Friday, April 23, 2021

The four Crew-2 astronauts on SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour are seen aboard their capsule just before launch. They are (from left): Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

 



15 comments:

  1. Clean interior, good to see progression from "the old days".

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  2. When your spam in a can, you don't need any controls.

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  3. It was an exceptionally beautiful launch.

    When they got above the day/night terminator at altitude, the booster contrail started glowing blue. When the booster dropped and started firing its nitrogen thrusters to position itself; every time they fired they tossed out an expanding shell that glowed white and faded to light blue - while the climbing second stage continued to spread more glowing contrail.

    Just beautiful.

    I could see the first burn to slow the booster but the landing burn is too far north and below the horizon from here.

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    1. I watched from the parking lot at work and, you’re right, that booster maneuvering was gorgeous. I’ve never see anything like that before.

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  4. “Looks like something out of Star Trek”. Yeah, no Muslims.

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  5. “Looks like something out of Star Trek”
    ... until it looks like the "Expanse"!

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  6. Why those clumsy clodhopper boots? Are they the Space Force 7th Cavalry? (!)

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  7. Notice, they have no control devices. They are not « driving ». The computer is.

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    1. Yes, I believe they realize it's a woman driver....

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  8. Notice, they have no control devices. They are not « driving ». The computer is.

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  9. Notice, they have no control devices. They are not « driving ». The computer is.

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  10. Ok Ok ! We noticed.

    Brave people.

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    1. This flight is actually complete computer-controlled from liftoff until docking. With that being said, they have displays and controls so if they needed to do something outside of the program, they could.

      The scene this morning when they were crossing from the tower to the capsule looked like a scene right out of 2001: A space odyssey.

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  11. There is a touch screen panel. You only see the lower edge of it from this angle. Lot of what happens is automated.

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