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SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

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Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#21

Post by S_A_P »

danbr wrote: post #18
S_A_P wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that you dont want to fly a giant rocket full of liquid oxygen and other explosives into a thunderstorm or hurricane, but what are some practical reasons for postponing a launch due to weather. As I (hardly) understand once you get high up in the atmosphere there is high wind even on a clear day, does rain matter that much?

I would think by far it’s for crew safety. Recovery due to an in-flight abort would be difficult in rough seas and weather if they had to be plucked out of the Atlantic. The aerostructure of the falcon 9 can only withstand so much side loading due to aerodynamic forces and wind before exceeding the operational limits of the rocket (body to keep it all from breaking apart, and the engines working hard to keep them on…

Thank you for the answer. To those who downvoted- I normally don't comment on that, but damn it was an honest question and I admitted to having little knowledge on this and its not like I gave a hot take. Just wanting to learn something...

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#22

Post by ncallaway »

S_A_P wrote: post #14
NikolaeVarius wrote: post #2

*Pending weather

I get that you dont want to fly a giant rocket full of liquid oxygen and other explosives into a thunderstorm or hurricane, but what are some practical reasons for postponing a launch due to weather. As I (hardly) understand once you get high up in the atmosphere there is high wind even on a clear day, does rain matter that much?

First of all, weather is much more than just rain.

One of the things that's monitored closely in the launch corridor are the upper atmospheric winds. Specifically the wind sheer in the upper atmosphere. Strong wind isn't typically a problem, but high wind sheer in the upper atmosphere can be problematic.

Additionally, they check the weather in the entire recovery corridor. That is, anywhere that the capsule could end up during an abort. They want to make sure that if the capsule ends up in the ocean, the weather permits recovery operations. An abort and safe splash-down doesn't do us much good if the astronauts then drown because recovery operations are impaired due to weather.

We're putting two lives on this rocket. A small delay is absolutely the right trade-off to reduce risk.

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#23

Post by smeeth »

luizfzs wrote: post #19
imshashank wrote: post #3

Love the new "Space" suits and the touch screen panel inside the capsule. This is going to be amazing. My prayers with the brave astronauts.

The space suit looks like it's made for a Halloween party. It looks kind of not flexible and fragile. The touch screen panel is surely very cool.

Right? Reading some of the comments here I thought I was going crazy - the suits look like they were made for a 2003 made-for-tv movie.

Boeing suits look WAY better imo

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#26

Post by ceejayoz »

elteto wrote: post #24

How long will the approach to the ISS take? Previous unmanned Dragon missions take ~1 day to approach and dock but I can't imagine they will subject the astronauts to the same.

They've got it down to a few hours. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-08M#Expedited_dockin...

It used to take days. Not fun in a tiny capsule like Soyuz, I'd imagine. https://www.engadget.com/2013-03-29-soyuz-cuts-travel-time-t...

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#27

Post by martythemaniak »

elteto wrote: post #24

How long will the approach to the ISS take? Previous unmanned Dragon missions take ~1 day to approach and dock but I can't imagine they will subject the astronauts to the same.

Similar - about 18-19hrs before docking. You should be able to watch it live tomorrow morning.

It's funny that it takes that long, since they could theoretically make it up there in like half an hour or so. Here's a good overview of what's gonna happen today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr_zfpzGxQQ

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#28

Post by dmos62 »

mrtksn wrote: post #16

The cold war is back, the fashion is back and out of all the things that are back I am glad that the USA is back in space flights. Wish you the best luck and hope that this will lead to some serious competition. Soyuz is great but we need to do more as species.

> do more as species

Space exploration and exploitation is awesome, but shouldn't the first items on the "do more as species" todo list be about taking care of earth?

Re: SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)

#30

Post by gpm »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #5
NikolaeVarius wrote: post #2

*Pending weather

Nominally a 60% chance of a go for launch weather, but according to Ken the Bin on Ars Technica, the weather in the abort corridor is poor so he expects a postponement.

Typically that percent chance doesn't actually consider all the launch criteria as crazy as that sounds.

It misses the upper level winds, and for the human launch I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that it is missing some weather criteria in the abort recovery zone as well.

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