I think the first NASA crewed splashdown in over 40 years is scheduled this afternoon.
SpaceX splashdown: How to watch NASA astronauts return to Earth Sunday - CNET

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Still Running Against the Wind

Brings back thoughts of the good old days:

Just before noon on Jan. 31, 1961, the Redstone rocket carrying the Mercury space capsule rose from Cape Canaveral, Fla. A few minutes later, the capsule broke free and climbed toward its apogee of 157 miles.

Inside, cool as a cucumber and performing his duties perfectly, was a 37-pound chimpanzee known previously as Chop Chop Chang or simply Number 65. On this mission, he would earn his new name, Ham, derived from an acronym of his home unit, the Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory in New Mexico.

Animals, notably monkeys and dogs, had been shot into space before, but always as inactive passengers. Ham’s flight was more than that. He had things to do and levers to push more than 50 actions to perform during his suborbital trip. During his 16.5-minute flight, Ham experienced 6.6 minutes of weightlessness and pressures equal to 14.7 times the force of gravity, but his response times were as good as they were on Earth.

Through no fault of Ham’s, the capsule overshot its planned trajectory. It splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 422 miles from Cape Canaveral. The capsule was damaged in the landing and began to sink, but a Navy helicopter arrived soon and rescued Ham. Aboard the recovery ship USS Donner, Ham shook hands with the captain and ate an apple and half an orange. Ham had demonstrated he could function in space. It was up to humans to prove they could do as well...

The Astrochimps - Air Force Magazine



Chop Chop Chang Commemorative Patch (HAM the Astrochimp) | Retrorocket Emblems

Space X, IMO, represents the most innovative, privately owned company in existence today. This opinion may change depending on who develops the vaccine that successfully defeats Covid-19.

Godspeed Bob and Doug, ride the Dragon home safely!!!!!

Recovery ops underway in calm seas.
Beautiful to watch. Nice work all around.

Watching the whole thing with recovery, I have to say that it was a pretty slick operation.
Totally different than what’s usually seen but well rehearsed and accomplished.
Good for them and good for us!

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“Look life in its iron face”

This is great!
We no longer rely on the Russians for space travel.
Ham would be delighted.
He’s buried at the NM Space Museum, Alamogordo, NM.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

The whole mission from launch to splash down was simply amazing! I am so glad to see the revival of the space program.

I was very disappointed (but not unexpected) to see all the idiot private boaters infringe on the splash down location. No way they get even close to the Kennedy Space Center!!

Certainly hope at the next one, they have the USCG or even the Navy(not Grouper Troopers) have some patrol boats to ward of those jerks! (NASA is still Federal)

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Still Running Against the Wind

I was really glad to see that we are now sending our own back into space!
Very impressive operation working with a private contractor.
I was very disappointed when the Space Shuttle program was halted but now maybe we will be onto bigger and better things!

We can still do amazing things when we want to, and without political interference.

Elon Musk & Fidelity funded for approx $1.6B - initial round

Space X is now valued at approx $36B

Yes , you can book travel a flight for various orbit options , starting @ $1M

The waiting list is extensive.....

One sad thing about the whole launch and splash down is the lack of News Coverage.
Local paper had one little paragraph, buried deep in the middle of the paper.


It used to be big news, now so many people are not aware and don't car.

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Still Running Against the Wind

The daily trash news is more important!