Category: Fun & Curios

Routine night launch, landing on barge

Bonus:
Real robot flying on an alien planet populated entirely by robots

Dragon Crew-5 undock from ISS (splashdown ~9pm EST, will put the link here)
Terran maiden launch of 3-D printed rocket, 4pm EST (scrubbed for the day)
Electron launch from NZ, 6pm EST (scrubbed for upper-air winds)

Wellp…
That threefer fell apart.
Ah well, try, try again.

Dragon Crew-5 splashdown

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• Picked up by Pookie’s Toons

Routine
Return to Launch Site (RTLS) Stg-1 landing and pretty Earth views, so great video

Things to watch for:
• After Stg-1&2 separate, Stg-1 flips and ignites to return to the Cape
• Fairing half being left behind illustrates Stg-2 acceleration
• Landing-burn startup transient (green flame of starting chemicals, TEA-TEB + LOx) @T+7:23
• Satellite deployment vid @T+1:29:45 to 1:35:30

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• Cultural ref

CREW-6 Launch

APPROACH/DOCKING with ISS

STARLINK from Vandenberg
(Bullseye on a sunny California Friday with great views of Mother Earth as well as the space-geek stuff)

Sunset Launch
Oooh, preeetyyy (definitely full-screen worthy, definitely)

Interesting things to watch:
• Stage separation, as usual
• Fairing separation, first time looking aft
• Ice particles dynamics as Stg-1 rotates to tail-first
• Stg-1 shadow on thruster plumes
• Stg-1 decelerates as it rises to the top of its trajectory, then accelerates as it falls, then decelerates during entry burn, then accelerates for a few seconds (5600 to 5700 km/hr) until the atmosphere thickens enough for drag to cause deceleration (where it would overheat if not for the entry burn)
• Great vid of landing at sunset (kind’a romantic)

(What? Yes, this will be on the exam)

Payload deployment (unique view)

MORE:
Starlink launch from Vandenberg sched. Wed afternoon (UPDATED)
Crew launch resched. Wed night
It could happen

Mission details (new Starlink satellite design, Crew/ISS)

(What? Yeah, more easily entertained than you can imagine)