FL - SpaceX Launch today May 2020; Water Landing back to earth Aug 2 2020

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BetteDavisEyes

BetteDavisEyes

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SpaceX launch today: The countdown begins, but stormy weather looms

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 4:33 p.m. ET.

SpaceX is set to launch its first astronaut crew into orbit Wednesday afternoon, a flight that marks the return of human spaceflight from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade.

The countdown to launch is underway. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 4:33 p.m. ET on a test flight to the International Space Station. The historic launch will be the first time that NASA astronauts have flown to the orbiting lab in a commercially built spacecraft.


It will also be the first time that human passengers are launched into orbit from the U.S. since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011...
 
BetteDavisEyes said:
SpaceX launch now scheduled for 3:22pm tomorrow (Saturday). Weather permitting, of course.
Click to expand...

Heads-up, @MassGuy.
Launch sequence in T-26:54 and counting.
You bring the wings.
I'll bring the Coke.
5765.gif
 
Ladies and GentleMen of WS,
Your resident launch watcher, unverified non-expert, will be here to give you an actual LIVE
in person blow by blow account as the Dragon
zooms over my barn here in Central Florida.
Weather is 50-50. Our afternoon rain pattern
has begun and it's real iffy. How's that for a
scientific description?
See you all tomorrow!!!!
 
Projected storm patterns shown yesterday evening predicts strong chance of showers, clouds, lightning around liftoff time-3:22pm
Thick clouds also predicted.
Interesting tidbit on Wednesday's scrub is that
weather actually cleared just prior to scheduled liftoff but due to electrical currents in the atmosphere surrounding Pad 39B NASA feared
the capsule itself could generate it's own lightening. This would be catastrophic for all the electrical equipment onboard the craft.
Sunday, actually, is looking better weatherwise.
Having witnessed the tragic Challenger disaster, I
personally have no problem with delays for safety reasons.
 
GordianKnot said:
Heads-up, @MassGuy.
Launch sequence in T-26:54 and counting.
You bring the wings.
I'll bring the Coke.
5765.gif
Click to expand...

And I will bring the beer and wine. :)

Seriously, this is so so exciting for the US. I was watching the attempted launch the other day and was saddened when the weather stopped it. I hope the weather holds up this time and hope all goes safely.

Everyone involved with SpaceX and NASA that helped get us to this point is owed a huge Congratulations. Everyone from the financial backers, to the design teams, to the workers that built every nut and bolt, and finally to the brave two men that will enter the capsule at the top.

Kudos to all of them!
 
enelram said:
Projected storm patterns shown yesterday evening predicts strong chance of showers, clouds, lightning around liftoff time-3:22pm
Thick clouds also predicted.
Interesting tidbit on Wednesday's scrub is that
weather actually cleared just prior to scheduled liftoff but due to electrical currents in the atmosphere surrounding Pad 39B NASA feared
the capsule itself could generate it's own lightening. This would be catastrophic for all the electrical equipment onboard the craft.
Sunday, actually, is looking better weatherwise.
Having witnessed the tragic Challenger disaster, I
personally have no problem with delays for safety reasons.
Click to expand...

Thanks for being here to help give us the local scoop on the weather and the attempted launch today.

Re BBM
I totally agree and I have learned to accept that if they have to scrub any launch, then its all for the better because they do it for safety reasons, and we definitely do not want any mishaps that can be prevented.

The other day I had a theory about one of the reasons the space shuttle was put to bed. It dawned on me after watching the SpaceX history and how they designed the capsule at the top to be jettisoned up and away to float back down to earth by parachute if something goes wrong with the rocket engines below them.

It finally dawned on me that having an escape system that can safely bring astraunauts back to earth was something the Space Shuttle would have been very difficult to outfit with. My theory is there was no good way they could ever change the space shuttle to add in some sort of safety ejection system. And I am pretty sure everyone at NASA wanted that. So I think that was one of the reasons they ended up retiring the Space Shuttle, along with its expensive costs in each launch. The fact that two huge long potentially explosive rocket engines sat along each side of the space shuttle during launch made it prohibitive to design a good ejection system.

Anyway, just a theory that I thought about after watching SpaceX design and that really cool emergency ejection capsule that can be catapulted up and away from the rocket engines to float safely back to earth if something were to go wrong.
 
Local WFTV Ch 9 just showed the astronauts
leaving the suit-up room, which is same room used in 1968 Apollo program.
They suited up around 11am after receiving a weather briefing.
One of astronauts had his 2 children, 6 and 10,
reluctantly saying goodbyes to Dad.
Even their handlers have had to quarantine and
weren't allowed to mix with their own families.

1000's have ignored NASA's request to stay away due to Covid but crowds of visitors from
other states have gathered to watch the launch.

Weather is still at 50-50. Clouds are building in area of Pad 39b.
Isolated, brief downpours are moving east over the launch area.
Beautiful skies over my farm today but those puffy white stratocumulus cottonballs are scattered overhead. If no cloud cover I usually
have a wide open view of capsule flight within
minutes of liftoff and lasts for several minutes.
Fingers crossed all goes well.
 
The two astronauts just came out of the holding room to give a big wave to cameras and to all the
visitors watching from around the world.
The beach areas nearby are all pretty crowded with watchers under big beach umbrellas due
to light showers and warm sun. Temp- 89 today.

Just heard Sunday weather is now looking at 60% rain, and a Tuesday window is available if that doesn't work.
tuesday is predicted to be very low- 20%- chance of rain. For us that means probably NO RAIN.
 
For weather geeks (like me) here's our Doppler
Radar Live Streaming. There's 2 views.
The launch pad is due east of Orlando northeast
of Cocoa.
While it looks to be a clear weather window coming soon, because Fl. is a peninsula, we
get after wind and rain patterns coming in from both the
Gulf Coast and East Coast. I'm right in the middle so you know what happens when those 2 patterns collide. Yup, feisty thunderstorms.
Also our weather can change dramaticly this time of year in just an hour or two. So what you see now, 12:45pm will be totally different
at 3:22pm. You may need to refresh the screen.
Orlando Radar - Interactive Weather Map | WFTV
 
I am still so amazed that they can land the rocket engines back to earth and have them land upright.

If anyone has not yet had a chance to watch how the rocket engines fly back down and land upright, you can go to 2:15 in this video. It is totally incredible and defies logic how its even possible.

 
Before the launch was scrubbed on Wednesday, I had been watching live coverage on The Weather Channel. Given that the weather is likely to figure prominently in today's launch, TWC is my choice for live coverage of the SpaceX launch. Fingers crossed that we see a spectacular launch this afternoon. We all need some good news :)
 
Looks like that batch of showers over the Launch site is moving westerly @8mph and IF
no other system pops up it looks like it could be clear over Launch site by 3:22pm.
They can actually launch during the window from appx 3pm-3:30pm.
 
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