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NASA (space) thread

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Tomorrow is the scheduled date for launching humans from US soil to orbital space for the first time since the space shuttle was retired (July 8, 2011).

Space-X will attempt to launch a Falcon 9 rocket with a crew Dragon capsule carrying two US astronauts. Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center is the starting place. 4:33 PM EDT is launch time. The International Space Station is the destination. The launch time is instantaneous. There is no window because of the orbit of the ISS. If all goes well, the Falcon 9 booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic and be reused.

The big question mark is the weather. 60% chance the weather will be favorable for launch. (Not too cloudy/ rainy/ stormy to allow launch.) Saturday will be the next day to try.

Pad 39A is an historic location. The first moon landing trip started there. So did the first and last Space Shuttle missions.
 
Tesla used to transport astronauts to pad 39A.
 
The TV coverage by NASA TV Is reminiscent of the coverage of the first flights of the Mercury series and then the Apollo moon missions.
 
Interesting tidbit that the cargo Dragons have been flying to the ISS with live mice as ongoing tests of the Dragon life support systems.
 
I absolutely love the SpaceX story. Just a staggering vision and relentless commitment to the mission. Amazing stuff for a private company to be launching a crewed mission to space.
 
They started from nothing and are beating the United Launch Alliance (Boeing/Lockheed) by several months. ULA has been launching rockets for decades. The ULA unmanned test flight didn't make it to the ISS. ULA will need to refly that before they fly astronauts.
 
Air Force 1 flyby of the launch site. President will watch launch from KSC.

Skies looked very cloudy during flyby.
 
Finally some reasoning beyond money for developing new US capability to fly to the ISS. US gets a fourth astronaut on board station to perform research. Apparently providing transportation gets you an extra spot in the ISS long term crew. Medical research and materials science research are two research areas mentioned.

Also, with direct return to the US, samples can get to US ground labs much more quickly.
 
Threw the YouTube stream on TV. Excited for this and hoping for a go!
 
Threw the YouTube stream on TV. Excited for this and hoping for a go!

Weather is not looking good. Rain and clouds at KSC. Everything else is go for launch.

NASA TV has direct live TV coverage.
 
Gassing up the Falcon 9. Crew access arm retracted and escape system armed.
 
Damn, weather killed it. Anyone know the next option for launch date?
 
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