quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Looks like an older Omega Speedmaster X-33.

Correct.

And a lot of the Astronauts (at least the Americans from memory) on the ISS wear them too.
I guess Omegas are still the de-facto space watch.

Omega offers good deals to military / aircrew / etc - unit purchases, engraved emblems on the back, etc. I forget the discounts but it's pretty substantial.

Might even be part of the 'buy in' when you join a unit (I have seen that before with specialized units that buy X watches per year and all the new arrivals buy one).

Makes for great advertising.

I'd even venture to say they are NASA-issued.

Maybe I haven't dug around enough but what are they going to do? Is this just launch, hang out, and come home?

I don't want that to sound trivial as it isn't. I'm just curious.

They aren't going to try to land the crew are they?

I heard the dragon capsule is going to the international space station and will be docked there for 120 days. As for the astronauts, I imagine they will stay on the space station for a while, and the other astronauts on board the space station might head down.

But I haven't actually looked at the mission...

The instantaneous launch window opens at 3:22 p.m. EDT, or 19:22 UTC Saturday, with a backup instantaneous launch opportunity available on Sunday, May 31 at 3:00 p.m. EDT, or 19:00 UTC.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
I heard the dragon capsule is going to the international space station and will be docked there for 120 days. As for the astronauts, I imagine they will stay on the space station for a while, and the other astronauts on board the space station might head down.

But I haven't actually looked at the mission...

They did mention the dock & hold for 120 days on the live feed.

I didn't hear any mention of crewed return. They walked through the return procedure & path, but I didn't hear, or missed any mention of it being crewed on descent.

RETURN
Upon conclusion of the mission, Crew Dragon will autonomously undock with the two astronauts onboard the spacecraft and depart the Space Station. After jettisoning the trunk and conducting its deorbit burn, which lasts approximately 12 minutes, Dragon will reenter Earth’s atmosphere.

Upon splashdown just off Florida’s Atlantic Coast, Dragon and the astronauts will be quickly recovered by SpaceX’s Go Navigator recovery vessel and returned to Cape Canaveral.



https://www.spacex.com/launches/

[IMG]insert ginormous photo of Go Navigator here[/IMG]

SCRUBBED (with only 15 or so minutes to go) because of weather in the area and down range.

Next attempt will be Saturday.

Air Force One made a low pass near Pad 39A about 90 minutes before scheduled launch. President and Mrs Trump and Vice President and Mrs Pence were touring the facility today about 1 hour prior to launch time.

I will be trying to watch on Saturday. (I was a complete space program nerd as a kid in the 60's)

quote:

Originally posted by mark_a:
Maybe I haven't dug around enough but what are they going to do? Is this just launch, hang out, and come home?

The mission is an end to end, crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon. They will dock with the International Space Station and remain aboard up to 4 months, depending on the spacecraft performance or other benchmarks. This is the final test of the spacecraft, after doing an autonomous mission last year and several ground / inflight abort tests (unlike the Space Shuttle, Dragon has abort capability from the pad throughout the launch).

The Dragon crew will integrate with the currently reduced crew of ISS (3, only 1 of which is a NASA astronaut - normally it is staffed by 6), carrying out normal science and maintenance duties like them.

After they return, NASA / SpaceX will conduct a full review of the mission before certifying Crew Dragon for regular flights to ISS with 4 crew, which will bring ISS up to 7 crew members - which will increase the science / research time available. And instead of relying on the Russian Soyuz capsule, Astronauts / Cosmonauts will fly on both spacecraft (and eventually the other commercial crew spacecraft, the Boeing Starliner - which failed its autonomous mission to ISS and will refly it this fall before flying crewmembers up and back). So Soyuz will no longer be the single spacecraft bringing people up and back.

SpaceX can fly up to 2 non-astronauts a year up to ISS and can fly other private missions to space (not ISS). I.E. they had talked about a private mission around the Moon, etc. While NASA flights will only carry 4 people, the spacecraft can fly with up to 7 if configured that way.

Rhino you are really into this stuff! I personally am glad to see that. So many younger people have no idea or enthusiasm for our efforts in space.

I have fond memories of Kennedy and the race to the moon. Our elementary school teachers would bring in a portable TV and we would all watch the countdown. All of us wanted to be astronauts.

quote:

Originally posted by H&K-Guy:

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Pretty funny the guys are named Bob and Doug, eh?

"Great White North-Rush

H&K-Guy

I kept thinking Bob and Doug's (Ted) excellent adventure all during the webcast.

Well, it was an excellent "wet rehearsal" and good that only the weather (mainly lightening energy dissipation) was the constraint.

more Rush "sleeping white dragon"

Saturday's weather is not looking too hot at the moment - they may not even bother to wake them up