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“May Have Been the Losing Side…”

Posted by Chris Tobias on June 8, 2020
Posted in: Articles, Launches, Press Coverage. Tagged: Adam Baldwin, All Geek to Me, Bob Behnken, Browncoat Ball, Browncoats, Can't Stop the Serenity, Carnegie Science Center, Commercial Crew Program, Crew Dragon, D&B Comics, Death Cab for Cutie, Demo-2, Doug Hurley, Dragon Con, Elon Musk, Endeavour, Enterprise, Falcon 9, Firefly, Geek Frontiers, Geek Pittsburgh, Gemini, Gina Torres, Gwynne Shotwell, Hoban "Wash" Washburne, Insight Editions, International Space Station, Jewel Staite, Johnson Space Center, Joss Whedon, Kennedy Space Center, Launch America, LC-39A, Malcolm Reynolds, MegaCon, Mercury, Millenium Falcon, NASA, NASA SOCIAL, Pittsburgh Comicon, River Tam, Sean Faust, Sending a Wave, Serenity, Shawna Trpcic, Space Shuttle, SpaceX, Star Trek, Star Wars, Steven Swanson, Summer Glau, West Virginia Pop Culture Con, What Does It Matter?, Wizard World. Leave a comment

by Chris Tobias

COMMANDER HARKEN:  “Seems odd you’d name your ship after a battle you were on the wrong side of.”

MALCOLM REYNOLDS:  “May have been the losing side.  Still not convinced it was the wrong one.”

— Firefly, “Bushwhacked” (2002)

The event that we here at Take Back the Sky and many others in the aerospace community had been eagerly anticipating for close to a decade has finally came to pass.  At 3:22pm EDT on May 30, 2020, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon, the first private spaceship to take human beings out to the black.

For just shy of eight years we have been doing everything in our power to lobby SpaceX, its CEO and founder Elon Musk and its president and COO Gwynne Shotwell to name the first Crew Dragon after Serenity, the Firefly-class transport ship in Joss Whedon’s sci-fi TV series Firefly and subsequent motion picture Serenity.  We created online and paper petitions, hosted panel discussions and tabled at science-fiction and comics conventions and science fairs and maintained a steady social media campaign.  We also encouraged members of the space community as well as Browncoats and fans of science-fiction in general to mount a steady letter-writing campaign asking for the name, just as Star Trek fans succeeded in doing in 1976, when it was announced that the first Space Shuttle would be named Enterprise.

As launch day approached, the name of the Crew Dragon remained a closely-guarded secret.  Astronauts Behnken and Hurley announced that they had selected a name for their ship, but they would only reveal it the day of the launch.  Those of us who were still holding out hope for Serenity were somewhat encouraged when the crew used a plush dinosaur as their zero-G indicator, the object in the cockpit that is traditionally left untethered so it will float when the ship reaches orbit.  After all, Serenity’s pilot Hoban “Wash” Washburne famously played around with toy dinosaurs while at the helm in the pilot episode of the TV series Firefly.  When the crew held their first media event from orbit, however, they welcomed the world aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour, a name they had chosen because it held deep personal significance to both of them since both men had previously gone to space aboard the Space Shuttle of the same name.  It was also revealed that the zero-G indicator, a plush apatosaurus named “Trimmer,” was chosen for the flight because both of their sons have an affinity for dinosaurs.

Out to the Black

Two Demo-2 launch dates meant over 15 hours of #NASASocial events and #LaunchAmerica coverage– and a whole lot of coffee.

It was hard not to be disappointed when the crew revealed that the ship’s name was Endeavour, not only because it meant that our campaign of 7+ years was unsuccessful, but also because they had chosen what could only be described as a traditional name for such a shiny new class of spaceship.  It was also hard to argue with their reasoning though, and at the end of three days of covering #NASASocial events as part #LaunchAmerica and nearly fifteen hours of following launch coverage across two launch dates (the mission had to be scrubbed due to inclement weather on May 27), whatever disappointment we felt was naturally overshadowed by the fact that the NASA Commercial Crew Program had succeeded in returning American astronauts to space from American soil, and we had backed the right horse to do it first in SpaceX.  It was also impossible not to be thrilled for Doug Hurley, who won the ultimate game of “Capture the Flag” by being the US astronaut to claim the very same American flag he himself had left aboard the ISS at the end of the final Space Shuttle mission with the understanding that is was to be brought home by the crew of the next US spaceship to dock with the station.  In the midst of a worldwide pandemic that had left millions out of work and virtually everyone stuck in quarantine and a week of the most widespread protests and riots the country had seen in decades, the story of Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 flight provided a beacon of light in some very dark times.  SpaceX and NASA had given us reason to be hopeful for America.

And yet, that didn’t change the fact that the Crew Dragon was not named Serenity, and that left me asking:  “What now?”

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The Browncoats Launch Party That Could Have Been

Posted by Chris Tobias on May 25, 2020
Posted in: Articles, Launches. Tagged: Badger, Big Damn Heroes, Bob Behnken, Browncoat Ball, Browncoat Brass Band, Browncoats, Browncoats of New York City, California Browncoats, Can't Stop the Serenity, Cape Canaveral, Central Florida Browncoats, Coachella, Crew Dragon, DM-2, Doug Hurley, Dragon 2, Dragon Con, Elon Musk, Firefly, Grimes, Gwynne Shotwell, International Space Station, Jayne Cobb, Joss Whedon, Kennedy Space Center, M83, Marc Gunn, Marian Call, Mikey Mason, Mile High Browncoats, NASA, Pennsylvania Browncoats, San Diego Comic-Con, Sean Faust, Serenity, Space Coast, SpaceX, Starship, The Browncoats, Utah Browncoats. Leave a comment

by Chris Tobias

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic dominating the news these days, excitement and buzz continue to mount for the crewed demonstration flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon (DM-2), which is scheduled to launch on May 27 at 4:33pm EDT (2033 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station.

Since 2012, we here at Take Back the Sky have been lobbying for SpaceX to name this Crew Dragon after Serenity, the fictional Firefly-class transport ship in Joss Whedon’s science-fiction television series Firefly and subsequent motion picture Serenity.  We’ve traveled to sci-fi and comics conventions across the East Coast, and we launched two online petitions and conducted numerous pen-and-paper petitions at cons, science fairs, Can’t Stop the Serenity screenings and Browncoat Balls.  We also encouraged Browncoats and space enthusiasts to send letters, postcards and even leaves to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk and president and COO Gwynne Shotwell asking them to christen the ship with that name.

Just this past weekend, the crew informed the media that they have in fact decided on a name for the spaceship, which they won’t reveal until the day on which she launches.  That means right up until launch day, we still have a chance of success in our labor of love of nearly eight-years, but ultimately, when Crew Dragon takes Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley out to the black, she’ll either be called Serenity or she won’t.

Jeff and I started this campaign eight years ago when we discovered we shared a common goal while posting about the topic on the Yahoo message boards of the Pennsylvania Browncoats.  From the very beginning, we talked about how positively epic the launch party for a spaceship named Serenity would be.  If there’s one thing Browncoats know how to do, it’s throw a mighty fine shindig.  Anyone who’s been to a Can’t Stop the Serenity charity event or a Browncoat Ball, or remembers the turnout at San Diego Comic-Con for the celebration of Firefly’s 10th anniversary, knows exactly what I’m talking about.  As someone who has been passionately involved with the Browncoat community for nearly a decade, I promised myself that I would personally see to it that a crewed spaceship named Serenity had a launch party that Browncoats everywhere in the ‘verse could not only be proud of, but would want to be a part of.

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Crowds gather for the final Space Shuttle launch in 2011. (Photo: Tim Shortt/Florida Today)

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Next SpaceX Starlink Launch Targeted for May 17

Posted by Chris Tobias on May 15, 2020
Posted in: Launches. Tagged: Cape Canaveral, Crew Dragon, DM-2, Elon Musk, Falcon 9, GO Ms. Chief, GO Ms. Tree, Iridium-8, Of Course I Still Love You, SLC-40, Space Shuttle, SpaceX, Starlink, Starlink 7, Telstar 18V, VisorSat. Leave a comment

by Chris Tobias

With all the focus on the much-anticipated launch of the Demo-2 mission of Crew Dragon on May 27, which will be the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 that American astronauts will head out to the black from American soil, it’s easy to forget that SpaceX is still expected to launch another batch of approximately 60 satellites for the company’s Starlink broadband network first.  A Falcon 9 will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida NET Sunday, May 17 with a one-hour launch window opening at 3:53am EDT (7:53 UTC).

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Image Credit:  thespacestore.com

The mission is dubbed Starlink 7, though it will actually be the eighth batch to be launched and will bring the Starlink fleet to nearly 500 satellites. SpaceX has regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission to field a fleet of up to 12,000 small Starlink broadband stations over a period of 24 launches.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said the company will debut a new sunshade with this mission that is designed to reduce the brightness of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.  The measure is intended to alleviate astronomers’ concerns about the satellites’ impact on observations through ground-based telescopes.  SpaceX is calling the new feature “VisorSat,” and plans to use it on every subsequent Starlink launch.

According to SpaceX, the first stage rocket booster supporting this upcoming mission also launched two previous Starlink missions, as well as the Iridium-8 and Telstar 18 VANTAGE missions.  SpaceX will attempt to recover the booster again aboard its drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, though the weather forecast for the LZ, which is in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 200km east of Charleston, South Carolina, is not looking very good.  The National Hurricane Center has reported that an area of low pressure is expected to form near the Bahamas, and it has a high chance of becoming a subtropical depression or storm this weekend while it moves northeastward over the western Atlantic.  That is why SpaceX moved the launch forward a day, and perhaps that is also why SpaceX’s fairing recovery vessels, GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief, still had not left port for the LZ as of 5pm on May 14.

atlantic droneships

SpaceX’s drone ships Of Course I Still Love You and Just Read the Instructions are now operating together in the Atlantic Ocean.  OCISLY got the call for this Sunday’s mission.  With a weekend storm expected, SpaceX’s fairing catcher ships GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief may have to sit this upcoming launch out due to rough seas.  (Photo Credit:  Kyle Montgomery)

Any night owls and folk whose Circadian rhythms have been disrupted due to the Coronavirus quarantine, as well as those who are just ambitious enough to set their alarms, will be able to watch the mission unfold live at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.  The webcast should go live approximately 20 minutes before liftoff.

Peace, love and rockets…

It’s Been a Long Road: Manned Dragon Spacecraft Scheduled to Launch This Month

Posted by Chris Tobias on May 4, 2020
Posted in: Launches. Tagged: Alan Shepard, Ballad of Serenity, Bob Behnken, Boeing, Browncoats, Calypso, Commercial Crew Program, Crew Dragon, Doug Hurley, Dragon, Endeavour, Enterprise, Firefly, Gwynne Shotwell, International Space Station, NASA, Serenity, Space Shuttle, SpaceX, Starliner, Starship, Yuri Gagarin. Leave a comment

by Jeff Cunningham

NASA has scheduled the first crewed launch of SpaceX’s independently designed and developed Dragon spacecraft for 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) on May 27, 2020 (barring unforeseen delays, such as a high probability of adverse weather). Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will be the first American astronauts to go into space aboard an American-made ship since the former Space Shuttle program. Continue Reading

Stakes Are Higher Than Usual for Next SpaceX Starlink Launch

Posted by Chris Tobias on April 20, 2020
Posted in: Launches. Tagged: Amos 17, Bob Behnken, Commercial Crew, Crew Dragon, DM-2, Doug Hurley, Elon Musk, Falcon 9, Firefly, GO Ms. Chief, GO Ms. Tree, Gwynne Shotwell, International Space Station, Jim Bridenstine, Joss Whedon, Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A, Merlin Engine, NASA, Of Course I Still Love You, RADARSAT, Serenity, Space Shuttle, SpaceX, Starlink. Leave a comment

by Chris Tobias

SpaceX will launch its next batch of 60 Starlink satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket NET 3:16 PM EST (19:16 UTC) Thursday, April 23 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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Starlink mission patch (image courtesy  thespacestore.com)

Starlink is SpaceX’s constellation of satellites that are designed to provide broadband internet access across the globe.  This month’s launch will push the size of SpaceX’s Starlink fleet to just over 300 satellites, though not all of them will be operational when the broadband network goes online.

The Falcon 9 booster for this mission completed its static fire on April 17, nearly a full week before its scheduled launch.  It is a bit unusual for SpaceX to conduct such an early static fire, which has led some to speculate that it might be related to the fact that the Falcon 9 used for the company’s most recent mission on March 18 suffered an engine failure that ultimately resulted in a second consecutive unsuccessful attempt at landing and recovering the first stage booster (though the mission itself was successful).  The booster that was lost last month had just been launched for the fifth time, more than any other Falcon 9.

The rocket that will be used for this upcoming mission will be making its fourth flight, having previously launched in support of Crew Dragon’s first flight to the space station as well as the RADARSAT Constellation mission and the fourth Starlink mission.  A problem-free launch and recovery would ease any troubled minds in advance of the launch of the crewed Demonstration Mission of Crew Dragon (DM-2), which is scheduled to occur late next month.

If there are those who are concerned, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine doesn’t seem to be among them.  He has already stated that Falcon 9’s engine anomaly on March 18 is “… not going to impact our Commercial Crew launch.”

bobdouginterior_20180802_bi0i0687

Big Damn Heroes Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley sit in the cockpit of the SpaceX Crew Dragon that will take them out to the black next month. (image courtesy SpaceX)

Despite Bridenstine’s assurances, SpaceX may be feeling a bit more pressure to prove the reliability of the Falcon 9’s Merlin engines given that the rocket is scheduled to send two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, out to the black on a test mission to help prove that Crew Dragon’s systems meet NASA’s requirements for certification to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and back.  The mission will launch NET May 27 from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, and will mark the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 that American astronauts will launch from American soil.

It is our hope that when it does finally launch, that first Crew Dragon will be named Serenity, after the Firefly-class transport ship from Joss Whedon’s sci-fi television series Firefly and follow-up motion picture Serenity.  For nearly eight years now, we at Take Back the Sky have been trying to convince SpaceX to christen the spaceship with that name, and if you’d like to take action to help us, there’s still time (though admittedly not much) to write to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk and president and COO Gwynne Shotwell to ask them to consider the name.

During this upcoming mission, SpaceX plans to recover the Falcon 9’s first stage for a fourth time in the Atlantic Ocean aboard its drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.  The fairing for the mission is also a veteran of a previous launch, having been flown for the AMOS-17 mission in August 2019.  SpaceX’s fairing recovery vessels, GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief, will attempt to recover the fairing yet again during this mission.

Those who wish to follow the launch live can tune in to SpaceX’s webcast of the mission approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.

Peace, love and rockets…

“Firefly: The Sting” Original Graphic Novel Is a Tale That Didn’t Need Tellin’

Posted by Chris Tobias on April 14, 2020
Posted in: Articles, Reviews. Tagged: Angel, Blue Sun, Boom! Studios, Browncoats, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Can't Stop the Serenity, Christina Hendricks, Crew Dragon, Dark Horse Comics, Delilah S. Dawson, Dollhouse, Elon Musk, Firefly, Hoban "Wash" Washburne, Inara Serra, Insight Editions, Jayne Cobb, Joss Whedon, Kaylee Frye, Malcolm Reynolds, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, River Tam, Saffron, Serenity, Shepherd Book, Simon Tam, SpaceX, Star Wars, The Handmaid's Tale, Titan Books, Zoe Washburne. Leave a comment

by Chris Tobias

If you are a fan of Joss Whedon who has been starved for more tales of the thrilling heroics of Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his crew, then the past few years have been a good time to be a Browncoat.  Fans have seen a whole passel of print hit the shelves– initially in several volumes of Serenity comics and graphic novels published by Dark Horse Comics, and more recently in the form of Firefly prose novels and reference works published by Titan Books and Insight Editions as well as a new ongoing Firefly comics series (and its accompanying one-shot stories and graphic novels) published by Boom! Studios.

The ongoing Firefly comics series from Boom! Studios made its debut in November of 2018, and is set between the events of the Firefly TV series and the motion picture Serenity.  It has introduced a number of interesting new characters and landed the crew in more than a few exciting situations in the 15 issues that have been published so far.  Despite some minor shortcomings (like the fact that it took no less than 13 issues for any of the characters to utter even a single syllable of Chinese), for the most part the plots have been entertaining and have managed to maintain the spirit of Joss Whedon’s original stories and characters– even though the creator of the Firefly ‘verse has had very minimal personal involvement in the project.  (Whedon is officially listed as a “story consultant” for the series.)  The same can be said of Boom! Studios’ Firefly spin-off comics… with one notable exception.

sting amazon

Image:  Amazon.com

In November of last year, Boom! Studios released Firefly:  The Sting, an original graphic novel (OGN) written by New York Times bestselling writer Delilah S. Dawson, whose numerous writing credits include several books set in the Star Wars universe.  (Dawson collaborated with no less than five different illustrators on this project, one for each of the book’s chapters, though it’s worth noting that the illustrators have similar pencilling styles and the book’s artwork is visually seamless from one chapter to the next.)  The book was announced in June of 2019 with a solicitation that included the following synopsis (as reported on newsarama.com):

“Saffron and the women of Firefly pull the ultimate heist! Saffron– the enigmatic rogue who captured the hearts of Firefly fans worldwide– returns to Serenity.  But this time, she’s got no time for Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, as she’s there to recruit the women of the ship to join her on a heist that has personal stakes for all involved.”

It’d be hard for any dyed-in-the-wool Browncoat not to be intrigued by a story involving Saffron, the criminal-minded opportunist played so deftly by Christina Hendricks in the Firefly episodes “Our Mrs. Reynolds” and “Trash.”  But a heist for which she only recruits the women of Serenity? Sure, she and her “kinda husband” Malcolm Reynolds share a somewhat adversarial past, but if she’s desperate enough to include any members of Serenity’s crew in a scheme she’s conjuring (especially after her last attempt ended with Inara locking her in an automated trash bin), then what reason could she possibly have not to want a skilled pilot like Wash, or someone like Jayne who’d obviously be useful if things turned violent? And if things did go sideways and her gang ended up various degrees of bruised and bloodied, wouldn’t a man like Dr. Simon Tam be just the sort of person she’d want to have around?

This Browncoat was already skeptical, but I still ordered the book.  After all, for the past ten years, no single pop culture brand has meant more to me than the Firefly/Serenity ‘verse.  I have devoted countless hours to the Browncoats fandom, both as a local event coordinator for Can’t Stop the Serenity charity screenings and as co-founder of Take Back the Sky’s ongoing campaign to convince Elon Musk to name SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon space capsule after Serenity.  I count myself among the most passionate of Browncoats who, nearly two decades after Firefly’s debut on Fox, will greet each new official story or officially licensed Firefly or Serenity product with enthusiasm.  Besides, Boom! Studios’ Firefly books had a solid track record of good stories up to this point, and the writer was a best-selling author.

My copy arrived in time for me to take it along on a cross-country flight to the West Coast in mid-December 2019.  Our family was headed to Southern California so my son could play lacrosse in the Legends National Cup, which afforded me the opportunity to read the OGN in one sitting on a nearly five-hour flight from Chicago to San Diego.  I assumed that reading the story uninterrupted from cover to cover would allow me to appreciate the overall narrative better than if I read the chapters as installments.  Ultimately though, I’m not sure it mattered, because from the very onset, this Firefly tale just felt… off.

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SpaceX Plans Next Starlink Launch for March 15

Posted by Chris Tobias on March 14, 2020
Posted in: Launches. Tagged: Beresheet, Cape Canaveral, Dragon, Falcon 9, GO Ms. Chief, GO Ms. Tree, International Space Station, Iridium NEXT, Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A, Nusantara Satu, Of Course I Still Love You, SpaceX, Starlink. Leave a comment

by Chris Tobias

With Dragon D-1 snuggled safely against the International Space Station following its arrival on March 9, SpaceX will now turn its attention to the launch of its next batch of Starlink satellites from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center on March 15.

f9_starlink1_patch-678x664_1A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to liftoff NET Sunday morning at 9:22 am EDT (1322 GMT) at Cape Canaveral in Florida carrying another 60 satellites that will be installed in SpaceX’s growing constellation of Starlink broadband internet satellites.  Tomorrow’s launch will be SpaceX’s sixth launch of the year and its sixth Starlink launch to date.

The Falcon 9 booster for this mission will become the first booster to launch five times.  This particular rocket is a veteran of previous Iridium NEXT and Starlink launches, as well as the launch of Israel’s Beresheet lunar lander and Indonesia’s Nusantara Satu satellite.

SpaceX will attempt to recover the Falcon 9’s first stage for a fifth time in the Atlantic Ocean aboard its drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.  The company also hopes to catch and recover the fairings from this mission aboard its “fairing catcher” ships, GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief.  

Those who wish to watch the launch live can tune in to SpaceX’s webcast of the mission approximately 20 minutes  before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.

Peace, love and rockets…

End of the Beginning: CRS-20 Makes the Impossible Old News

Posted by Chris Tobias on March 9, 2020
Posted in: Launches. Leave a comment
89210046_10117187831010754_7779375801119539200_o

Credit: Andy Luten

by Jeff Cunningham

Just before midnight on Friday night, SpaceX launched a Dragon cargo spacecraft towards the International Space Station. This launch marked several significant milestones in the democratization of space: Continue Reading

Scheduled Launch of CRS-20 on March 6 Marks Swan Song for OG Dragon

Posted by Chris Tobias on March 4, 2020
Posted in: Launches. Tagged: Cape Canaveral, Commercial Resupply Services, Crew Dragon, CRS-10, CRS-16, CRS-19, CRS-20, Dragon, Elon Musk, Falcon 9, Firefly, Gwynne Shotwell, International Space Station, Joss Whedon, LZ-1, NASA, Northrop Grumman, Orbital/ATK, Serenity, Sierra Nevada, SLC-40, Space Shuttle, SpaceX. Leave a comment
666px-SpaceX_CRS-20_Patch

image: commons.wikimedia.org

by Chris Tobias

When a Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in the waning minutes of March 6, it will mark not only the twentieth commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station, but also the final flight of SpaceX’s original, uncrewed Dragon capsule.

CRS-20 will be the final mission under the original Commercial Resupply Services contract that was signed with NASA in 2008, but the overwhelming success of the program has already led to a second contract, which will include not only SpaceX, but also Sierra Nevada and Northrop Grumman (formerly Orbital ATK).

Liftoff for CRS-20 is scheduled NET Friday, March 6 at 11:50 PM EST (Saturday, March 7, 4:50 UTC).

The Falcon 9 booster for this mission also flew the nineteenth commercial resupply mission to the ISS, and the Dragon capsule for this mission is a veteran of both the CRS-10 and CRS-16 resupply missions.  SpaceX plans to recover the first stage of the Falcon 9 at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Dragon will deliver nearly three tons of supplies and science investigations to the ISS, and will eventually return with a similar cargo at the completion of its mission.

Take Back the SkyThis will be the final mission of SpaceX’s “D1” version of Dragon (the original, uncrewed capsule that features prominently in Take Back the Sky’s logo).  All subsequent missions will be flown with Crew Dragon, which will soon become the first US spaceship to launch from American soil with American astronauts aboard since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

It is Crew Dragon that we hope Elon Musk and SpaceX will name after Serenity, the Firefly-class transport ship in Joss Whedon’s short-lived but much beloved science-fiction television series Firefly and critically acclaimed motion picture Serenity.  With a crewed demonstration flight of Crew Dragon (DM-2) likely to happen no later than this summer, our campaign to lobby for the name is obviously in its endgame, so if you agree that the ship should have this name, please send a card or letter to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk and/or president and COO Gwynne Shotwell and tell them so ASAP.

And if you’d like to watch the final, historic flight of the OG Dragon, SpaceX’s webcast of the mission should go live approximately 20 minutes before launch at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.

Peace, love and rockets…

Love and Rockets: SpaceX Plans Next Starlink Launch for Valentine’s Weekend

Posted by Chris Tobias on February 13, 2020
Posted in: Launches. Tagged: Cape Canaveral, Elon Musk, Falcon 9, Of Course I Still Love You, SLC-40, SpaceX, Starlink. Leave a comment
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image credit:  Spaceflight Now

by Chris Tobias

Astronomers may not be in love with the idea, but SpaceX plans to launch its fifth batch of Starlink satellites this Valentine’s weekend.

The latest Starlink mission is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force (Space Force?) Station in Florida NET Saturday morning, February 15.  The launch window will open at 10:46 AM EST (15:46 UTC), and will remain open until 11:02 AM EST (16:02 UTC).

The Falcon 9 rocket for the mission will be making its fourth flight, and SpaceX plans to recover the first stage of the Block 5 Falcon 9 booster aboard its drone ship Of Course I Still Love You once again during this mission.  The company’s fairing catcher ships will attempt to capture the fairings as well.

The weather forecast is currently 60% GO for launch.  Should the launch be delayed, the weather is forecast to improve to 90% favorable for Sunday’s backup launch date.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is working to create a space-based internet that will provide internet access to remote areas of the planet using satellites that beam signals down to Earth.  The company already has 240 Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit, and plans to launch 60 at a time until they number in the thousands.

Those who want to view the launch live can tune in to SpaceX’s webcast of the mission approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.

Peace, love and rockets…

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