SpaceX's first astronaut launch TODAY!

If everything goes well, I'll be watching it from our backyard. We've watched all latest launches from our backyard. It's pretty far off, still it's an amazing experience (esp. at night).

https://autos.yahoo.com/spacexs-first-astronaut-launch-launch-131100297.html

I like their spacesuits. Look futuristic. Reminds me of Star Trek.



Tune in at 4 something PM EST. The launch is at 4:33 PM.

Watch it live on YT:

 

Pretty cool. Commercial initiatives are certainly the future of space travel.

 

Oops. Postponed until Saturday, now. Lightning storm.

 

You know, the postponement reminded me of a conversation I had with one of my customers back in the 1980's. He was a pretty high level engineering manager at NASA. He mentioned that NASA never wanted to launch the Space Shuttle from FL because of the weather and other issues. They wanted to launch and land at Edwards AFB in California. However, there was a powerful FL senator on the relevant Senate committee and he could not tolerate CA getting the nod over the "Sunshine State" due to weather because it would be bad for Florida's image from a tourism perspective. So, they ended up launching from FL, but they had to land at Edwards AFB out of sheer necessity. The Space Shuttle basically had no engines powered when returning from orbit (it glided to a landing) so it could not abort once committed to re-entry no matter the weather that sprung up. Edwards AFB has very stable, predictable weather, of course. So, because of politics, the Space Shuttle would land in CA and then be strapped to the back of a 747 to take it back to the launchpad in FL. Not only did this dramatically increase costs and logistics complexity, but it certainly contributed to the deaths of the Challenger astronauts, as well. The notorious O-rings that failed were determined to have frozen overnight on the FL launchpad (temp's dipped below freezing) and that contributed to their failure that led to the deadly explosion. Temperatures never get that low at Edwards AFB, of course.

 

OK, let's hope it's going to be for real this time. It's at 3:22 EST.

 

Looks like a go!

 

Really cool having cameras inside the cockpit. However, I am surprised at how smooth the ride seems to be for the astronauts. Was expecting a lot of vibration and shaking.

 

I was hoping to take a video from my backyard, but the clouds were dark and heavy, couldn't see a thing. @jrbiz I too thought about how little the shaking was. Musk's engineers thought of that part of the flight too. It's a small capsule, looks like they are going to spend 19 hours confined to that tiny space before heading home.

 

I didn't realize that it would be docking the ISS. Happening live right now:

 

Yeah, they are expected to stay there for 1-4 months, depending on how things go.