Posted on 04/18/2021 6:14:19 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The four astronauts are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on SpaceX's next crewed mission Thursday (April 22) at 6:11 a.m. EST (1011 GMT). They practiced that launch day today (April 18) with one last predawn dress rehearsal.
The spaceflyers — NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, France's Thomas Pesquet and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide — arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Friday (April 16) and have already begun their final preparations before liftoff, which included a quick chat with reporters broadcast from the astronaut crew quarters.
The Crew-2 mission will see a veteran SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch a refurbished Crew Dragon spacecraft on a 23-hour trip to the space station. Liftoff is set for 6:11 a.m. EDT on Thursday (1011 GMT) from KSC's historic Pad 39A. If all goes according to plan, the Crew Dragon — which was named Endeavor by its previous crew — will dock with the ISS at around 5:30 a.m. EDT (0930 GMT) on Friday.
Their ride to orbit will be the first time that crew will not ride to space on a shiny new Falcon 9 rocket; their booster, which rolled out to the pad Friday morning (April 16) for a planned prelaunch static fire test on Saturday (April 17), first flew in November as it delivered the Crew-1 crew to space
The astronauts of NASA's Crew-2 mission launching on a SpaceX spacecraft walk out of their crew quarters during a launch dress rehearsal on April 18, 2021 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. They are (l-r): Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
(Image credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Those outfits look like they are from a low-budget 1960s Sci-fi movie.
SpaceX is pretty low-budget compared to NASA, but that's probably a good thing.
They do look a bit like space cadets, I'll grant you.
Would you ride a bus that blew up a while ago? Maybe?
They’ve already successfully launched crew to the ISS. 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Good luck. I have seen a few launches and re-entries. They are hit or miss. It takes a special type of courage to do that job. I don’t know if Space-X/woke NASA is any better than the early Soviet space program.
The Falcon 9 rocket is reliable as shown by its last 100 or so launches.
These astronauts will not be riding the bleeding-edge technology Starship, which is as yet far from ready for manned flight.
EVERY rocket type suffered numerous explosions before being considered reliable enough.
NASA has been a mess since they got rid of the Nazis.
Brave souls all.
It is the landing that may get em....
The suits need better styling.
SpaceX just won the NASA contract for the lunar landing system, beating out the oil-painting-slow-but-politically-connected competition.
NASA Will Spend $2,941,394,557 On SpaceX’s Massive Lunar Starship Lander!!!
419,848 views
Apr 17, 2021
Scott Manley
1.24M subscribers
Many people were surprised yesterday when news leaked that NASA was awarding all the funding from the Artemis Human Landing System program to SpaceX with its massive Lunar Starship project. SpaceX’s price tag is about $2.9 billion with a commitment to fund half of it themselves. While most space watchers could see why SpaceX had made it to the final round most of us didn’t expect it to be the only choice because it was so unlike what NASA was asking for.
However the HLS program only got 1/3 of the money it needed from Congress and with time marching on NASA had to make a decision and the only option with a price tag that fit was SpaceX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuSM_-Aw5HM
So what you’re saying is that 1960s sci-if accurately predicted the future.
How are we doing on the Space Elevator off the equator? If we can accomplish that it would be the affordable doorway to all projects beyond Earth’s gravity.
You’re confusing the Falcon 9 with the Starship.
Zero progress, because it can't be built. Don't argue with me, argue with Kepler.
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