SpaceX Launch Day Thread

[COLGeek]

No superlatives can capture the awesomeness of what we just witnessed. Well done. HOOAH!!!

 

[Khaotician]

Congratulations to everyone at Space X You did it!!

 

[Craftsman X]

Cool Rod, have a good viewing!

 

[MaxQ]

I’ve been interested in all things space related for many years. I can’t tell you how many launches I‘ve seen broadcast throughout my life (I’m 68). From the earliest days of our manned space program I was glued to the TV whenever NASA was ready to fire off another one. From the highest high—moon landing—to the lowest low—the Challenger disaster, and I know I’m leaving out a couple of things there, if a launch was going to occur, come hell or high water, I was gonna watch it.
It still to this day causes the hair to raise up on my arms and I get a lump in my throat whenever I witness a successful mission into our final frontier.
Congratulations to SpaceX, NASA, both of the astronauts, and all the many thousands of individuals who make these missions possible and overwhelmingly successful.

 

[dugwood2]

So glad to see we are finally making progress back into manned space flight. We should have started on a base on the moon instead of ISS 20 years ago. Much more efficient in many respects. Hope it happens where we can launch from the moon towards the planets and hopefully one day on to the stars!

 

[rod]

Cool Rod, have a good viewing!

Craftsman X, I did enjoy a great view of Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter early this morning. Mars at 200x using red filter shows some surface features, gibbous shape, and south polar cap very visible. Jupiter is approaching opposition on 14-July. Jupiter and its moons are something to see now in the telescope views. Enjoyable morning out 0400-0530 EDT. Saturn, rings with Cassini division distinct and Titan moon. Cloud bands on Saturn, especially noticeable using my red filter. I used my 90-mm refractor. By 0445 EDT, the sky was brightening in the east and continued as sunrise approached near 0543 this morning so I decided to come back in shortly after 0530. I watched NASA TV on the web when I came back in, viewed the Dragon dock with ISS and the astronauts enter. Very nice, yesterday seeing the Dragon launch, this morning observing Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter with my telescope and then watching the Dragon and our astronauts approach ISS for docking and astronaut entry later. An enjoyable time in space - from my location on Earth --Rod

 

[Craftsman X]

Craftsman X, I did enjoy a great view of Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter early this morning. Mars at 200x using red filter shows some surface features, gibbous shape, and south polar cap very visible. Jupiter is approaching opposition on 14-July. Jupiter and its moons are something to see now in the telescope views. Enjoyable morning out 0400-0530 EDT. Saturn, rings with Cassini division distinct and Titan moon. Cloud bands on Saturn, especially noticeable using my red filter. I used my 90-mm refractor. By 0445 EDT, the sky was brightening in the east and continued as sunrise approached near 0543 this morning so I decided to come back in shortly after 0530. I watched NASA TV on the web when I came back in, viewed the Dragon dock with ISS and the astronauts enter. Very nice, yesterday seeing the Dragon launch, this morning observing Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter with my telescope and then watching the Dragon and our astronauts approach ISS for docking and astronaut entry later. An enjoyable time in space - from my location on Earth --Rod

Sounds fantastic Rod...

 

[Galaxy sky man]

After some struggle,, it looks like we're getting closer to finally seeing SpaceX's first astronaut mission. So, what are you most excited about? Frankly, I will forever be fascinated by the engineering and know-how it takes to get a gargantuan piece of machinery into space.

Oh, and don't forget to head on over back to this thread to give us your live reactions and thoughts as the launch commences. For now, we're scheduled for tomorrow at 3:22 PM EDT.

C'mon Florida weather, help us out!

 

[MMohammed]

The launch itself was ridiculously exciting (even more than I initially imagined!), but learning that Crew Dragon docked successfully? Now THAT was goosebumps.

 

[dbarryscott]

First post (don't have my bearings yet lol) ; i saw Alan Shepard's first flight, and i recall "One small step for man (there was no 'a' ) one giant leap for mankind."

 

[Chad Hamilton]

It's such an incredible feat to witness every single time. It's amazing what the brilliant and brave can accomplish.

I could have shown you a better, more powerful way of doing it without the possibility of explosion. My tech takes absolutely no fuel. My only problem is I don't know how to build the correct circuit board. You what to beat Russia to Mars, not an rocket or nuclear power you won't. I tried and tried to get through to someone but hey good luck with spending all that money that doesn't need to be spent just for fuel alone, especially Mars.

 

[dbarryscott]

To understand the state of affairs in physics, in regard to new ideas, just look at the status quo 100 years after Newton published his "Principia" : - ( but what a great forum this is ( - : ! ! !

 

[sward]

Absolutely loved the launch - how cooool

 

[Stickler]

C'mon, Commander Hurley, millions of impressionable young English-speakers are hanging on every word. I'm sure you meant to say, "Dragon rides totally different from the Space Shuttle..." (This ref is willing to overlook the less-jarring use of the adjective 'different' instead of the adverb).
Grammar in our primary language isn't rocket science!

 

[UBIK]

This is my first post. I’m a total, total, total noob, but I mean who doesn’t like space right? You aren’t human if the wonders of the universe don’t tug at your heartstrings a lot. So I signed up here to get some space questions answered by you geniuses.

Anyway when I saw SpaceX and NASA successfully launch and then land on that pad and then launch again to the ISS, I screamed “yay!!!” and did a bunch of fist pumps. This stuff gets me pumped, it really excites me. So here I am a new member of this fabulous website. I don’t know how many people saw that launch , but it was awesome. And did you guys see the blue touch screens on Dragon I assume for navigation and things, amazing!!! I wonder why they are blue? So awesome, just incredible! In the past they didn’t have touch screens they had buttons and wires all over the place. I was really impressed how far we have come. Everything looked slick and clean, even the space suites the astronauts had on are a lot better then the ones used in the past, which were huge things to wear.

 

[Verner J Canatsey]

We have been spacenuts since 1940 something when that First American V-2 blew up during the launch. We saw the moon landing and at the end of the runway when Atlantis came hom for the last time. Now this beginning of a new generation of ships, although it looks like we went back 30 years. Great job Elon! Don’t let the government slow you dow.

 

[MarcUK001]

I wasn't around for the early US missile tests. I wasn't around for the NASA Mercury and Gemini projects. I was too young to remember the Apollo missions or the initial moon landing, and beyond that, there wasn't enough fanfare for my parents to make any other landing a memorable affair for me.

I remember Skylab falling back to Earth on my birthday in 1979. I remember the Enterprise liftoff from a 747 and landing. I remember Columbia's first launch....

I remember waking up in my college dorm room on January 28th, 1986. I only had afternoon classes on Tuesdays. I didn't make it to any of them that day.

I remember exactly where I was when Discovery lifted off on the 29th of Sept, 1988. I had joined the Air Force a year earlier. I was in my office with most of my entire squadron gathered around a 6" portable TV screen, watching the launch. My heart was racing as Discovery lifted off and it all but stopped when I heard the five scariest words I've ever heard: "Discovery. Go with throttle up." 30 seconds later, my eyes were full of tears and I had a fist raised in triumph.

Sadly, I was also watching on the 1st of February, 2003 and I heard the second scariest sentence I ever heard, "TC Flight: Lock the doors".

Unfortunately, I have a busy schedule this Saturday and may not be able to watch the launch live, but I know I will have the full gamut of emotions running that day. I'll post again, after tomorrow's events.

-Wolf sends

 

[MarcUK001]

I wasn't around for the early US missile tests. I wasn't around for the NASA Mercury and Gemini projects. I was too young to remember the Apollo missions or the initial moon landing, and beyond that, there wasn't enough fanfare for my parents to make any other landing a memorable affair for me.

I remember Skylab falling back to Earth on my birthday in 1979. I remember the Enterprise liftoff from a 747 and landing. I remember Columbia's first launch....

I remember waking up in my college dorm room on January 28th, 1986. I only had afternoon classes on Tuesdays. I didn't make it to any of them that day.

I remember exactly where I was when Discovery lifted off on the 29th of Sept, 1988. I had joined the Air Force a year earlier. I was in my office with most of my entire squadron gathered around a 6" portable TV screen, watching the launch. My heart was racing as Discovery lifted off and it all but stopped when I heard the five scariest words I've ever heard: "Discovery. Go with throttle up." 30 seconds later, my eyes were full of tears and I had a fist raised in triumph.

Sadly, I was also watching on the 1st of February, 2003 and I heard the second scariest sentence I ever heard, "TC Flight: Lock the doors".

Unfortunately, I have a busy schedule this Saturday and may not be able to watch the launch live, but I know I will have the full gamut of emotions running that day. I'll post again, after tomorrow's events.

-Wolf sends

My first launches was the Space Shuttles. I actually built vacation around there launches. The next few years are going to be really interesting.