All Screenshots from NASA Live YouTube Channel Stream of Launch.
10 minutes until launch, I’m really excited, like totally unreasonably, waiting-in-line-to-see-Episode-I-when-I-was-17-years-old-on-opening-night excited.
The Crew Dragon Capsule is cute, it looks like a ghost from Pac-Man, or a dumbo octopus. Also, I love that they keep refering to the astronauts as “Doug and Bob” as opposed to something formal like Col. Hurley and Col. Behnken like they’re just your friendly neighborhood space guys.
We have Lift-off! YASSSS! look at that thing move, that rocket plume is as long as the vehicle.
Love these names! Falcon 9, Crew Dragon, Merlin Engines. Adding “Elon Musk’s Naming-Things-Guy” to list of dream jobs. Also that rocket plume is still looking incredible.
Ok here, we go, stage-1 shutdown and separation, stage-2 ignition. Those space suits are slick, Doug and Bob are ready to go to the International Space Station, or go on a time-heist for Infinity Stones, you know, whatever comes up.
These commentators are making me chuckle, it’s just like watching the Rose Bowl parade, in fact, can we get Roker on this broadcast? I think he would bring a nice folksy element to this historic event.
Ok, I’m really excited to see the spent booster land on the barge (even though Naming-Things-Guy totally dropped the ball on the landing barge – “Of Course I Still Love You” what the heck kind of name is that? It sounds like a second rate race horse). Personal side-note: the first thing I ever did at my job was to figure out how to simulate grid-fins in computer models, so i’m having a bit of a moment here watching that spent booster guide itself back down through the atmosphere.
What?! we lost the feed from the landing platform for like the 3 seconds of the actual landing?! COME-ON!
Ooh, we’re getting a look in at mission control, these are my people! Let’s hear it for the nerds, everyone!
Stage-2 burnout, i think that little purple stuffed dragon floating around the capsule is telling us that they’ve achieved orbital velocity and are experiencing weightlessness. Random thought: How long is it going to be until Musk builds his own orbital platform and starts leasing it out to production companies to shoot movies in space? I’ll set the over-under at 6.5 years. Mark your calendars folks, Memorial Day 2027, “Gravity 2: Reentry” Shot on Location!
Stage-2 Separation, here comes the Apollo 13 money shot.
Good Work Everyone involved at NASA and SpaceX, it was a privilege to witness (and a much more satisfying payoff than Episode I). I’ll be tuning back in at 10:27 am EDT on Sunday, May 31st to watch the docking with the ISS. Can you imagine spending 19 hours orbiting the earth at 17,000 mph in that little crew capsule just waiting to rendezvous with the Space Station? I can’t even sit still at my desk for more than about 45 minutes at a time.
Human space flight returns to America, I’m excited to see where this leads, I hope all of Elon Musk’s grandest ambitions for SpaceX come to fruition: To the Moon, to Mars, to Infinity, and Beyond!
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