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posted 05-30-2020 02:31 PM            

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Godspeed Doug and Bob!

Bravo SpaceX and NASA.

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posted 05-30-2020 03:19 PM               

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"Acceleration" burns are all from the nose, so will lift the astronauts out fo their seats and must "feel" like rapid deceleration. That must be highly disorienting — just since its human nature to feel acceleration from behind. As a professional pilot, I must say it would be really difficult to to one of those "Phase burns" manually in this orientation.

I just found this a really interesting way to tackle the problem and wondered if anybody else caught that detail.

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posted 05-30-2020 05:40 PM            

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Great day for the world in these dangerous times. May the courage of the two astronauts and dedication of NASA and SpaceX inspire people everywhere.

I saw the ISS pass low in the southwestern horizon where I live almost 2 hours after the launch of Dragon. But sadly couldn't see the capsule in the twilight. Nice end to an historic day.

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posted 05-30-2020 08:36 PM            

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...which of course shares its name with the Apollo 15 CSM, and both pay homage to HMB "Endeavour" commanded by the then Lieutenant James Cook.

A perfect name for explorers taking new steps.

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posted 05-30-2020 11:02 PM               

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The only information we have to go by is what Hurley and Behnken said.

But given that they specifically cited that this was part of the tradition of astronauts naming spacecraft and said they wanted to see the Endeavour name live on, my guess is that this is now this capsule's one and only name.

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posted 05-31-2020 01:10 AM            

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Well done SpaceX and NASA. So far so good.

On the name, third spacecraft to carry it within half a century. I'd have preferred something original. Especially as Dragon isn't an exploration vessel, it's a transportation craft. Perhaps the name of a "famous" dragon would have been good?

Best of luck with the rest of the mission.

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posted 05-31-2020 02:51 AM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by issman1:
But sadly couldn't see the capsule in the twilight.

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Same here, in Holland.

I read somewhere that the Crew Dragon was only 9 degrees above the horizon, while ISS went up to 16 degrees. That has me puzzled. I would think that Dragon is in the same orbit as ISS but some 20 kilometers lower, after the first phase burn. That minor difference can't account for being 7 degrees lower in the sky, I would think?

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posted 05-31-2020 04:13 AM               

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The naming of the Dragon spacecraft Endeavour is also a poignant reminder to the recent March 18 passing of Apollo 15 CMP Al Worden.

From July 30 to August 2, 1971, Al operated the CSM Endeavour solo in lunar orbit. Then, three days later he made the first deep-space EVA from Endeavour.

He would be proud to know the name of his spacecraft lives on beyond the Shuttle.

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posted 05-31-2020 06:50 AM               

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Congrats NASA amd SpaceX on a job well done.

From the famous words from decades back and echoed by Commander Hurley, "Let's light this candle" to the inside tour with both astronauts proudly wearing their mission insignia and revealing the name of their spacecraft as Endeavour meant so much.

First, it was exciting, second, it was a moment of pride and honor especially to be an American, and third in my opinion it gave America a glimpse of all three and hope into the future of what has been a disastrous year. Although yesterday's event cannot dismiss or heal the pain our country is going through right now, it gave some a small window of relief and allowed some of us to dream positive into the future.

Last night I thought of some other words that I believed were echoed by some with me included. In 1968 which was a disastrous year a woman by the name of Ms. Valerie Pringle wrote to NASA after the Apollo 8 mission, "You may have just saved 1968." Well NASA and SpaceX, "You may have just saved 2020," and with that another job well done ladies and gentlemen.

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posted 05-31-2020 08:34 AM            

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One point about the TV coverage of the launch: I had the live feed via collectSPACE on my computer, but watched the launch live on BBC TV news while recording CNN coverage.

I'm glad I wasn't watching CNN live — at T-22 seconds they switched from a live picture to what must have been a recording of the Dragon Demo 1 launch after tower-clearance. They continued to show this recording until switching back to show the smoke-shrouded but empty Pad 39A after Demo 2 had already taken off. If ever someone was going to make a complete shambles of a live launch report, this was it. Was this just a CNN International blunder or did it happen in the States, too?

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posted 05-31-2020 10:22 AM            

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quote:

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
Was this just a CNN International blunder or did it happen in the States, too?

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They were probably getting the feed from the NASA-TV Media channel. It was fine until just before staging when it went to what you've described.

Up to that point I gave the Media Channel an A+ rating. It didn't have all the "talking heads," graphics and social media promos on it like the Public Channel did. It was great for those of us that tuned in to see a launch. The only thing that was missing was a PAO person.

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posted 05-31-2020 11:00 AM               

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Am I missing something or is the flight crew patch not on their flight suits?

Thank you.

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posted 05-31-2020 01:04 PM            

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quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceDust:
They were probably getting the feed from the NASA-TV Media channel. It was fine until just before staging when it went to what you've described.

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Not on the CNN broadcast I recorded. It was an absolute and total shambles and anyone watching it live must have been utterly confused. As the announcer calls "T-15 seconds" there is a view of Falcon 9 heading skyward leaving the support tower far below. As the announcer calls: "6... 5... 4... 3" there is a view of the VAB with the rocket climbing high above. The calls of "zero... ignition... liftoff" are heard against a view of the rocket against the sky. Then the picture momentarily goes blank as you hear "Godspeed Bob and Doug!"

In my earlier post I thought CNN had shown Dragon Demo 1. I didn't realise they were showing the actual launch, but only from several seconds after tower-clearance. Whoever was responsible for that shambles robbed their viewers of the spectacle of Falcon 9/Dragon Demo 2 blasting off live, and ought not to have a job by Monday.

I'm just glad I watched on BBC!

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posted 05-31-2020 01:09 PM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Zero-g indicator spotted, what appears to be a dragon...

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Way to go SpaceX and NASA. Great stuff!

On an absolutely trivial note, I was surprised a sequin-laden plush toy was allowed onboard. For all the FOD concerns, seems like a potential glitter-bomb if threads unravel.

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posted 05-31-2020 02:12 PM               

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Two questions that perhaps those here could help explain:

When and how does Houston Mission Control get involved in a Commercial Crew mission if at all? I was expecting control of the flight to shift to Houston as Falcon 9 cleared the tower but clearly SpaceX retained control through ISS docking. Is that the new mission control model?

In the pre-flight news conferences when both astronauts had their blue flight suits on their name patches had different borders - one silver and one gold. I thought the color of the border was linked to whether someone had previously flown (gold) or not (silver). Since both had flown on shuttle I expected both to have gold borders. I clearly have that wrong too. Could someone help clarify the color designations?