Launch News SpaceX DM-2 Launch Scheduled for May 27!

[Artlav]

Yep, the trampoline is working.

 

[Tycho]

Great launch and an exciting development in space exploration. Though I'm dubious on the return of the NASA "worm" logo. Symbolizes the post-Apollo letdown to me.

 

[garyw]

this Dragon is truly the first 21st century crew capsule. It's very different to anything before it, Soyuz, Apollo, shuttle, etc. It's almost like an A320 compared to a sopwith camel or a DC3.

 

[GLS]

Tons of inertia at soft-capture... almost looked like it was going stright for full docking. :uhh:

 

[llarian]

A thing of beauty!!

 

[BenSisko]

I was tense from fuel load until SECO, mindful of SpaceX’s pad explosion with fuel load and explosion on launch just around MaxQ. The Demo-2 docking was wonderful to watch. I hope this spurs the Starliner team to bring their A game to the table! As to logo’s, the Meatball signifies NASA from its origin as NACA. I’ve never been a fan of the Worm but I can accept the Wormball. Taking the best of NASA’s past to fuel and inform NASA’s future.

 

[Marg]

As an 80-ies child, I like worm logo. For me its better than meatball, font of "NASA" in meatball is way too simple...

 

[Urwumpe]

A surprise thought came to mind ... it should be easy to make a GUI for Crew Dragon as it's only screens, I wonder if they will release a public simulator or code they use. It could be a great simulator instead of using Orbiter.

Remember though - this machine has a number of special computers just for drawing the fancy UI. Might take some years until you can do all this on your own PC in real time.

 

[fort]

Does the procedure include an identity check at the entry into the ISS?

 

[Tycho]

As to logo’s, the Meatball signifies NASA from its origin as NACA. I’ve never been a fan of the Worm but I can accept the Wormball. Taking the best of NASA’s past to fuel and inform NASA’s future.
View attachment 17126

Fair points. Never mind the curmudgeonry of this incurable Mercury-Gemini-Apollo purist. Progress is progress.

Does the procedure include an identity check at the entry into the ISS?

I'd expect the folks in the white room to have taken care to avoid such a mix-up -- though little surprises me anymore.

 

[fort]

I'd expect the folks in the white room to have taken care to avoid such a mix-up -- though little surprises me anymore.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol-fA2PeI2o"]VolksWagen - Astronaut (1-2) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Keatah]

So, they're calling it Endeavour. I'd prefer a different one (Enterprise would be a natural but then I'm an old trekkie with a second choice of Eagle-5), but Endeavour will do just fine.

Job well done, so far.

I, too, would have preferred a different name. "Endeavour" is name of a old rickety shuttle. And "Enterprise" is easily overused (because Trek). It also seems more appropriate for a bigger ship, not a peanut-sized transfer capsule.

 

[Donamy]

No. nothing. Just the screens.

I was amused by one thing though. They have a docking sim on the internet https://iss-sim.spacex.com/

If you're used to dock MFD it'll be easy. It also looks a hell of a lot like Axial MFD. https://www.orbithangar.com/showAddon.php?id=edc11104-5a54-44e8-b361-66fbbc71d6a1

Does that axial<FD work with Orbiter2016 and D3D9 ?

 

[BenSisko]

Fair points. Never mind the curmudgeonry of this incurable Mercury-Gemini-Apollo purist. Progress is progress.

While I agree that progress is progress, we disagree on curmudgeonry.

 

[kerlix]

Crew faced the direction of travel at launch, so they were lying on their back when on the pad - same as all previous craft.

What I meant by that was do they ride the ascent with their heads down towards earth, as was done with the shuttle, or head-up, meaning rotated 180* and the opposite of the shuttle attitude.

I'm not stupid. I know they weren't just sitting there in chairs as if they were sitting in a room on earth.

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

 

[Donamy]

They were riding like the Shuttle, heads down, for positive Gs. Heads up would produce negative Gs.

 

[llarian]

This flight held a special interest for many Canadians, but perhaps not for the reasons most people would know or understand. Perhaps this will offer some sort of explanation:

It's also why some of us were hoping that the Crew Dragon would have been named Eagle-5 (from Spaceball).

 

[GLS]

They were riding like the Shuttle, heads down, for positive Gs. Heads up would produce negative Gs.

Hmm, I don't think heads-up is any different from heads-down in terms of acceleration.
With the exception of winged vehicles, which also have aero to worry about, the heads-down attitude is better for the crew to see the horizon, thus giving them a reference point.

This said, I have no idea how it is in the Dragon. :shrug:

 

[Urwumpe]

They were riding like the Shuttle, heads down, for positive Gs. Heads up would produce negative Gs.

I think there are only two common reasons for that in both Shuttle and Dragon, that could be valid:


Being able to observe the horizon.
And line of sight to ground stations or TDRS.



For the shuttle, it also had no effect on the Gs to fly heads up or heads down. But it was additionally, because of the side mount, more aerodynamic, to fly heads down initially and roll heads up once clear of the denser atmosphere. But the Dragon is no side mount.



For the Dragon, the only other reason for the position that I could image is having the right AOA and bank angle after pitching ~180° for parachute deployment during an abort.

 

[GLS]

Went to the launch video and there is a roll early in the ascent that puts the black side down, which looking at the pre-launch images is the side the crew has their heads, so it seems heads-down ascent.