american astronauts back in space today

[F737MAX 5,617]

Great stuff!
I really hope this is the catalyst to greater Human spaceflight achievements.
 

1 hour ago, Christopher Low said:

Not sure why they made a mess of the broadcast, but one screen suddenly showed the rocket on its way, and the other had audio of the last few seconds of the countdown! I never actually saw the engines ignite, or the rocket lift off from the pad.....

Did you watch the NASA live stream?
Even though it's live, you can go back along the broadcast to watch the entire launch sequence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg

 

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

I watched the moon landing on TV with my parents. Bonkers we've had to wait this long for the next trip to the moon.

Yes, it's mad.
And we're still waiting...

Hopefully humans will step foot on the lunar surface again in just 4 years' time.
 

[martin-w 3,239]

ISS docking sim to try people...

 

https://iss-sim.spacex.com/

 

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by martin-w

[HighBypass 2,339]

Watched it on youtube. However there will still be the FAKE! comments because the video signal from the barge was lost before the 1st stage landed. In addition the in-cockpit footage wasn't being broadcast during the launch (external footage looked superb!). The internal footage was only broadcast once the Dragon was "in space" 😖

 

[n4gix 4,947]

I just watched the reprise of the Live Stream. It's pity that the landing of the 1st stage had a video link problem, but I've seen quite a few successful recovery landings on the barge, so...

Today I'm provisionally proud once again of the United States.

[fluffyflops 1,858]

That's a 28 hour duty with a 24 hour FDP using a 2 man crew with only Inseat napping.....

Real men.  

Not like the primaddonas I have to work with.  😁

Edited May 31, 2020 by fluffyflops

[martin-w 3,239]

12 hours ago, HighBypass said:

Watched it on youtube. However there will still be the FAKE! comments because the video signal from the barge was lost before the 1st stage landed. In addition the in-cockpit footage wasn't being broadcast during the launch (external footage looked superb!). The internal footage was only broadcast once the Dragon was "in space" 😖

 

 

I'm thinking the internal capsule footage was deliberately terminated during the "risky" phases. Last thing the public needs to see is a disaster from inside the cockpit. 

[JonP01 104]

"We got to get a good sleep". How the heck do you sleep on a trip like this?!

[CYXR 257]

Docking with I.S.S. scheduled for 14:29 GMT /  10:29 EDT today

Edited May 31, 2020 by CYXR

[CYXR 257]

15 minutes ago, JonP01 said:

"We got to get a good sleep". How the heck do you sleep on a trip like this?!

They streamed  Netflix's Space Force. I tried to watch the first episode. Couldn't... I just kept falling asleep.  It's producers deserve the Nobel Prize for medicine for finding the cure to insomnia. 

[JonP01 104]

Anyone know the reasons why those final kilometres of closing distance have to occur so slowly? I'm not talking about the last km or two but the last 50 or so. I'm guessing it has something to do with minimum required speeds to maintain an ascending orbit with a low powered (now) vehicle.

Edited May 31, 2020 by JonP01

[CYXR 257]

They're ahead of schedule; I.S.S. just advised ready for docking. Inside 100 m of each other. Hold point at 20m  in 2 minutes.  Fantastic views!

Edited May 31, 2020 by CYXR

[Chock 17,769]

Now fully docked.

[JonP01 104]

Very excited and impressed. Well done USA.

[Chock 17,769]

17 hours ago, HighBypass said:

However there will still be the FAKE! comments because the video signal from the barge was lost before the 1st stage landed. In addition the in-cockpit footage wasn't being broadcast during the launch (external footage looked superb!). The internal footage was only broadcast once the Dragon was "in space" 😖

 

They will almost certainly have that footage, but we can entirely understand why they blocked it from going out live. The last thing they'd want is a live broadcast of something going horribly wrong, which thankfully did not occur.

With regard to all the fake conspiracy theory stuff, personally, if I was in charge at NASA, I'd really go for it on playing all that stuff up, just for a laugh. I'd have all the ground technicians giving each other illuminati hand signals, put illuminati symbols on everything, and I'd change the name of Dragon, to Lizard. Then, when it cuts off the main engine and jettisons that stage during the launch, instead of calling it MECO, I'd call it the SSLJ - shape-shifting lizard jettison.

They've made some effort on this by having the ground crew dress up like T.I.E. fighter pilots, and the crew's flight suits do look a bit 'Imperial' as well, but there's so much more they could do just to rub all those conspiritard's noses in it.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Chock

[HighBypass 2,339]

5 hours ago, JonP01 said:

Anyone know the reasons why those final kilometres of closing distance have to occur so slowly? I'm not talking about the last km or two but the last 50 or so. I'm guessing it has something to do with minimum required speeds to maintain an ascending orbit with a low powered (now) vehicle.

Probably correct. My interpretation:  If you mean the last 50km to the space station, then the vehicle is unpowered - only the Reaction Control System and some fuel for whatever constitutes a main engine is available (for de-orbit burns etc. on the way back down). 

Google Hohmann Transfer Orbit. The Dragon was already in a stable (won't fall back down to earth any time in the near future), yet lower orbit than the ISS. This meant it was travelling faster than the ISS. To get the Dragon to intercept the ISS, a burn was made in the direction of travel just like you accelerating a car down the road - unlike a car, this burn made the Dragon's orbit more elliptical, so at the highest point it would coincide with the ISS' orbit distance. A bit of maths ensures that when the Dragon meets the orbit of the ISS, the station itself is somewhere in the vicinity. If there is fuel to spare, the capsule can make a burn to get their orbit even closer to that of the ISS to increase the time available to jet on over to the station before the capsule goes back "downhill" to its lowest point of orbit.

Now if you've accelerated hard and built up a lot of excess speed (delta V) to get up to the station so that your elliptical orbit looks very narrow, you'll be intercepting that meeting point at a great rate of knots, and of course being in space, you have to get rid of the majority of that excess speed by doing a braking burn. The less speed you have to bleed off, the less fuel from your finite reserve you use. Hence the slow intercepts. As i said, that's my take on it. Apologies if you knew this stuff already.

3 hours ago, Chock said:

They've made some effort on this by having the ground crew dress up like T.I.E. fighter pilots, and the crew's flight suits do look a bit 'Imperial' as well..

That number 12 always did look a bit suspect to me! 😜