SpaceX F9 - Comm Crew In Flight Abort - LC-39A

[Nikxice]

No news about live views inside the capsule, and of any G-load indicator (one worthy of the famous Little Earth of DM-1)?

At Fridays news conference Robert Pearlman from collectSPACE asked that exact question. Benji Reed replied that other than the two anthropomorphic test devices, there were no hidden treasures onboard this Crew Dragon. Equipped with multiple sensors, SpaceX expects they'll experience no more than 4 G's. Unlike SpaceX's previous ATDs, Starman and Ripley, Reed didn't mention names for these two dummies. Borrowing from a previous post by Grendal, perhaps crowning them Bob and Doug McKenzie would be most appropriate.

 

[MacGreiner]

Do you think delays on IFA will impact Starlink 3 on Monday?

 

[e-FTW]

Do you think delays on IFA will impact Starlink 3 on Monday?

That is possible. And there are also wind conditions affecting that launch.

 

[mongo]

SpaceX transitioned to an automatic abort system that should reduce range configuration delays.
Only on Falcon 9: Automated system can terminate SpaceX rocket launches

 

[e-FTW]

Weather is 60% go for launch and slightly worse for the recovery area. Both need to be green lit for this test to proceed.
The beginning of the 6 hour (yes it is a longer window on Sunday) at 8am Eastern seems ever-so-slightly better for the conditions at sea.
Overall, am not overly optimistic, but am still setting my alarm!

A slip to Monday would probably not even work, as someone posted that upper-level winds were predicted to be much too strong. Ugh.

 

[mongo]

Twitter

New T-0 of 10:00 a.m. EST to optimize for decreasing winds in the recovery area

 

[bmah]

New update:

SpaceX on Twitter

Now targeting 10:30 a.m. EST; teams are continuing to track weather in the recovery area

Bruce.

 

[mongo]

Crew arm retracted
T-35

 

[bmah]

Webcast is now live, showing starfield.

CREW DRAGON LAUNCH ESCAPE DEMONSTRATION | SpaceX

Bruce.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Flawless. Absolutely flawless.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Now we shall see how politically compromised NASA truly is. Will NASA allow the SpaceX astronaut test within a couple of months? Will they require an engineering review of Boeing? Stay tuned. We might learn more at the press conference in about 45 minutes (8:30am PST). nasa.gov/live

 

[ecarfan]

Wow. That was a beautiful Falcon RSD! (Rapid Scheduled Disassembly)

I don’t think NASA will make any commitments at the press conference regarding the schedule for DM-2. We will just hear the usual platitudes.

 

[bmah]

Definitely worth getting up early on a Sunday morning!

Bruce.

 

[Scott-P]

Wow. That was a beautiful Falcon RSD! (Rapid Scheduled Disassembly)

I don’t think NASA will make any commitments at the press conference regarding the schedule for DM-2. We will just hear the usual platitudes.

Agree completely. They (NASA) will want a very thorough review of all the data before they say anything more than "great shot". But wow, what a shot. Looked absolutely nominal all the way without any obvious anomalies.

I still think that this test, more than almost anything else, demonstrates SpaceX's commitment to doing this right. It was fairly expensive to do this, and yet there is now no question that it works and works well. They are doing this right. Space travel will never be completely safe and routine, but this is a big step in that direction.

Congrats to all concerned.

 

[Grendal]

Well done. Press conference is at 11:30 EST on NASA TV.

 

[HVM]

Brandon Wynn on Twitter

Kaboom!

 

[mongo]

Well done. Press conference is at 11:30 EST on NASA TV.

T plus 15 and counting.....

 

[SMAlset]

Very cool. Tuned in about 15 min. before coverage started thinking I had missed the 5am PT launch so glad to see it postponed. Great camera views of the whole thing. Nice going SpaceX/NASA teams. Looks like we’ll have astronauts in space soon.

Since it’s already past 8:30 am PT the news conference timing is off, assuming we’re talking about 9:30 a.m.PT now?

 

[mongo]

Presser is live

 

[Cosmacelf]

Press conference started. Elon will talk as well.