yr old in me looks up with wonder every time.

 

Lucky you.

I am elated to see the Space industry rapidly evolving (mostly through SpaceX). It was hard to imagine a few years back that rockets landing and being reused would become so common that it is only news if the landing doesn't succeed.

I hope that I live long enough that I can see humans on Mars and a time when orbital launches are nearly an everyday occurence. Just as regular flights are nowadays (or were pre-Covid)

 

I was always a fan of Mars direct. Short sharp ten year plan with no space stations, moon bases or asteroid mining to suck up the dollars (they can run as separate programmes / maybe self fund if mining is an option). Robert Zubrin has been looking into the benefits of the SpaceX Star ship. We could do this / would love to see it in my lifetime.

 

20 years ago I've met Robert Zubrin in Washington D.C. and indeed Mars Direct was an amazing proposal... launch your logistics, chemical stuff and habitats first... every 26 months there's an opportunity for a Hohmann transfer orbit to the red planet... and then launch a manned spacecraft.
In a nutshell:

 

I’m surprised these recent Starlink launches haven’t been discussed on here.

quite exciting that there’ll be manned spacecraft again soon!

 

Ehh not much to talk about regarding Starlink. Just some satellites.
Although I did see them very early one morning all lined up in a row shooting across the sky.
That was pretty cool.

I am SUPER excited for the manned Crew Dragon launch next month.
I would love to go watch it but hard to say exactly how that'd go down with all this lockdown BS happening.
But it is still a full month out...

 

StarLink satellites aka Elon Musk-quitos ... a pain for Astrophotographers & professional astronomical observatories worldwide
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Yep that was pretty much it.
I know astronomers hate them hah.

 

https://findstarlink.com/

 

Here’s the link to my video of the 18Mar20 Falcon 9 launch, professionally filmed with an iPhone, too much coffee and the morning sun in my eyes. The video obviously doesn’t come close to the actual experience, but you get a sense of the power when the sound reaches you (beginning around the 45 second mark and intensifying after). We live in Titusville and either watch from the front yard or make the 5 minute drive to the water.

 

Thanks for posting this / I enjoyed watching it - I would love to watch a launch some day. It is funny when I meet people who say the moon landings were a hoax (not to say there are not points for discussion around that). I always ask them to describe why a launch trajectory arcs and rolls or how come the ISS crew are weightless when the station is held in orbit by gravity. 99% don't have a clue, so I am not sure how they are qualified to be 100% sure we did not go to the moon :0)

 

I was able to attend the launches of STS-4, STS-12 and STS-87 and am looking forward to taking my son to see a launch in the next couple of years!

 

Why I prefer the Russian manned space program:
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Not looking good for a 2033 UTC/1633 EST launch window today.....

 

Very exciting, I hope this goes well for a multitude of reasons. Mostly for the crews safety, but also because this is really going to set the stage for SpaceX for decades.

 

Standing by at the ready in case extra, space approved tools are needed. PET 2 set to alert me in time to start watching ahead of the launch: