My favorite detail that I learned while watching the livestream before it was scrubbed: During uncrewed test firings of the rocket, they placed audio recorders in the crew cabin. Then they played...
My favorite detail that I learned while watching the livestream before it was scrubbed:
During uncrewed test firings of the rocket, they placed audio recorders in the crew cabin. Then they played those recordings for the astronauts during training simulations. This allowed the astronauts to get used to the "normal" clunking and hissing and other sounds the vehicle makes while it's being fueled (since fueling takes place just before launch, with the astronauts already on board).
You know that itch that wants to say "just ignore the rule" or "wait 10 more minutes"? That's go fever. I can only imagine that feeling multiplied by an order of magnitude, that's what the ground...
You know that itch that wants to say "just ignore the rule" or "wait 10 more minutes"? That's go fever.
I can only imagine that feeling multiplied by an order of magnitude, that's what the ground team and the astronauts must experience. What an intense and surreal feeling it must be to pull the plug on such a historic launch—doing it exactly by the book, to deny your internal gut desire and stay militantly focused on not going to space today, because that's exactly what the last 50 years of spaceflight history successes and mistakes have shown we need to do. And to enter the next chapter in crewed spaceflight, we need to look to the last chapters to keep moving forward.
The big thing to remember about this manned rocket is that it's the first rocket that has abort capabilities through 100% of it's flight. The space shuttle was bolted to the side of a huge tank...
The big thing to remember about this manned rocket is that it's the first rocket that has abort capabilities through 100% of it's flight.
The space shuttle was bolted to the side of a huge tank and basically had no way to separate and fly to safety if something started to go wrong with any of the other components.
The Soyuz has a launch escape tower, but that is jettisoned before booster separation. The abort that we saw on MS-10 had to be done without it, because something went wrong during booster separation. Thankfully the issue wasn't explosive, because then the crew likely wouldn't have made it back home either.
Dragon however has the escape system built in to the capsule itself. It's never jettisoned. If at any point something starts to go wrong with the rocket from the moment they start fueling to the moment they dock with the ISS, they have the ability to turn around and go home.
The abort system did fail once in a test, when they recovered a Dragon 2 (crew dragon predecessor) capsule from the sea and tried to static fire the escape boosters to see what would happen. This is what happened.
They found the issue and fixed it by massively simplifying the escape system design (details here).
In short, this is the best design for an abort system ever designed and built for manned spacecraft. Some of my friends were nervous too, and they said that understanding the abort system helped them relax, so I hope I was helpful to you too.
This is the link to the NASA TV livestream for the SpaceX launch later today. The current schedule has the launch at 4:33pm ET, but there is a chance it will be delayed until May 30th.
This is the link to the NASA TV livestream for the SpaceX launch later today. The current schedule has the launch at 4:33pm ET, but there is a chance it will be delayed until May 30th.
My favorite detail that I learned while watching the livestream before it was scrubbed:
During uncrewed test firings of the rocket, they placed audio recorders in the crew cabin. Then they played those recordings for the astronauts during training simulations. This allowed the astronauts to get used to the "normal" clunking and hissing and other sounds the vehicle makes while it's being fueled (since fueling takes place just before launch, with the astronauts already on board).
You know that itch that wants to say "just ignore the rule" or "wait 10 more minutes"? That's go fever.
I can only imagine that feeling multiplied by an order of magnitude, that's what the ground team and the astronauts must experience. What an intense and surreal feeling it must be to pull the plug on such a historic launch—doing it exactly by the book, to deny your internal gut desire and stay militantly focused on not going to space today, because that's exactly what the last 50 years of spaceflight history successes and mistakes have shown we need to do. And to enter the next chapter in crewed spaceflight, we need to look to the last chapters to keep moving forward.
The big thing to remember about this manned rocket is that it's the first rocket that has abort capabilities through 100% of it's flight.
The space shuttle was bolted to the side of a huge tank and basically had no way to separate and fly to safety if something started to go wrong with any of the other components.
The Soyuz has a launch escape tower, but that is jettisoned before booster separation. The abort that we saw on MS-10 had to be done without it, because something went wrong during booster separation. Thankfully the issue wasn't explosive, because then the crew likely wouldn't have made it back home either.
Dragon however has the escape system built in to the capsule itself. It's never jettisoned. If at any point something starts to go wrong with the rocket from the moment they start fueling to the moment they dock with the ISS, they have the ability to turn around and go home.
The abort system did fail once in a test, when they recovered a Dragon 2 (crew dragon predecessor) capsule from the sea and tried to static fire the escape boosters to see what would happen. This is what happened.
They found the issue and fixed it by massively simplifying the escape system design (details here).
In short, this is the best design for an abort system ever designed and built for manned spacecraft. Some of my friends were nervous too, and they said that understanding the abort system helped them relax, so I hope I was helpful to you too.
*crewed
:P
The desire not to die probably helps curb that a bit for the astronauts
This is the link to the NASA TV livestream for the SpaceX launch later today. The current schedule has the launch at 4:33pm ET, but there is a chance it will be delayed until May 30th.