SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo 2 (First Flight w Humans)

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Set for next Wednesday, May 27, 2020 at 4:33pm. SpaceX will launch the first humans from US soil since 2011. The rocket stack was rolled out and stood up a couple days ago (tip...mute or lower the sound):


Want to try your hand at docking the Crew Dragon to the ISS? https://iss-sim.spacex.com/

This will be pretty cool to watch live...well, "live" from the YouTube. If it was scheduled for Saturday, I'd drive down for it. Covid rules be damned.
 
Shame they are launching in the afternoon, was really hoping to see one in the morning again!

Thanks for the info, I'll 'tune in' to watch live
 
I am really excited for this, the commercialization of spaceflight is what’s really going to get us into the stars. I’d volunteer to do it in a heartbeat!
 
Took me two tries but got it docked. Tricky sucker, absolutely zero must out pitch roll and yaw first, period. Focus only on the XY and Z translation axes and zero Y and Z while creeping up in the X axis. Found that its best to not look at the docking port or bullseye, focus on the translation axis data readouts.
 
failure.
I didnt realize that I needed to come up from under it, I went into the side of the docking station
 
All zero, except closing velocity at .010. Came in pretty quick and got everything zeroed on the way in, just a few tiny adjustments in the last 10 seconds.
 
I tried it when they first launched the web game on my ipad. I think I crashed into Saturn, then deorbited the ISS by crashing into it. I guess space just isn’t ready for a hot shot pilot like me. I can make Maverick look like a Southwest Airlines first officer.
 
Tip, Don’t watch the green target icon, keep your eyes on your attitude numbers, zero your numbers before applying forward thrust. You sail right in with just a little Z and Y corrections at the end.
 
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We are here (well close, Orlando) and the weather has been rainy off/on. This morning I got up and it was mostly sunny. I am hoping the launch happens. I really want the kiddo to experience it. She would love it.( update) the weather is looking less and less promising. We still have a few hours, keep your fingers crossed that the storms will hold off.

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very interesting suits, much different than usual/normal
 
Looks like rain drops on the outside camera, is that correct?
 
Looks like rain drops on the outside camera, is that correct?
Yeah--it's been 50/50 chance all day due to weather. They'll take it all the way to T-0 to make the scrub I'd imagine. Might be able to thread the needle through a hole in the weather.
 
There's a good chance of finding a whole in the weather at 4:33pm. There's no window duration...4:33pm or nothing. So the weather will have to be perfect at that moment. Sounds like everything is good except the immediate area.
 
still watching. just under an hour to go!
 
Scrubbed. Try again Saturday. Damn lightning potential.
 
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Ah man, I rushed to get home in time to watch.. oh well hope they make it up Saturday.
 
Bummer. 6 out of 10 launches get scrubbed.
Well, got to readjust my Saturday as not miss the launch.
 
I wonder what the risk is and whether it can be mitigated in some way. Clearly his plans are ambitious enough that launches can’t be dependent on a little shower or cloud cover.
 
I wonder what the risk is and whether it can be mitigated in some way. Clearly his plans are ambitious enough that launches can’t be dependent on a little shower or cloud cover.
It was energy buildup in the atmo. You could hear them say rain was within tolerances—albeit low/narrow tolerances, but otherwise allowable with a few raindrops. The shuttle couldn’t do that. As anyone who’s riden an open type vehicle (motorcycle, jet ski, etc) knows, rain drops hurt even at just 50mph. At Mach speeds, they’re enough to puncture heat tiles. The Dragon doesn’t have tiles, so it doesn’t matter.

If you ever go to Kennedy Psace Center and go out on the tour bus, you’ll see little antennae arrays all over the place. Or if you go to Playa Linda Beach, you can get up close to one. They’re sensors that are sampling “something” in the air. Maybe static energy??? It tells the controllers that if you stick anything in the air it’s gonna get zapped, or not.

One of the Apollo launches got zapped on the way up. It popped some circuit breakers or something. I’d prefer not to have thousands of gallons of kerosene under my keester with a giant lightning rod attached to my head!!!
 
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It was energy buildup in the atmo. You could hear them say rain was within tolerances—albeit low/narrow tolerances, but otherwise allowable with a few raindrops. The shuttle couldn’t do that. As anyone who’s riden an open type vehicle (motorcycle, jet ski, etc) knows, rain drops hurt even at just 50mph. At Mach speeds, they’re enough to puncture heat tiles. The Dragon doesn’t have tiles, so it doesn’t matter.

If you ever go to Kennedy Psace Center and go out on the tour bus, you’ll see little antennae arrays all over the place. Or if you go to Playa Linda Beach, you can get up close to one. They’re sensors that are sampling “something” in the air. Maybe static energy??? It tells the controllers that if you stick anything in the air it’s gonna get zapped, or not.

One of the Apollo launches got zapped on the way up. It popped some circuit breakers or something. I’d prefer not to have thousands of gallons of kerosene under my keester with a giant lightning rod attached to my head!!!

They mentioned sending balloons up to get a read on things too, and talked about the energy in the clouds.

So the shuttle use(d) heat tiles - what is this dragon shuttle (that's the name, right?) using?
 
They mentioned sending balloons up to get a read on things too, and talked about the energy in the clouds.

So the shuttle use(d) heat tiles - what is this dragon shuttle (that's the name, right?) using?
It has a heat shield on the bottom only (which is hidden/protected during launch. It’s an “ablative” shield which means it’s meant to burn up and be replaced. The Dragon capsules are meant to fly several times just like their Falcon boosters. NASA has ruled that they may only be used once for human flight, but can be reused for cargo.
 
I think there were also issues with storm cells to the east that would possibly hamper any rescue needed in an abort. I pulled up the Nexrad radar to see what they were dealing with and there were big ugly red and yellow cells east of Titusville and another smaller cell moving in at 40 mph from the west over the Orlando area.

Their go/ no go checklists must be immense.
 
One of the news shows they interviewed one of the launch engineers/controllers. They asked him if he was disappointed, he replied, "I'm an engineer, I don't feel emotion. The data said to scrub, so we scrubbed."

Contrast that with the hearing/investigation for the Challenger explosion, where a number of people said they were "pressured" to launch even though the data showed otherwise.
 
I think there were also issues with storm cells to the east that would possibly hamper any rescue needed in an abort. I pulled up the Nexrad radar to see what they were dealing with and there were big ugly red and yellow cells east of Titusville and another smaller cell moving in at 40 mph from the west over the Orlando area.

Their go/ no go checklists must be immense.

Weather needed to be clear (within parameters) from Florida up to Newfoundland as that was the launch path. Not sure if it was local weather, somewhere further NE along the path or both that led to the scrub.

Didn’t know this but during the special broadcast before the launch, They also said there were rescue planes that were circling out in the Atlantic along that path in case of a scrub during the launch. They said that pararescue type jumpers were ready onboard the planes.

The ninja launch assistants were cool! Very Bond movie-ish as stated above.
 
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So, if the STS missions reused the shuttles, why can’t we reuse the Dragon capsules?
I think NASA is being NASA which means overly cautious. SpaceX can and will reuse the Dragon capsules for cargo—at least I think I heard them say that.

Out society has become so risk averse that NASA can’t take any chances. Somewhere in the huge pile of data and analysis they determined that the risk associated with the use of a fresh capsule is less than the use of a used one.

I haven’t followed their story close enough to know if the intent is to one day reuse them for human flight.
 
Took me two tries but got it docked. Tricky sucker, absolutely zero must out pitch roll and yaw first, period. Focus only on the XY and Z translation axes and zero Y and Z while creeping up in the X axis. Found that its best to not look at the docking port or bullseye, focus on the translation axis data readouts.
I did it a little backwards. I zeroed out everything. then i went really fast while adjusting course to line up the bullseye and port. then i crept in very very slowly making constant course adjustments. I suppose I might have done better if i read the instructions, but any docking you don't experience explosive decompression from is a good dock.
 
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