Live stream link:

[youtu.be]

[en.wikipedia.org]
The mission aims to complete the first orbital spaceflight with only private citizens aboard, as part of an effort to raise awareness for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Four crew members; Hayley Arceneaux, Christopher Sembroski, Sian Proctor, and Isaacman himself will spend three days in orbit aboard Crew Dragon Resilience, which was outfitted with a cupola unique to this flight in place of a docking hatch. The mission is planned to launch on 16 September 2021, from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A atop a twice-flown Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The flight is planned to reach altitudes as high as 575 km (357 mi), which have not been achieved by a crewed flight since the Gemini and Apollo programs.

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this strikes me as a very unneeded publicity stunt. The potential downside far outweighs any benefit.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

Just watched it fly over, through the wispy clouds in front of the moon, with the exhaust plume all illuminated in the night sky! It was pretty amazing!

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Aloha, Ken


“I have developed significant attachments to several members even though I wouldn't recognize them if I sat next to one on a park bench. I'm often tempted when in an airport to walk around, hollering "The Løpe", to see if anyone other than the Homeland Security people will acknowledge me. ” - The Løpe

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Ombligo
this strikes me as a very unneeded publicity stunt. The potential downside far outweighs any benefit.

They're all volunteers. They're happy with the risks. Plus it's been a great fundraiser for St. Jude's Childrens Hospital.
Not your money, not your risks, not your problem.

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

I still find the booster landing the most exciting. =)

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Yeah, I don't really understand how they do that that Stage 1 landing.

How do they keep really tall cylinder straight as it descends, and then back in "my day" there were specially designed ceramic tiles that warded off the intense heat of reentry. The science/engineering of heat has changed significantly.

It sure is a good thing that they don't depend on MY imagination to make these things happen!

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Don C
Yeah, I don't really understand how they do that that Stage 1 landing.

How do they keep really tall cylinder straight as it descends, and then back in "my day" there were specially designed ceramic tiles that warded off the intense heat of reentry. The science/engineering of heat has changed significantly.

It sure is a good thing that they don't depend on MY imagination to make these things happen!

The Falcon 9 booster doesn't get high enough to get REALLY hot coming in. It only gets "damn hot" rather than "REALLY damn hot".
And the grid fins do a lot of steering, along with the cold gas thrusters.
Still, it's pretty amazing landing what amounts to an 18 story building on a barge!

For this mission, I can't WAIT for the views of them looking out of the custom-fit cupola!

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

This was the first time I could see a Falcon 9 in flight from my front yard, about 25 miles west of Charleston SC. Beautiful wispy glow from the exhaust, a bright spot from the engine bells, and it all went dark suddenly at MECO.

I hope they do more launches on this trajectory; launches to the ISS don't come this way.

I thought about the risk/benefits of promoting this launch. The negative publicity would be HUGE no matter when it happened should the launch fail. The potential positive upside though is maximized by promoting the launch in the public eye, so really there's only benefit, no downside. Out of 129 launches, SpaceX have had one complete failure that disintegrated in flight, one partial failure that delivered it's primary payload but failed to get it's secondary payload to the correct orbit, and one vessel that exploded on the launchpad. Space is hard, but those are actually pretty good numbers. Space Shuttle had 139 flights with 2 resulting in total loss of crew and craft. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that by end of 2021 or very early in 2022 SpaceX F9 launches will exceed space shuttle in number.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2021 10:07AM by ztirffritz.

Isaacman actually paid for the mission, so as far as I know is responsible for the PR, how the passengers were chosen, etc. I do think it's largely PR, but it's still really cool. I pretty much believe space travel will be for the rich, but I appreciate what they've done, regardless. Hopefully future missions will follow his lead, and keep doing similar things.

SpaceX is pushing the envelope, and to do that they have to take risks (and flak). I think it's impressive.

Just remember; in less than 20 years, SpaceX brought manned missions from something only three nations had ever achieved at a cost of a Billion dollars a flight (at minimum), to something a person with $100 million could buy.

That's an order of magnitude drop in less than 20 years.
Today, it's only for "the rich"... but, what will the NEXT 20 years bring?

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kj
Isaacman actually paid for the mission, so as far as I know is responsible for the PR, how the passengers were chosen, etc. I do think it's largely PR, but it's still really cool. I pretty much believe space travel will be for the rich, but I appreciate what they've done, regardless. Hopefully future missions will follow his lead, and keep doing similar things.

SpaceX is pushing the envelope, and to do that they have to take risks (and flak). I think it's impressive.

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

Preach!