As you surely know, SpaceX is about to launch two “mature” astronauts up to the International Space Station today. The launch was set for earlier this morning, but apparently has been delayed. It’s still a “go” at this writing, though, with the liftoff scheduled for later this afternoon. The NASA broadcast begins in about an hour.
You can get the latest details at Space.com, which at the time of publication are given below. But check back later to be sure, as the weather can be dicey.
From Space.com:
The mission, called Demo-2, will launch NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff is set for 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Wednesday, May 2 (all times in EDT, GMT-4)
- 12:15 p.m. – NASA TV launch coverage begins (continues through docking
- 4:33 p.m. – Liftoff
- 5:22 p.m. – Crew Dragon phase burn
- 6:05 p.m. – Far-field manual flight test
- 7:05 p.m. – Astronaut downlink event from Crew Dragon
- 7:30 p.m. – Postlaunch news conference at Kennedy
One place to watch the show is at the link below (which has a continual “warmup” broadcast), or at the several sites listed at the bottom. Click on this one to watch:
Other places to watch (the first link goes to the NASA site above):
Brits should remember we’re on British Summer Time, not GMT, so that should make it 5 hours later than EDT.
It’s interesting to see the level of interest. Several “firsts” to see here. I suppose after this launch, people will take them for granted once again.
If it launches on schedule today, it will be visible in the evening skies over Britain about 20 minutes after liftoff.
Really? Great. Do you have a point of the compass and elevation?
Watching the Space-X Falcon Heavy launch a couple of years ago filled me with a hopeful feeling I almost didn’t recognize because I hadn’t felt it in so long. I actually teared up when they cut to the shot of the dummy astronaut in the car — Earth slowly crawling by in the background, David Bowie’s Life on Mars solidifying its historic, overwhelming magnificence. It was so beautiful.
That night, I watched some of my favorite Star Trek: TNG episodes. I wanted to remember the vision of that show and feel the optimistic tone Gene Rodeenberry provided, the feeling that we will be better as our species grows and that we’ll all grow together. It was a series about hope: the hope that we will unite some day, move beyond our petty squabbles, and become what we are capable of being: a cohesive whole, a species working together for the betterment of us all and for all others who might reside in the universe, somewhere. A species that pursues scientific discovery, preserves life, and protects basic rights.
(unlike the new Star Trek shows, which are all dour and about how terrible humanity is and apparently will always be. The writers of today’s Star Trek series know nothing about Star Trek, or, worse, they don’t care about it and simply see it as a vehicle for their own pessimistic politics and view of humanity).
+1 to all that.
Beautifully said!
Those are some high hopes for a species of great apes evolutionarily adapted to life as tribal hunter-gatherers on the African veldt.
And you try to pass yourself off as a pessimist, Beej. 🙂
A pessimist dreams of a world we he can be an optimist 🙂
*Where
All very well but the Tesla with a doll in it was just a publicity stunt to aggrandise Elon Musk.
I take your point about Star Trek though. I remember listening to Wittertainment when Branagh’s Cinderella came out. One correspondent criticised it saying an opportunity had been lost, they could have made it much darker. People seem to think “dark” is automatically better.
I know that astronaut in the Tesla was just PR, but it was the image and the music that made it a beautiful moment to behold. It wasn’t the dummy astronaut or the car, but Earth in the background with Bowie’s glorious song playing.
Regarding Star Trek: it’s not just “being dark.” Especially with Picard, it was clear the writers wanted to do away with the optimism of the series. As Sir Stewart said of the show, “In a way, the world of Next Generation had been too perfect and too protected. It was the Enterprise. It was a safe world of respect and communication and care and, sometimes, fun. [Picard] was me responding to the world of Brexit and Trump and feeling, ‘Why hasn’t the Federation changed? Why hasn’t Starfleet changed?’ Maybe they’re not as reliable and trustworthy as we all thought.” (emphasis mine)
Showing The Federation as a suddenly xenophobic, protectionist organization full of dastardly, dirty people was a complete 180 from what it used to be. When did this happen? It seems that, from Stewart and the show-runners’ perspectives, it always was that way, but nobody ever had the courage they had to show it! And then they take characters like Seven of Nine and make her a revenge machine, carrying out vigilante assassinations throughout the galaxy — once again, a complete from who she was. They changed so many things, not least of all Picard himself, and seemingly for their own political motives. It really makes me sad that these people either have no hope in their hearts, or would rather squash the hope of fans than not inject their politics about the present day.
Minor nitpick: you don’t prepend “sir” to just a surname. You can either say “Sir Patrick”, “Sir Patrick Stewart” or just “Stewart”. “Sir Stewart” is wrong and sounds weird to any Britisher.
If what you say is right about Picard – which I haven’t seen – it’s very sad, particularly what you say about Seven of Nine who was my favourite Star Trek character. In these times, a series full of optimism would really not go amiss.
Thank you for correcting me! I feel very silly now, but I’m really glad you told me that. 🙂
Space X is bringing back some of the excitement that NASA used to bring.
Launch was always scheduled for 4:33 edt this afternoon. No delay. Because they have to intercept space station at a predetermined point in space, the launch window is very narrow…if they have to scrub today, next chance is saturday around 3:30 edt in the afternoon i think. The guys just got into the capsule ….around 1:50 edt… watching on web at spacex.com.
I hope all goes well. I’ve been looking forward to this since SpaceX had their 1st successful launch.
In case you (general you) don’t remember or never knew, that 1st successful launch, their 4th attempt, was a mere 12 years ago in September 2008. And it was fly or die time. SpaceX was out of money and would very likely have gone out of business if that 4th attempt had not been successful.
Look at them now.
Cool stuff!
“Twitch” (whatever that is) 😉
We’re staying tuned for the launch. Exciting stuff! Fingers crossed, booties crossed, etc for a safe and successful launch.
well, it looks like a scrub, due to weather.
Goes to 3:22 local time(abt)Saturday. Weather will probably still play a role.
Exciting stuff to see this though they have scrubbed the launch. These things happen, I hope to see them do it in a few days.
Someone should do something about the weather.
Well if it I’d off nite that we have predicted busy hurricane season https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/21/hurricane-us-coronavirus-covid-19-floods
There were no typos from me -iPhone!
I meant if it is off tonight …