Posted on 11/10/2020 8:38:25 PM PST by BenLurkin
Elon Musk's company has launched two people into space to date: NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, who rode to the International Space Station May 30 aboard a Crew Dragon capsule mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket. That test flight, termed DEMO-2, marked the first-ever commercial crewed launch, and the first launch from American soil since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. But it was a test flight, with just two astronauts aboard, lasting just 64 days with most of that time in zero-gravity spent on the International Space Station (ISS).
On Nov. 14, if all goes according to plan, four astronauts will take a Crew Dragon to the ISS and remain on the space station for six months. It will mark the beginning of the era of practical commercial spaceflight.
The mission, termed CREW-1, will deliver four of the seven members of Expedition 64 to the ISS: NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Expedition 64 is the term for this 64th group of people to inhabit and work on the ISS long term.
The four began quarantining Oct. 31, a standard pre-launch move with added significance in the age of COVID-19, and arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, for final preparations Nov. 8.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Godspeed.
Don’t count on a Saturday launch. Tropical Storm Eta is scheduled to be somewhat stalled over the FL peninsula Fri-Sat.
Was supposed to happen before the elections, but then some Dem operatives messed up the spacecraft forcing a change of date.
"When somebody tests positive for COVID here at the Kennedy
Space Center and across NASA, it is our policy for that person
to quarantine and self-isolate, so we anticipate that that will
be taking place," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during
a news conference today when asked about tweets in which Musk
said he had received both positive and negative tests. Bridenstine
said he had talked to Musk two days ago, before
the testing issue arose.
Musk related he had "Mild sniffles & cough & slight fever past few days," and no symptoms beyond those typical of a cold. It is unclear whether Musk will be permitted to join the team at KSC during the launch.
I’ve caught the ISS overhead a couple of times, just by chance. Anytime they mention that it will come over the area it seems to be cloudy. It’d be cool as hell to see the impending meet-up of ISS and resupply vehicle.
We moved to Houston in July 1969 just in time for an 8 year old Kid to see the Apollo 11 launch and follow through the Lunar Landing and The Eagle blast off the Moon to rendezvous with Columbia. We only had a B&W TV and one of our new neighbors let Mom and I watch the Eagle blast off on their Color TV. I remember the rocket blast sending dust flying and it was all different colors due to light refraction.
The Lunar takeoff was the Greatest, Coolest and Most Awesome Birthday Present I ever had. I turned 8 on the 21st.
Thanks for the ping.
I’m a few months older than you. I remember that they’d have a TV in the classroom for some of the big Apollo moments. Never any concerns about what might happen if our fragile little psyches witnessed a disaster, so far as I knew. Today’s Antifa punks would have been about 5 on 9-11-2001. Different worlds.
Hmmmm...I’m sorry about the formatting gibberish. Cut and pasted this from a response to an incorrect post. Seems to affect this sentence, too. Wonder if it has to do with the ‘FR migration.â€
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