SpaceX Crew-Dragon Demo-1 Mission Coming Soon

[Magical Realist]

Looks like a giant toasted marshmellow..

[Yazata]

Here's something from twitter where somebody sped up NASA's video of Dragon approaching the ISS and holding at the closest 20 meter hold point. The sped up version shows how active the Dragon's control system is, constantly sending commands to adjust its pitch, yaw and roll. The capsule seems to be constantly nodding and bobbing very slightly.

https://twitter.com/Cameron_Byers_/statu...8043375616

[C C]

Reminds me a tad of an EVA pod approaching Discovery One on the Jupiter mission part of "2001: A Space Odyssey". At least Little Earth didn't have to fire any explosive bots to get inside. (Ripley just as dead as astronaut Frank Poole, assassinated by HAL, but a little better off in not being set adrift in space.)

###

[Yazata]

Russian media outlet RIA Novosti is saying that they heard from aerospace industry "sources" that the SpaceX Demo 2 mission (the one with crew aboard) has been tentatively scheduled for December 17. Provided that pad and in-flight abort tests all succeed and there are no more "anomalies".

When asked earlier whether SpaceX can get its manned launch off this year, SpaceX's Hans Koenigsmann said it isn't impossible, but it was getting harder. But given that the Crew Dragon test explosion inquiry recently concluded and the cause of the explosion won't really cause much delay in preparing the capsules currently under construction, they may indeed be going for a launch before year end.

https://ria.ru/20190729/1556956788.html