Passengers on SpaceX's All-Civilian Spaceflight Will Get a Huge Dome Window (space.com) 27
"The four astronauts poised to launch on the first-ever all-civilian SpaceX mission this month will have one heck of a view once they reach orbit," reports Space.com:
When the crew of Inspiration4 (as the mission is called) launches on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on Sept. 15, their capsule will carry a huge glass dome in place of a docking port to offer the ultimate window on the world. Now, we have a clear idea of what that view may be like. "A look at Dragon's Cupola, which will provide our Inspiration4 astronauts with incredible views of Earth from orbit!" the Inspiration4 team wrote on Twitter Tuesday (Sept. 1) while sharing images of crewmembers trying out the dome window....
SpaceX's new cupola for its Crew Dragon spacecraft was first unveiled in March, when the full crew was revealed for the Inspiration4 mission. At the time, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk touted the window's 360-degree views of space as something that will be truly out of this world. Dragon does have other windows astronauts can use, but they are smaller and lie flat along the capsule's sides. "Probably most 'in space' you could possibly feel by being in a glass dome," SpaceX founder Musk wrote on Twitter during the announcement.
Inspiration4 is an all-civilian flight financed by the billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who is commanding the mission, with geoscientist and science communicator Sian Proctor as pilot. Hayley Arceneaux, a childhood bone cancer survivor and St. Jude physician's assistant, and data engineer Chris Sembroski round out the crew as mission specialists. Proctor and Sembroski were selected as part of a global contest for a trip on the flight, which will last about three days.
SpaceX's new cupola for its Crew Dragon spacecraft was first unveiled in March, when the full crew was revealed for the Inspiration4 mission. At the time, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk touted the window's 360-degree views of space as something that will be truly out of this world. Dragon does have other windows astronauts can use, but they are smaller and lie flat along the capsule's sides. "Probably most 'in space' you could possibly feel by being in a glass dome," SpaceX founder Musk wrote on Twitter during the announcement.
Inspiration4 is an all-civilian flight financed by the billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who is commanding the mission, with geoscientist and science communicator Sian Proctor as pilot. Hayley Arceneaux, a childhood bone cancer survivor and St. Jude physician's assistant, and data engineer Chris Sembroski round out the crew as mission specialists. Proctor and Sembroski were selected as part of a global contest for a trip on the flight, which will last about three days.
But no peanuts (Score:1, Offtopic)
Amazon lawsuit (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That Blue Origin capsule offered pretty amazing views which were arguably nicer than this (except for the fact they were sub-orbital).
I'm not sure why people get so invested in fanboy-ism regarding these pissing contests between billionaires. If you want to root for SpaceX, do it for the actual work they've done - not this silly "let's put some rich people briefly into space" crap.
Re:Amazon lawsuit (Score:4, Interesting)
not this silly "let's put some rich people briefly into space" crap.
It has to start somewhere. Who could afford cell phones or air travel when it first came out? Space is expensive, somebody has to cover the R&D costs.
Re:Amazon lawsuit (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
More specifically, at an altitude of 100km the horizon is about 1100 km away (approx 583 miles) - so you wouldn't even see all of the mainland USA.
Re: (Score:1)
Argh - typeo 683 miles, not 583...
Re: (Score:2)
>arguably nicer than this
How so? the beauty of an observation dome is that your head is actually *outside* of the structure. Sticking your head "up" into a dome gives you a full 360 degrees half-sphere of unobstructed view from eye-level and up, plus some fraction of the half-sphere "below" you, until the outside edges of the structure block your view. (Though in this case the protective lid will admittedly extend the blockage into one side of the upper sphere as well).
*Any* flat window is going to o
Re: (Score:2)
Why?
Too similar to Jeff's head?
Incoming Lawsuit (Score:2)
Not from blue origin this time, but from aliens for stealing their UFO cupola design.
Feature or bug? (Score:2)
"This is amazing! You can see everything, including a giant crack for^~ m& ` [NO CARRIER]
Re: (Score:3)
Haha that reminds me of the old days. How many current slashdotters would know what NO CARRIER even means and what it comes from?
Well, they might think they no... (Score:1)
How many current slashdotters would know what NO CARRIER even means and what it comes from?
I wonder if a number of them think it's virus related. :-)
It still causes a slight bit of PTSD when I see the meme as I can still see various terminal windows through my life as it happened... especially if someone elsewhere in the house picked up the line and that dropped it after a few seconds.
Re: (Score:1)
Old tech derailed more interestingly. Now you'd just get the browser's generic "Internet is not responding. Try again; more info..."
Re:Feature or bug? (Score:5, Funny)
I still make the "what's a computer geek and an F-18 pilot have in common? They both break out in cold sweat when they see NO CARRIER" joke.
And people still laugh.
But then again, I mostly hang out with old geeks.
Re: (Score:2)
hey we could still do socket pipe error for most the coders here
Re: (Score:3)
Yep. That's probably why there's actually two concentric domes (I'm assuming that's not an optical artifact in the photo - even airplanes use at least double-paned windows for that reason.) Anything happens to one, and the other (hopefully) at least buys you enough time to get the protective hatch closed.
And conveniently, it sounds like the curtained off "viewing chamber" will also double as the bathroom, so if you do see one of the domes break up close and personal, at least you won't actually shit yours
Re: (Score:2)
The space shuttle was forecast to explode on *that specific flight*, and the engineers tried desperately to get it canceled, precisely because it was operating under conditions outside what it was designed for, so that the "normal" predicted failure rates were no longer relevant.
Also, the sample size is far too small to say whether failures happened at the expected rate or not - you really want at *least* 10-20 failures before you can can have any sort of confidence about the actual failure rate. Statistic
Re: The Better to See Where They Will Die (Score:1)
Shiny things (Score:2)
They need to lure them to the window gawking at things outside, instead of pondering why there's a sign saying "DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON!"
Re: (Score:2)
But it was red ... and blinking ...
Flight test? (Score:1)
Has this window ever flown before? Are they seriously sending up a spacecraft configuration that has never flown before and crewing it with civilians? There is no safety culture in any Musk company.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You seem to be implying that the guys who designed Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle ever flew on any of the flights.
Note, by the by, that neither USSR nor China sent the designers of their spacecraft & boosters up into space....
Re: (Score:3)
It's a window, presumably installed on basically the same mounting plate that would normally hold the docking hatch. What is there to test that couldn't be 100% accurately tested in a big vacuum chamber? It's not an active system that would conceivably care about gravity. And it appears to take the standard double-paned safety precautions, presumably with a safety hatch on the inside that could be sealed at the first sign of any problems.
Besides which, what makes "civilians" special? You really think, w