Space X is going to launch some American spacemen into space from America for the first time in a decade:



They’re bringing space flight back to the USA so we don’t have to deal with Russia. Awesome guys PLEASE PRAY for these nauts as they travel into outer space tomorrow!!

-Jay

I’m glad to see it happening again!

Elon is a freakin' genius.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

May 27Falcon 9 • Crew Dragon Demo 2
Launch time: 2033:33 GMT (4:33:33 p.m. EDT)
Launch site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a Crew Dragon spacecraft on its first test flight with astronauts on-board to the International Space Station under the auspices of NASA’s commercial crew program. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will fly on the Demo-2 mission. The Crew Dragon will return to a splashdown at sea. Delayed from June, July 25, Sept. 21, February, April and May 7. [May 9]


Launch Schedule – Spaceflight Now


Pretty amazing stuff going on now. Elon Musk is a genius!



Better confirm that time, last night I heard it was around 2:30pm??

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Still Running Against the Wind

We will be in our backyard looking east, waiting and watching!

My friends and I had a car pass to be on the Kennedy Space Center at the very first shuttle launch way, way back when. If you lived in the Cocoa Beach area your father either worked at the Cape or was retired military. We were parked with about a gazillion others on the NASA Causeway close enough to literally FEEL the sound waves from the shuttle as it lifted off! It's a memory I will always cherish. I've seen dozens of shuttle launches and even more unmanned - the night ones are always the best.

Just a word from the wise - realistically the weather locally has been pretty poor for the last several days with winds, rain and heavy clouds. I haven't heard the launch report yet but I don't give it good odds for tomorrow.

Amazing isn't it! Ya the weather may be a factor especially later in the day. Bummer.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Fair winds and following seas. May the force be with them.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

If they can't go tomorrow then Saturday is the next window.

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Release the Kraken

Godspeed!

Ivan

I'm really up for this! Have always loved the space program. Back in grade school they would wheel in the TVs and we would all watch, both Mercury and Gemini. GO GO GO TEAM USA!!!!!!!

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No baby we aint

All those 1960's space launches were brought to you by TANG. I drank so much in 5th grade Mom thought I was going to turn orange!

Ivan

Remember these?

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Rusty, you brought lunch! The ones I ate tasted pretty bad. Just proved how tough you had to be, to get into outer space!

Ivan

If flatulence was a flavor...

50 - 60 steps to the west puts me across an avenue where if the weather cooperates I can look due north and see the trail arcing to the east a moment or two after the launch. Really cool at night.

Birds fly, bees make honey, and I keep my feet on the ground.

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Just a shooter

Will be watching from Mayport NAS. Hoping it's clear for good visibility.
Great to see this happening. Godspeed to those astronauts.

IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Long overdue. The space program is vitally important to the technological advancements and successes for the United States.

Saw the Allen Shepard launch that started it all and it never ceases to thrill me. I love the privatization of the program and the fact tht we're bringing launches home. Godspeed to the crew.

Glad America is doing it right here. I could not believe we were giving the russians like 90 million for a ride to the space station

This will lead to this!

Go to this link and scroll down for more pictures and information


Big Bertha (tropical storm) may mess things up. If there is a need to abort the mission. So many factors go into all this, The inside of the capsule is so barren compared to the earlier ones. Kind like the dash on a Tesla, just computer screens!


It will be on TV also as well as other live links



Live coverage: All systems go for launch after final Crew Dragon readiness review – Spaceflight Now

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Still Running Against the Wind

Times have sure changed. That cockpit seems to be lacking the Tank Sullivan "Attitude Indicator" .

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

For those of you who have never witnessed the launch of a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy booster from SpaceX, the really impressive part comes AFTER the launch - when the first stage booster(s) fly themselves back down and land UNDER THEIR OWN POWER autonomously!

And just for grins, here's a picture of the barge docked at Port Canaveral, used when one of the boosters needs to land out at sea. SpaceX has a reputation for adding their pithy remarks. This one is quite possibly my favorite...

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Try again 30 May @ 1522 local.

ABORT ABORT ABORT!!!

Launch rescheduled.

I like to ponder that the computer that was used for the first moon landing was less powerful than today's average laptop. Anxious for Saturday.

We were at the Space Coast a couple of years ago, and saw one of the barges being towed back with a recently landed booster. Neat stuff.

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Only a cold warrior

Actually, it was less powerful than a typical SMART WATCH! And I'm talking about one of those cheap ones, not the Apple or Samsung ones, either.

Here's a great clip from "Vintage Space" that discusses how it was used:

YouTube

Space X - someone forgot to remind the millennials that we already sent two men into space 55 years ago with the Gemini Program....but their comprehension and extent of history only dates back to when the first IPhone was introduced so I understand their excitement.

I remember just a couple of years ago when they were making a big deal about putting a landing module on Mars...many didn’t know we did that already in the early 1970s.

...just reinventing the wheel with the elite spending some of their play money so they look “cool”. Napoleon complexes...

I listened to John Glenn orbit the Earth over the PA system in elementary school. And remember Neal Armstrong on the moon in 1969. ( BOTH OHIO BOYS) We've come a long way

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

I recall a tube of liquid goo that was marketed as "Like the Astronauts eat". I don't remember it being really bad, or really good, it was just Cool.

Prayers for a safe launch, journey and return.

...what have they done since to compare with these great triumphs in space? Not much... I too will never forget the great space shots of old...from Mercury through Apollo...now that was progress!

I am so glad to see the US getting back into the "live crew launching" business again. And my daughter, who is 28, is also extremely interested in this too. It's a crying shame that we took 9 years to get back into manned spaceflight after the (premature) retiring of the Shuttle. And I think that it's also a crying shame that until the Falcon Heavy launched we didn't have a heavy lift vehicle to launch large payloads into Earth orbit when we still have the designs for the Saturn V and it's F1 engines. I know that they were expensive, but instead of all the launches of shuttles and other launch systems that needed to be done to build the space station, we could have done it with a dozen or less launches with the Saturn V. But it wasn't "modern enough" for all the NASA engineers I guess. The good old Saturn V could put a payload of over 300,000 lbs into LEO.

Been watching since the Mercury Project and I disagree about "not much". How about a station that's constantly manned or a rocket that lands autonomously and can be re-used? I'd say both are pretty spectacular. Having said that, nobody had bigger gonads than those Mercury guys.

I sat glued to the TV, watching the early space shots and listening to Walter Cronkite, but I am somewhat amused at those who think that what is going on now is "no big deal".

Autonomous, reusable rocket boosters? American astronauts being transported on commercial rockets? Going back to the Moon within the next 4 years?

Yep, "no big deal" indeed.

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Only a cold warrior

I just watched a documentary about the Saturn V and the F1 rocket engine. Essentially, we couldn't build one today. Each one was virtually hand-built and both the tools and the skills are long gone - the investment to new-build a Saturn V (even with having the old designs, using modern tech, and having a complete example sitting as a tourist attraction) would be unjustifiable as compared to designing and building something new from the ground up (pardon the pun!). As an example, just the sheer number of construction, assembly and testing facilities that had to be built for the Saturn V back in the 60s all across the country was mind-boggling. There were dozens, and they are all either abandoned, torn down or repurposed today.

Aside from the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is also planning on a fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle called the Starship. After that, there is one on the books called the Super Heavy that uses the Starship as the second stage.

Then and now! How times have changed!

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They did it!!