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from the LEO-is-not-just-the-name-of-a-lion dept.
[20200530_203823 UTC: UPDATE: Launch was successful, all systems nominal, first stage successfully landed on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You", and Ben and Doug are on their 19-hour flight to the ISS (International Space Station). Live coverage continues all the way through docking.]
Today's the day— weather permitting, America is returning to space:
During Wednesday's technically smooth countdown, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken came within 17 minutes of launching before a scrub due to poor weather. Now the crew will suit up and try again on Saturday despite still iffy weather.
SpaceX is working toward an instantaneous launch at 3:22pm ET (19:22 UTC). The big concern again today is the development of thunderstorms near the launch site this afternoon, which could violate a number of weather criteria, including not just precipitation, but also residual electric energy from lighting in the atmosphere. Overall, the chance of acceptable weather at launch time is about 50 percent, forecasters estimate. They are also watching for down-range conditions in case an emergency abort is required during the rocket's ascent to space.
This is nothing new for NASA or U.S. human spaceflight. As the commander, Hurley, noted on Twitter Friday that his first space mission in 2009 scrubbed five times for weather or technical issues before it finally lifted off. "All launch commit criteria is developed way ahead of any attempt," Hurley said. "This makes the correct scrub or launch decision easier in the heat of the moment."
It has been such a long, long road for NASA and SpaceX to reach this moment—thousands of engineers and technicians have labored to design, develop, test, and fly hardware for the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket over the last decade. But now the hardware and crew are ready, and at just the right time, to go fly.
[...] A combined NASA and SpaceX webcast will begin today at 11am ET (15:00 UTC).
Launch is scheduled for exactly 2 hours from the time this story goes live.
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Recently:
(2020-05-27) SpaceX to Launch Crew Demo 2; Weather Causes Today's Launch to be Scrubbed; Try Again Sat.
(2020-05-27) SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 Launch Timeline
(2020-05-26) Spacex - Crew Dragon Demo 2 Launch - 2020-05-27 20:33 UTC (16:33 EDT)
(2020-05-13) SpaceX Crew Dragon Simulator Challenges You to Dock with the ISS, and It's Not Easy
(Score: 3, Interesting) by linkdude64 on Sunday May 31 2020, @02:24AM (4 children)
And hooray for every county's space program that stands to benefit from the increased crew safety and lower cost of these launches! Get more developing countries space economies going! Let kids in the congo and south america shoot things into space too! Everybody benefits. Thank you Elon Musk and thank you President Trump for supporting space development and logistics which will surely be critical in the coming years. The greatness of the United States has ever been its entrepreneurial spirit, which is the human spirit - the spirit of Freedom!
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @02:18PM (3 children)
Trump, who observed the launch, said the United States had regained its place as the world's leader in space, that U.S. astronauts would soon land on Mars, and that Washington would soon have "the greatest weapons ever imagined in history."
NASA had to rely on Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, to get to the ISS since its final space shuttle flight in 2011, and Trump hailed what he said was the end of being at the mercy of foreign nations. The U.S. success will potentially deprive Roscosmos, which has suffered corruption scandals and a number of malfunctions, of the lucrative fees it charged to take U.S. astronauts to the ISS.
"The hysteria raised after the successful launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft is hard to understand," Vladimir Ustimenko, spokesman for Roscosmos, wrote on Twitter after citing Trump's statement. "What has happened should have happened long ago. Now it's not only the Russians flying to the ISS, but also the Americans. Well that's wonderful!"
Moscow has said previously that it is also deeply worried about what it fears are U.S. plans to deploy weapons in space.
Moscow would not be sitting idly by, Ustimenko said.
"..We are not going to rest on our laurels either. We will test two new rockets this year, and next year we will resume our lunar program. It will be interesting," said Ustimenko.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @04:42PM
It didn't take very long for Trump to take a Victory Lap.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday May 31 2020, @05:20PM (1 child)
That's easy to understand spin. The Russian space industry was deliberately kept alive with the creation of the International Space Station. Since 2011, ferrying NASA astronauts to the ISS has become a cash cow for them. They are losing launch business not just to SpaceX, but China and India. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy alone are impossible for them to compete with when launching cargo. Now SpaceX can launch astronauts too. Throw in Starship and they won't be able to do anything. China and some other countries will probably offer up a proper response to Starship eventually, but Russia might not join the party.
There's also the origin story of SpaceX, in which Russia tried to fleece Musk for some old ICBMs [inverse.com]. And then various insults against SpaceX and NASA in recent years, including blaming Americans for putting a hole in the ISS.
Roscosmos is the drunk has-been space agency. They are crying internally, and this is just the beginning.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @06:59PM
teh biggest setback (in terms of wasted time and money) in humans history of spaceflight was most certainly the space shuttle.
tho it was the spark of the idea of reusability, methinks it was far from it.
if all the (excess) engineering and time would have been spent on "something else" early on when it became clear that the "reusability" factor of the space shuttle was abysable then maybe not so much "burocratic" weed would have grown in american governmental space industry...
the space shuttle was nice, like a statue of liberty with wings and a gold crown would have been nice to send to orbit.
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overall, everybody NOT spaceX is gonna feel the pinch now. we will see if and how fast the weedy roots between government PR department (note: every givernment has a MAGA department) and industry will be severed (if at all); 'cause if they want to compete then governmental PR money will have to be spent fir more then one way "phew! we made it to orbit" rockets and flying statues.
my money is on the russians next :)