SpaceX Rocket To Take World's First All-Civilian Crew Into Orbit (theguardian.com) 47
The world's first crew of "amateur astronauts" is preparing to blast off on a mission that will carry them into orbit before bringing them back down to Earth at the weekend. From a report: The four civilians, who have spent the past few months on an astronaut training course, are due to launch on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8.02pm local time on Wednesday (1.02am UK time on Thursday). Barring any glitches, the two men and two women on the Inspiration4 mission are expected to orbit the planet for three or four days, performing experiments and admiring the view through a glass dome fitted to their Dragon capsule, before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.
Touted as "the world's first all-civilian mission to orbit," the launch is the latest to promote the virtues of space tourism and follows suborbital flights in July by Sir Richard Branson on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo -- which has since been grounded for going off course -- and Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. While the Inspiration4 crew has had flying lessons, centrifuge sessions to experience the G-forces of launch, and hours of training in SpaceX's capsule simulator, the mission will be almost entirely automated. The capsule is due to orbit Earth at an altitude of 360 miles (575km), about 93 miles higher than the International Space Station. UPDATE: They did it.
Touted as "the world's first all-civilian mission to orbit," the launch is the latest to promote the virtues of space tourism and follows suborbital flights in July by Sir Richard Branson on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo -- which has since been grounded for going off course -- and Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. While the Inspiration4 crew has had flying lessons, centrifuge sessions to experience the G-forces of launch, and hours of training in SpaceX's capsule simulator, the mission will be almost entirely automated. The capsule is due to orbit Earth at an altitude of 360 miles (575km), about 93 miles higher than the International Space Station. UPDATE: They did it.
God speed to the civilian crew! (Score:5, Insightful)
This may not seem like that big of a deal due to the number of successes the Dragons have had at this point, but for a dude that grew up with the day-dream of civilians in space being commonplace, this first flight is a huge step in the right direction.
I hope all goes as planned. And I hope they all enjoy the view.
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And I hope they all enjoy the view.
No KIDDING!! At 360 miles up, they will have a SERIOUSLY better view than the ISS has...
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I doubt the view is that different. It's an extra 100 miles up, which is not nothing, but still not a very substantial fraction of the radius of the earth. It's still low earth orbit.
You'd probably need to be in the several thousand mile up range (Medium Earth Orbit) to have a dramatically different view compared to standard LEO. I suppose the few remaining Apollo astronauts are the only ones who could really weigh in on the subjective difference!
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Yeah. The only people who went that high in LEO have died (Young, Collins, Conrad, and Gordon).
So it's the guys who went to the moon.
Re: God speed to the civilian crew! (Score:1)
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Gemini 12 was the usual 160 or so miles.
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One thing is for sure, orbit is not Virgin territory Mr. Branson...
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Okay, first of all, this is not the first all civilian crew. "Civilian" means "not in the armed forces." This is the first crew without any professional astronauts from a government space agency.
Do you really need to know what the purpose of non-governmental people in space is? Seriously? What's the purpose of people in space, at all? Can you answer that?
Cool. Now you have the answer to your question. To make it clear, there are far more non space agency humans than space agency humans. Seeing space open up
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When you say "socialist," what do you mean exactly?
It sounds like you are saying you want an oligarchy where a rich few own and control everything, instead of a democracy where the workers control the means of production democratically. But maybe you have some weird definition of "Socialism" that the rest of us don't share.
Re: God speed to the civilian crew! (Score:1)
It sounds like you are definitely one of the socialists people complain about.
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Depends, what do you mean by socialist?
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Where to start? People who are members of credit unions instead of making bankers rich? People who have a co-op membership, denying various companies more money? Perhaps those rural electric co-ops members? Then there is the community broadband that takes the Telco's rightful profits.
Then we could move to anyone using the roads built by the government, or perhaps start there as you probably think of government socialism
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OMBad, you so silly.
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I agree with you on the "civilian" part - although many of the so-called "civilians" that have flown thus far have been mighty close to the line between "civilian" and "military".
I would prefer to call them "Amateur Astronauts". There were some of those during the Space Shuttle days and certainly during the ISS days; people who's day-to-day job was not astronautics but went up anyway as a payload specialist, a PR piece (see John Glenn on STS-95, Christina McAuliffe on STS-51) or simply a tourist (Charles S
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Yes, there have been astronauts in space who were not employed directly by any space agency. This is simply the first time there have been no professional astronauts employed by a national space agency on an orbital mission. In every orbital mission before this, there has been at least one professional astronaut.
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I have nothing against civilians going to space in principle. I'm just not entirely comfortable that the technology is safe enough yet for joy rides. That didn't end well for the civilian passenger on Challenger.
Yeah, I know that was a long time ago, and the technology has improved considerably. But rockets are still known to blow up occasionally, even those launched by SpaceX.
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>>> I'm just not entirely comfortable that the technology is safe enough yet for joy rides.
So, as an adult, would you deny me the joy of riding my motorcycle because the "technology is (not yet) safe enough yet for joy rides"?
How about my former weekend hobby - hang gliding? Or the hobbies that others pursue - BASE jumping, free climbing, scuba diving?
Would you prevent me from taking on certain employment - like harbor pilot with a 1-in-20 probability of dying on the job?
https://news.yahoo.com/mee [yahoo.com]
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Did I say anything about denying you anything? I think it's irresponsible for the space corps to be hawking tourism when space flight is still very much an experimental and dangerous pursuit, but I see no need to prohibit them from doing it.
If all parties consent, knock yourself out. Just be ready for the hit to your reputation when your rocket blows up with a school teacher on board.
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Just be ready for the hit to your reputation when your rocket blows up with a school teacher on board.
If you're referencing challenger, I think the PR hit wasn't so much that there were civilians on board, but the willful negligence that went into creating that disaster.
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While I do think there are some concerns with a flight like this today, I also know from personal experience that individuals weigh risks in different ways. And for some folks, advancement and experience are weighed against the potential risks.
That said, there's a large portion of society right now so concerned with 'safety above all else' that they would have us all locked in individual padded rooms for eternity rather than risk going outside and potentially falling down on concrete, or being stung by a b
Tell it to Laika (Score:2)
I wonder if anything like this has been done before [wikipedia.org]?
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I hope that the exit strategies have improved since.
Long live Elon. (Score:1)
Also, burn in hell Bezos.
Self-flying. (Score:3)
While the Inspiration4 crew has had flying lessons, centrifuge sessions to experience the G-forces of launch, and hours of training in SpaceX's capsule simulator, the mission will be almost entirely automated.
Tesla autopilot. Good enough for cars. Good enough for space.
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Tesla autopilot. Good enough for cars. Good enough for space.
Because there are no parked emergency vehicles up there.
Live Stream (Score:3)
Live stream on SpaceX YouTube channel up already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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And it was a success. Now we just need to see what three days are like. And of course the landing.
We need another Bezos lawsuit (Score:3)
Do you want a Fantastic Four? (Score:2)
Spam in a can (Score:1)
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Isn't that the point? I mean, the last time I flew commercially I didn't actually fly the plane (and I even knocked on the cockpit door and asked nicely).
If us Nerds want to go into space, this is the only viable option.
Astronauts are trained monkeys (Score:2)
Uh, like, how do they go (Score:1)
potty?
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toilet is on the ceiling, with a privacy curtain.
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I know there's no acting gravity in orbit, but the thought of "ceiling" doesn't flow well, pun intended.
One word "feces" (Score:2)
Four people spending four days in that tiny capsule... I hope their waste processing system is working. A four day diaper, maybe?
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The have a proper space toilet [space.com]. And it comes with one helluva view.