Space X launch right on time today

[saber25]

Being old enough to remember the Sputnik missions and our competition to the moon under the Kennedy administration, I was glued to the NASA TV channel today and watch the Falcon fly. Our landing on the moon was the ultimate homebuilt/experimental and today we again were treated to the ultimate fusion of science, engineers and builders to what can be done. The capsule with two test pilots calmly sitting there, and me being along for the ride via video was incredible and as they say, on a nominal trajectory. Seeing the first stage land back on a barge out in the Atlantic right on target reminds me as a kid balancing a broom stick. Congratulations to all the builders of experimental flying things, I'm very proud of today's achievement by NASA and a private enterprise.

[saber25]

I tried to delete the above post since it appears not many people share my enthusiasm. Please disregard the above post.

[lnuss]

There's nothing wrong with your post -- it's in the right forum -- and don't think that there's no interest just because no one replied. I'm sure there are many others out there just like me that have an interest, but just didn't reply here.

Yes, it was great to see the first commercially operated people carrier to the ISS, or for much of anything except X-prize or testing.

[Mike Kitslaar]

Saber25. I liked your post and felt reminiscent about the sixties as well.

[rwanttaja]

I remember we were remodeling out house when Shephard was due to launch, and were living in the basement. We had a TV set up kind of haphazardly on a stand to watch. The problem was, they kept delaying the launch, and I had to go to school!

I did, ALMOST, get to mix homebuilding and space flight about 15 years later. I was the lead payload engineer for a small satellite called Batsat. The satellite use magnetic torque rods for attitude control, which meant the whole satellite had to be "balanced" magnetically.

We had the payload set up in the test labs, and an engineer from Orbital Sciences (the builder of the spacecraft bus) was setting little magnets on our payload platform to cancel out the residual magnetism. He had one spot where he needed the magnet to stand off from the surface a bit. I offered to rush home and cut out a wooden stand to hold the magnet.

Got the desired dimensions and tore off for home...about a twenty-minute trip. Took just ten minutes or so of actual shop work, with a bit of sanding so it'd look nice. But when I got back to the lab, the Orbital engineer had solved the problem another way.

Rats.



Ron Wanttaja

[skyfixer8]

I found the differences between old and new capsules to be amazing. Old style, steam gauges, circuit breakers, switches, and clutter all gone in favor of three touch screens and pressure suits that looked more like something you wear on a night out instead of the old silver or orange suits worn in years past.

[rwanttaja]

I found the differences between old and new capsules to be amazing. Old style, steam gauges, circuit breakers, switches, and clutter all gone in favor of three touch screens and pressure suits that looked more like something you wear on a night out....

You go to stranger parties than I do, Skyfixer. :-)

I don't know how much override capability the astronauts have, and how much training their receive, but I understand that nearly everything is automated. This can be good, this can be bad. Don't know how much protection from EMP the system has, and what sort of manual backups are provided.

Ron Wanttaja

[RickG]

I'm very proud of today's achievement by NASA and a private enterprise.

I wrote down a quote from Elon Musk during an interview last Wednesday (before the first launch was scrubbed due to weather):

"We’re reigniting the dream of space. Anyone who has within them the spirit of exploration should love what's going on today."

Could not agree more!

[Airmutt]

Push a button, get a banana. Crew have become almost tertiary. Space exploration has demonstrated this far more than aviation. Personally I think Cargo Dragon autonomously docking with the ISS was a bigger deal. Sorry I just can’t get that excited over a guy manually firing a reaction jet. BUT.... I am very glad that we are no longer dependent on the Russians. We should have never walked away.

[rwanttaja]

Push a button, get a banana. Crew have become almost tertiary. Space exploration has demonstrated this far more than aviation. Personally I think Cargo Dragon autonomously docking with the ISS was a bigger deal. Sorry I just can’t get that excited over a guy manually firing a reaction jet.

Must have my Space Curmudgeon hat (helmet?) on today.

Having the ability to manually fire a thruster has saved NASA crews in the past (Gemini VIII, Apollo 13). The question is HOW the crew can fire the thrusters...whether the manual input goes into the same computer that's bollixed things up already. If the manual control requires 98% of the same circuitry and software that the automated circuit uses, then it's not really providing a "manual backup."

Still, it is just "fly by wire," which has become common enough in aircraft.

(Obligatory space story: We had a thruster control system fail on the Air Force Early-Warning satellite I used to operate as a young officer. A software engineer named Lieutenant Knight quickly developed a fly-by-wire-like system that used ground computers to switch modes to operate the thrusters. This software patch was officially dubbed, "Fly By Knight.")

BUT.... I am very glad that we are no longer dependent on the Russians. We should have never walked away.

Well...what would have been the downside if we'd stopped sending crews into space? The fact is, other than national pride, there isn't much use for humankind in space. It's good that human space travel is now being provided by a private vendor, but the US Government is still into it deep, financially.

It's the right way to go, and I support human use of space. But dollars-and-cents-wise, it doesn't make sense. It's not something we HAVE to had, and with the economy tanking, it may well be an early casualty.

Ron Wanttaja