28 ms·

SpaceX cleared for historic civilian launch next week

162 points by Pikkie 5y ago

tpmx 5y ago
Civilian apparently meaning non-government here, not non-military. I guess not to be confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:NASA_civilian_astronauts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:NASA_civilian_astrona...
- mattlondon 5y ago
  I think the point here is, this is the first "private" space mission that wasn't using government/military hardware or staff. It is a rocket designed by a commercial company, flying people who just made a few calls and then paid to do it. It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable. Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you've got to give the guy credit for SpaceX and Tesla for that matter - I suspect history will look back on SpaceX and Tesla as being quite significant inflection points. It feels like we are at the Model-T or early commercial jet flight stage here but for spaceflight and EVs. What was once only for the super rich and gov/mil is now becoming available to more people, with rapid iteration/improvements and lower prices. More of it please!
  - starfallg 5y ago
    Wouldn't Virgin Galactic's flight be the first for this then?
    - simonh 5y ago
      That would be the first private space flight, while this is the first private orbital flight.
    - pacificmint 5y ago
      Depends on your definition of ‘space mission’, I suppose. But clearly there is a difference between a suborbital flight with a few minutes of weightlessness and a flight that orbits for three days.
      - starfallg 5y ago
        Well that's exactly the point. GP didn't state whether a private space mission meant achieving orbit or not.
    - TomK32 5y ago
      How often the VSS Unity fly around the planet?
    - ben_w 5y ago
      Surely the SpaceShipOne flight whose tech the Virgin Galactic’s flight was based on?
    - huhtenberg 5y ago
      They didn't even hit 100km mark, leave alone making an orbit.
      - iso1631 5y ago
        Not sure why you've been downvoted, but the world classes space at the Kármán line, 100km above Sea Level. Spaceship One reached this back in 2003, but Virgin Unity didn't. Blue Origin's New Shepard did reach 100km though, so was a "space trip". It was sub orbital though, so more Freedom 7 than Vostok 1 (Freedom 7 reached a far higher apogee and speed than New Shepard) SpaceX has the civilian equivalent of Vostok 1, albeit larger and far more advanced. It's an order of magnitude more impressive.
    - garyclarke27 5y ago
      Virgin Galactic only reached Mach 3 speed and was nowhere near achieving orbital velocity which requires Mach 23 (28,000 kph) ie order of magnitude more difficult.
      - mauvehaus 5y ago
        Serious question: while I understand making the comparison in Mach number to illustrate the difference in speed, is the speed of sound actually well defined near or above the Karman line?
        hoseja 5y ago
        I had no idea either so I asked, apparently it's about 0.85 Mach: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=speed+of+sound+at+100+km https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=speed+of+sound+at+100+...
  - bserge 5y ago
    It was a thing 10-20 years ago already. Civilians paid for a trip (on the Soyuz iirc) and got it. It was just very expensive.
    - callesgg 5y ago
      The Soyuz is a part of the Russian government driven space project.
    - _ph_ 5y ago
      The difference is, that was a state-operated flight to the ISS which sold surplus seats. Equally, the shuttle could have carried a tourist on some missions. This flight is purely for paying customers, organized and conducted by a private company. If there were enough paying customers, SpaceX probably would be happy to have such a flight every month. With this mission, space travel has become something you can commercially book, though at a very steep price - that might come down with the Starship.
  - thenoblesunfish 5y ago
    When we're drooling over these accomplishments, we should direct more of our praise to the thousands of really, really good engineers who did the work, built on the accumulated experience of millions, over decades. People seem to be very eager to ascribe success to heroic individuals, and while leadership is certainly something remarkable, I think that there is a severe imbalance in who we're thanking for these achievements.
    - Clewza313 5y ago
      It takes both engineering and leadership. There's no shortage of talent at NASA, but much of it has been and still is squandered over political machinations almost entirely unrelated to the task at hand. Case study: how the Space Shuttle was crippled by Air Force requirements that turned out to be completely unnecessary in the end.
    - rvz 5y ago
      > I think that there is a severe imbalance in who we're thanking for these achievements. There you go. The hard work from brilliant engineers of any giant tech company to make all of this actually work and become a reality is always overlooked and the spotlight is focused on the individual who gives out unrealistic deadlines for the engineers to meet. If they meet the deadline, no one cares and it's business as usual. If they miss it; angry meetings, delays, reshuffles and layoffs happen.
    - regnerba 5y ago
      Totally agree! I have been avoiding Twitter the last few years but was recently going through Elon’s tweets. Something I noticed is that he is often giving credit to the teams at SpaceX and Tesla. There are a number of times where he responds to a tweet and point out how it was the teams at X company, and sometimes calling out people by name for their work. It was also something during his presentation during the Model S Plaid release. He said numerous times how important the teams at Tesla were to its success.
      - OneTimePetes 5y ago
        Sorry, but why does one go through someone elses tweets? Twitter is focused on current events - and they do not age well. So why read up on the past utterances of anyone? This seems.. strange.. sorry, if that offends.
  - tsimionescu 5y ago
    While Elon Musk deserves credit for SpaceX, I fail to see what credit he deserves for Tesla. The founders of Tesla and the designers of the first car should absolutely get credit, but Musk is neither. He delayed the release of their first car to get rid of the founder, in fact.
    - fallingknife 5y ago
      The first Tesla is a car for rich people only. The reason for Tesla's 700b valuation is the innovation that Tesla has made in producing the model y and model 3 and the current goal of producing the first $25k mass produced electric car.
      - thow-58d4e8b 5y ago
        > first $25k mass produced electric car That ship has sailed a few years ago: Volkswagen e-Up, Seat Mii, Renault Twingo, several models from BYD, Dacia Spring, Smart EQ, Fiat 500e, and even Renault Zoe or MG ZS in some markets. All under 25k€, including value added tax
        Oreols 5y ago
        Indeed. I was recently considering getting an ev and it's amazing how much choice you have in the "budget" segment. Dacia Spring is 17k€ (VAT included) and it offers 250km of range. Granted, it's equipped only with an airco and a basic infotainment, but still. The only way Tesla can make a dent in this market is by offering autopilot and much greater range at 20k or so. Or by making a bloody fast car for young people (which will cannibalize their own sales probably).
    - simondotau 5y ago
      In all seriousness, founding a company and designing[0] a car aren't really remarkable achievements. This has been done many times. What's really impressive is moving from a glorified proof-of-concept to manufacturing at a massive scale—a feat rarely achieved by startup automotive companies anywhere in the world. [0] Especially when "design" really just means an electric drivetrain and bits of custom trim for a Lotus skateboard.
  - mkl 5y ago
    > It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable. 10 years ago many people thought it would happen well before 2021. The "first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX) and commercial flights to the ISS were right around the corner (cargo first happened May 2012).
    - tellersid 5y ago
      I remember going to Disney Epcot Center as a kid and it showed how we would be living on the ocean floor by the year 2000. That is what I consider wild. If you told me as a kid that I will go my whole life without owning a robot and that the main difference is we will replace a rotary phone with a hand held phone I would want my money back. I guess poor Christa McAuliffe has been totally forgot about also.
      - iso1631 5y ago
        If you told my kids not only will they own a robot, their grandmother actually owns one, they wouldn't believe you. Just before they tripped over her roomba.
      - pc86 5y ago
        > I guess poor Christa McAuliffe has been totally forgot about also. Wasn't that a government flight aboard a government spacecraft that notably didn't make it to space? Not sure how that's related to a civilian flight aboard a civilian spacecraft.
      - hwc 5y ago
        I have two robots in my house that sweep & mop the floor.
      - mycall 5y ago
        You can still live the dream :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc8hFLyWDOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc8hFLyWDOM
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- mlindner 5y ago
  Civilian can mean different things in different contexts. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/civilian https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/civilian In this case it's in the sense of meaning 2b.
fumblebee 5y ago
Is this something SpaceX eventually plan to commercialise, like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are doing? Seems to me that orbital spaceflight as a proposition is an order of magnitude more enticing than scratching the Kármán line. And for the people who could afford it, they'd surely pay an order of magnitude more.
- qayxc 5y ago
  I don't know whether it's truly that appealing to the "masses". Keep in mind that unlike with quick suborbital hops, orbital flights are preceded by week-long training, medical exams and preparations. You can't just show up in the morning an hour before launch, get some final instructions, strap in and be back home in time for lunch. It's much more of an investment in terms of time and effort, too besides just the money. The stress on both body and mind is also significantly higher - if you do panic, you can just close your eyes for a hot minute and be safely back on the ground (in the case of Blue Origin), whereas with an orbital flight you're stuck in space for at least an hour no matter what with the worst (e.g. re-entry) yet to come. Going to orbit on a rocket isn't the quite the carnival ride that suborbital hops are.
- jpgvm 5y ago
  I don't think they intend to commercialize it from a tourism perspective, they very much intend to do point-to-point terrestrial transportation via rockets though and that will be a commercial endeavor that carries people and cargo. I don't know if it will happen in practice, or if it will be successful when they try it but it would be damn cool.
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    Very cool, but a pretty worrying acceleration of fuel consumption for transit by the world’s rich. A Falcon 9 uses ~75,000 (depending on payload) gallons of RP-1, which is a type of kerosine. Meanwhile a LA to NYC flight takes roughly 5,000 gallons of kerosene (depending on direction). There’s obviously a sizable difference between the number of people in a typical cross country flight and in a Dragon crewed vehicle. Our usage of fuel for regular jet travel is already becoming A Problem. Making it easier to burn more fuel for fewer people to travel faster is emphatically not what we need right now.
SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
3 days in space means that there must be facilities for eating, and toilet facilities. Are these detailed anywhere?
- grecy 5y ago
  There was quite a bit of talk about the toilet on Dragon during the ISS missions.. but I don't know if it's ever been documented in detail anywhere
- mkl 5y ago
  Well that was a ridiculous rabbit-hole to go down. No one seems to know complete details, but here are some articles with information: https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-space-toilet-mystery.html https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-space-toilet-myster..., https://www.slashgear.com/spacex-crew-dragon-for-the-all-civilian-orbital-mission-has-an-incredible-toilet-03680948/ https://www.slashgear.com/spacex-crew-dragon-for-the-all-civ... (360 degree views while using it!?), https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/spacexs-crew-dragon-to-get-the-best-bathroom-ever/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/spacexs-crew-dragon-to-ge..., https://www.businessinsider.com.au/spacex-crew-dragon-spaceship-ceiling-toilet-mystery-proprietary-design-2020-5 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/spacex-crew-dragon-spaces...
- Razengan 5y ago
  Holding poop in for 3 days is not unheard of, let me tell you.
- slfnflctd 5y ago
  My main thought since they first announced this trip was, what are they going to do for 3 entire days? That's a lot of time for people who haven't been trained up the way astronauts have to potentially experience some extreme mental states. Being stuck in a tiny, tiny space with strangers and absolutely no way out seems like it could potentially cause issues even for people who have been psychologically screened. Hopefully these "experiments" they're supposed to be running will help keep them occupied & distracted.
  - 5y ago
karlkloss 5y ago
First real-life "Lost in Space" Family?
perlgeek 5y ago
Tying it to a donation of USD 100mm to charity is a very good PR move. It's much harder to be upset about private space being a billionaire's club when society stands to gain from the ride.
- m3kw9 5y ago
  We should coin this move “Shutting them the F up money”
- charles_f 5y ago
  I'm not sure about that. > a three-day journey around the Earth that will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I might be too cynical but I actually get turned down by the tentative of diversion. When I read that, I struggled to see how the St Jude hospital is in fact benefiting from that flight. They benefit from the donation that is artificially coupled to. I read this as - that person is trying to divert the impact on his image away from burning Ms of $ in fossile fuel. The one redeeming factor I see from that claim are these 12M raised from sweepstake, but even then I don't think it covers the costs of launch.
  - Teever 5y ago
    > When I read that, I struggled to see how the St Jude hospital is in fact benefiting from that flight. They benefit from the donation that is artificially coupled to. St Jude Hospital is benefiting from the flight because they are receiving a $100 million donation that they otherwise would not have received if the flight was not scheduled to take place. Does this make sense to you?
- sebazzz 5y ago
  Well, Blue Origin donated to Blue Origins' Club for the Future [1]. This was probably for the first flight only though. I haven't found a public financial or integrated report about it though, so I can't vouch how these funds are spent and if this is a charity as in what most of us consider a charity. [1]: https://www.blueorigin.com/news/club-for-the-future-selects-19-charities https://www.blueorigin.com/news/club-for-the-future-selects-...
ForHackernews 5y ago
> The soon-to-be-astronauts Maybe this is just me, but I think we need a new word for people who pay to take a ride on a spacecraft but have nothing to do with the operation or mission of that spacecraft. "Payload" seems rude, perhaps "passengers"? Whatever they are, they're not astronauts.
- detritus 5y ago
  The term itself will become meaningless if hundreds, thousands (millions..) of people start lofting into the heavens every year. Fundamentally, these guys have about as much control over their experience as your 'real' astronauts do.
  - perilunar 5y ago
    Or conversely, most 'real' astronauts are also 'just' passengers, and only a few ever pilot a spacecraft. I think "Astronaut" is fine for anyone who's been to space, and "pilot" if you fly the spacecraft.
  - Razengan 5y ago
    But are all people on a cruise ship sailors?
    - detritus 5y ago
      Are cruise ships on ballistic trajectories and mostly controlled remotely?
- Galaxity 5y ago
  They have everything to do with the operation and mission of the spacecraft. They will do as much as NASA astronauts do on dragon spacecraft. I understand the point that the word astronaut is reserved for highly trained individuals working for NASA, but the rants about it I keep seeing online on various forums are just so mean spirited for some reason. Calling them payload, seriously?
  - 5y ago
areoform 5y ago
We have crossed the rubicon. Hayley Arceneaux will become the first individual with a prosthesis to go to space. In the 60 year history of crewed spaceflight, we have never put a human with titanium bones in orbit. Nor, have we sent anyone up who has met any of the requirements to be otherwise classified as "disabled". Until now. It is the indicator of a profound tipping point. The very first astronauts were required to be "perfect physical specimens" (cis-male specimens at that) that had no abnormal readings in all of their medical tests. Jim Lovell was eliminated from consideration during the Mercury program because of his elevated bilirubin levels, which turned out to be a fairly normal variation of human physiology. The requirements loosened to the point where Jim Lovell could go to the moon. But most people, including women, were still excluded by NASA's and the Air Force's Flight Surgeons. Then came the Shuttle program that opened the field wider to more bright minds who wouldn't have met the "perfect male physical specimen" standard, including Eileen Collins and Sally Ride. By the end of the program, the shuttle had launched multiple cancer survivors into space. However, so far, people who are considered "disabled" or "unfit" by the Flight Surgeon's office are still excluded. These terms cut a wide swath and include treatable conditions such as, Type-I diabetes, dysmenorrhea, endometriosis and - yes- prosthetics. Other than a call by ESA for the first disabled state-sponsored astronauts, no other astronaut corps has admitted someone like Hayley into their ranks. Yet. With this flight, Hayley will set a new milestone in space medicine. A big one. She will become a test case that can be used to demonstrate that people with disabilities can function and operate in the spaceflight environment. It will break the cycle of disabled people being "flight proven", from a flight surgeon's perspective. We're now at the dawn of a new age, where anyone physically fit can go to space, provided they have the mental aptitude. It's incredible. This flight means that I can be an astronaut. And so can you. Hayley represents a huge milestone. And we owe it to commercial spaceflight. Thank you, Elon and Jared Isaacman (and Axiom Space). edit: This comment is one of my more downvoted comments. I'm not sure why.
- Galaxity 5y ago
  > Thank you, Elon and Axiom Space. For clarification. This flight is not operated by Axiom Space. The commander, Jason Isaacman, purchased the flight directly from SpaceX. Axiom Space's first mission will be in January 2022.
chinathrow 5y ago
The view from the newly built cupola must be awesome. https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/cupola-scaled.jpg https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/c...
- consumer451 5y ago
  Here are some more recent photos of the crew inside the cupola in Hawthorne. https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1433192632457564160 https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1433192632457564160
vivferrari 5y ago
He had to wave his, had he not. Having said that, anybody got data on the pollution footprint of spaceflight. Since we are rapidly making the planet unlivable. Now the people in Louisiana want to move north unable to bear the heat.
- Cipater 5y ago
  Deep dive into the topic. How Much Do Rockets Pollute? Are They Bad For Our Air? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4VHfmiwuv4&t=3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4VHfmiwuv4&t=3s
TheJoeMan 5y ago
“ Proctor … is a community college educator… She nabbed her ticket to space by winning a contest … that sought inspirational entrepreneurs “ Any idea what Proctor’s business is? I find it odd the article went with “educator”
- moberley 5y ago
  It is called Space2Inspire and currently sells art prints, shirts and some other products. https://myspace2inspire.com/ https://myspace2inspire.com/

162 points by Pikkie 5y ago

tpmx 5y ago

Civilian apparently meaning non-government here, not non-military. I guess not to be confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:NASA_civilian_astronauts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:NASA_civilian_astrona...

mattlondon 5y ago
I think the point here is, this is the first "private" space mission that wasn't using government/military hardware or staff. It is a rocket designed by a commercial company, flying people who just made a few calls and then paid to do it. It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable. Say what you will about Elon Musk, but you've got to give the guy credit for SpaceX and Tesla for that matter - I suspect history will look back on SpaceX and Tesla as being quite significant inflection points. It feels like we are at the Model-T or early commercial jet flight stage here but for spaceflight and EVs. What was once only for the super rich and gov/mil is now becoming available to more people, with rapid iteration/improvements and lower prices. More of it please!
- starfallg 5y ago
  Wouldn't Virgin Galactic's flight be the first for this then?
  - simonh 5y ago
    That would be the first private space flight, while this is the first private orbital flight.
  - pacificmint 5y ago
    Depends on your definition of ‘space mission’, I suppose. But clearly there is a difference between a suborbital flight with a few minutes of weightlessness and a flight that orbits for three days.
    - starfallg 5y ago
      Well that's exactly the point. GP didn't state whether a private space mission meant achieving orbit or not.
  - TomK32 5y ago
    How often the VSS Unity fly around the planet?
  - ben_w 5y ago
    Surely the SpaceShipOne flight whose tech the Virgin Galactic’s flight was based on?
  - huhtenberg 5y ago
    They didn't even hit 100km mark, leave alone making an orbit.
    - iso1631 5y ago
      Not sure why you've been downvoted, but the world classes space at the Kármán line, 100km above Sea Level. Spaceship One reached this back in 2003, but Virgin Unity didn't. Blue Origin's New Shepard did reach 100km though, so was a "space trip". It was sub orbital though, so more Freedom 7 than Vostok 1 (Freedom 7 reached a far higher apogee and speed than New Shepard) SpaceX has the civilian equivalent of Vostok 1, albeit larger and far more advanced. It's an order of magnitude more impressive.
  - garyclarke27 5y ago
    Virgin Galactic only reached Mach 3 speed and was nowhere near achieving orbital velocity which requires Mach 23 (28,000 kph) ie order of magnitude more difficult.
    - mauvehaus 5y ago
      Serious question: while I understand making the comparison in Mach number to illustrate the difference in speed, is the speed of sound actually well defined near or above the Karman line?
      - hoseja 5y ago
        I had no idea either so I asked, apparently it's about 0.85 Mach: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=speed+of+sound+at+100+km https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=speed+of+sound+at+100+...
- bserge 5y ago
  It was a thing 10-20 years ago already. Civilians paid for a trip (on the Soyuz iirc) and got it. It was just very expensive.
  - callesgg 5y ago
    The Soyuz is a part of the Russian government driven space project.
  - _ph_ 5y ago
    The difference is, that was a state-operated flight to the ISS which sold surplus seats. Equally, the shuttle could have carried a tourist on some missions. This flight is purely for paying customers, organized and conducted by a private company. If there were enough paying customers, SpaceX probably would be happy to have such a flight every month. With this mission, space travel has become something you can commercially book, though at a very steep price - that might come down with the Starship.
- thenoblesunfish 5y ago
  When we're drooling over these accomplishments, we should direct more of our praise to the thousands of really, really good engineers who did the work, built on the accumulated experience of millions, over decades. People seem to be very eager to ascribe success to heroic individuals, and while leadership is certainly something remarkable, I think that there is a severe imbalance in who we're thanking for these achievements.
  - Clewza313 5y ago
    It takes both engineering and leadership. There's no shortage of talent at NASA, but much of it has been and still is squandered over political machinations almost entirely unrelated to the task at hand. Case study: how the Space Shuttle was crippled by Air Force requirements that turned out to be completely unnecessary in the end.
  - rvz 5y ago
    > I think that there is a severe imbalance in who we're thanking for these achievements. There you go. The hard work from brilliant engineers of any giant tech company to make all of this actually work and become a reality is always overlooked and the spotlight is focused on the individual who gives out unrealistic deadlines for the engineers to meet. If they meet the deadline, no one cares and it's business as usual. If they miss it; angry meetings, delays, reshuffles and layoffs happen.
  - regnerba 5y ago
    Totally agree! I have been avoiding Twitter the last few years but was recently going through Elon’s tweets. Something I noticed is that he is often giving credit to the teams at SpaceX and Tesla. There are a number of times where he responds to a tweet and point out how it was the teams at X company, and sometimes calling out people by name for their work. It was also something during his presentation during the Model S Plaid release. He said numerous times how important the teams at Tesla were to its success.
    - OneTimePetes 5y ago
      Sorry, but why does one go through someone elses tweets? Twitter is focused on current events - and they do not age well. So why read up on the past utterances of anyone? This seems.. strange.. sorry, if that offends.
- tsimionescu 5y ago
  While Elon Musk deserves credit for SpaceX, I fail to see what credit he deserves for Tesla. The founders of Tesla and the designers of the first car should absolutely get credit, but Musk is neither. He delayed the release of their first car to get rid of the founder, in fact.
  - fallingknife 5y ago
    The first Tesla is a car for rich people only. The reason for Tesla's 700b valuation is the innovation that Tesla has made in producing the model y and model 3 and the current goal of producing the first $25k mass produced electric car.
    - thow-58d4e8b 5y ago
      > first $25k mass produced electric car That ship has sailed a few years ago: Volkswagen e-Up, Seat Mii, Renault Twingo, several models from BYD, Dacia Spring, Smart EQ, Fiat 500e, and even Renault Zoe or MG ZS in some markets. All under 25k€, including value added tax
      - Oreols 5y ago
        Indeed. I was recently considering getting an ev and it's amazing how much choice you have in the "budget" segment. Dacia Spring is 17k€ (VAT included) and it offers 250km of range. Granted, it's equipped only with an airco and a basic infotainment, but still. The only way Tesla can make a dent in this market is by offering autopilot and much greater range at 20k or so. Or by making a bloody fast car for young people (which will cannibalize their own sales probably).
  - simondotau 5y ago
    In all seriousness, founding a company and designing[0] a car aren't really remarkable achievements. This has been done many times. What's really impressive is moving from a glorified proof-of-concept to manufacturing at a massive scale—a feat rarely achieved by startup automotive companies anywhere in the world. [0] Especially when "design" really just means an electric drivetrain and bits of custom trim for a Lotus skateboard.
- mkl 5y ago
  > It is pretty wild when you think about it - not so long ago (10 years maybe?) this sort of thing would have been unthinkable. 10 years ago many people thought it would happen well before 2021. The "first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX) and commercial flights to the ISS were right around the corner (cargo first happened May 2012).
  - tellersid 5y ago
    I remember going to Disney Epcot Center as a kid and it showed how we would be living on the ocean floor by the year 2000. That is what I consider wild. If you told me as a kid that I will go my whole life without owning a robot and that the main difference is we will replace a rotary phone with a hand held phone I would want my money back. I guess poor Christa McAuliffe has been totally forgot about also.
    - iso1631 5y ago
      If you told my kids not only will they own a robot, their grandmother actually owns one, they wouldn't believe you. Just before they tripped over her roomba.
    - pc86 5y ago
      > I guess poor Christa McAuliffe has been totally forgot about also. Wasn't that a government flight aboard a government spacecraft that notably didn't make it to space? Not sure how that's related to a civilian flight aboard a civilian spacecraft.
    - hwc 5y ago
      I have two robots in my house that sweep & mop the floor.
    - mycall 5y ago
      You can still live the dream :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc8hFLyWDOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc8hFLyWDOM
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
mlindner 5y ago
Civilian can mean different things in different contexts. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/civilian https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/civilian In this case it's in the sense of meaning 2b.

fumblebee 5y ago

Is this something SpaceX eventually plan to commercialise, like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are doing? Seems to me that orbital spaceflight as a proposition is an order of magnitude more enticing than scratching the Kármán line. And for the people who could afford it, they'd surely pay an order of magnitude more.

qayxc 5y ago
I don't know whether it's truly that appealing to the "masses". Keep in mind that unlike with quick suborbital hops, orbital flights are preceded by week-long training, medical exams and preparations. You can't just show up in the morning an hour before launch, get some final instructions, strap in and be back home in time for lunch. It's much more of an investment in terms of time and effort, too besides just the money. The stress on both body and mind is also significantly higher - if you do panic, you can just close your eyes for a hot minute and be safely back on the ground (in the case of Blue Origin), whereas with an orbital flight you're stuck in space for at least an hour no matter what with the worst (e.g. re-entry) yet to come. Going to orbit on a rocket isn't the quite the carnival ride that suborbital hops are.
jpgvm 5y ago
I don't think they intend to commercialize it from a tourism perspective, they very much intend to do point-to-point terrestrial transportation via rockets though and that will be a commercial endeavor that carries people and cargo. I don't know if it will happen in practice, or if it will be successful when they try it but it would be damn cool.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  Very cool, but a pretty worrying acceleration of fuel consumption for transit by the world’s rich. A Falcon 9 uses ~75,000 (depending on payload) gallons of RP-1, which is a type of kerosine. Meanwhile a LA to NYC flight takes roughly 5,000 gallons of kerosene (depending on direction). There’s obviously a sizable difference between the number of people in a typical cross country flight and in a Dragon crewed vehicle. Our usage of fuel for regular jet travel is already becoming A Problem. Making it easier to burn more fuel for fewer people to travel faster is emphatically not what we need right now.

SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago

3 days in space means that there must be facilities for eating, and toilet facilities. Are these detailed anywhere?

grecy 5y ago
There was quite a bit of talk about the toilet on Dragon during the ISS missions.. but I don't know if it's ever been documented in detail anywhere
mkl 5y ago
Well that was a ridiculous rabbit-hole to go down. No one seems to know complete details, but here are some articles with information: https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-space-toilet-mystery.html https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-space-toilet-myster..., https://www.slashgear.com/spacex-crew-dragon-for-the-all-civilian-orbital-mission-has-an-incredible-toilet-03680948/ https://www.slashgear.com/spacex-crew-dragon-for-the-all-civ... (360 degree views while using it!?), https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/spacexs-crew-dragon-to-get-the-best-bathroom-ever/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/spacexs-crew-dragon-to-ge..., https://www.businessinsider.com.au/spacex-crew-dragon-spaceship-ceiling-toilet-mystery-proprietary-design-2020-5 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/spacex-crew-dragon-spaces...
Razengan 5y ago
Holding poop in for 3 days is not unheard of, let me tell you.
slfnflctd 5y ago
My main thought since they first announced this trip was, what are they going to do for 3 entire days? That's a lot of time for people who haven't been trained up the way astronauts have to potentially experience some extreme mental states. Being stuck in a tiny, tiny space with strangers and absolutely no way out seems like it could potentially cause issues even for people who have been psychologically screened. Hopefully these "experiments" they're supposed to be running will help keep them occupied & distracted.
- 5y ago

karlkloss 5y ago

First real-life "Lost in Space" Family?

perlgeek 5y ago

Tying it to a donation of USD 100mm to charity is a very good PR move. It's much harder to be upset about private space being a billionaire's club when society stands to gain from the ride.

m3kw9 5y ago
We should coin this move “Shutting them the F up money”
charles_f 5y ago
I'm not sure about that. > a three-day journey around the Earth that will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I might be too cynical but I actually get turned down by the tentative of diversion. When I read that, I struggled to see how the St Jude hospital is in fact benefiting from that flight. They benefit from the donation that is artificially coupled to. I read this as - that person is trying to divert the impact on his image away from burning Ms of $ in fossile fuel. The one redeeming factor I see from that claim are these 12M raised from sweepstake, but even then I don't think it covers the costs of launch.
- Teever 5y ago
  > When I read that, I struggled to see how the St Jude hospital is in fact benefiting from that flight. They benefit from the donation that is artificially coupled to. St Jude Hospital is benefiting from the flight because they are receiving a $100 million donation that they otherwise would not have received if the flight was not scheduled to take place. Does this make sense to you?
sebazzz 5y ago
Well, Blue Origin donated to Blue Origins' Club for the Future [1]. This was probably for the first flight only though. I haven't found a public financial or integrated report about it though, so I can't vouch how these funds are spent and if this is a charity as in what most of us consider a charity. [1]: https://www.blueorigin.com/news/club-for-the-future-selects-19-charities https://www.blueorigin.com/news/club-for-the-future-selects-...

ForHackernews 5y ago

> The soon-to-be-astronauts Maybe this is just me, but I think we need a new word for people who pay to take a ride on a spacecraft but have nothing to do with the operation or mission of that spacecraft. "Payload" seems rude, perhaps "passengers"? Whatever they are, they're not astronauts.

detritus 5y ago
The term itself will become meaningless if hundreds, thousands (millions..) of people start lofting into the heavens every year. Fundamentally, these guys have about as much control over their experience as your 'real' astronauts do.
- perilunar 5y ago
  Or conversely, most 'real' astronauts are also 'just' passengers, and only a few ever pilot a spacecraft. I think "Astronaut" is fine for anyone who's been to space, and "pilot" if you fly the spacecraft.
- Razengan 5y ago
  But are all people on a cruise ship sailors?
  - detritus 5y ago
    Are cruise ships on ballistic trajectories and mostly controlled remotely?
Galaxity 5y ago
They have everything to do with the operation and mission of the spacecraft. They will do as much as NASA astronauts do on dragon spacecraft. I understand the point that the word astronaut is reserved for highly trained individuals working for NASA, but the rants about it I keep seeing online on various forums are just so mean spirited for some reason. Calling them payload, seriously?
- 5y ago

areoform 5y ago

We have crossed the rubicon. Hayley Arceneaux will become the first individual with a prosthesis to go to space. In the 60 year history of crewed spaceflight, we have never put a human with titanium bones in orbit. Nor, have we sent anyone up who has met any of the requirements to be otherwise classified as "disabled". Until now. It is the indicator of a profound tipping point. The very first astronauts were required to be "perfect physical specimens" (cis-male specimens at that) that had no abnormal readings in all of their medical tests. Jim Lovell was eliminated from consideration during the Mercury program because of his elevated bilirubin levels, which turned out to be a fairly normal variation of human physiology. The requirements loosened to the point where Jim Lovell could go to the moon. But most people, including women, were still excluded by NASA's and the Air Force's Flight Surgeons. Then came the Shuttle program that opened the field wider to more bright minds who wouldn't have met the "perfect male physical specimen" standard, including Eileen Collins and Sally Ride. By the end of the program, the shuttle had launched multiple cancer survivors into space. However, so far, people who are considered "disabled" or "unfit" by the Flight Surgeon's office are still excluded. These terms cut a wide swath and include treatable conditions such as, Type-I diabetes, dysmenorrhea, endometriosis and - yes- prosthetics. Other than a call by ESA for the first disabled state-sponsored astronauts, no other astronaut corps has admitted someone like Hayley into their ranks. Yet. With this flight, Hayley will set a new milestone in space medicine. A big one. She will become a test case that can be used to demonstrate that people with disabilities can function and operate in the spaceflight environment. It will break the cycle of disabled people being "flight proven", from a flight surgeon's perspective. We're now at the dawn of a new age, where anyone physically fit can go to space, provided they have the mental aptitude. It's incredible. This flight means that I can be an astronaut. And so can you. Hayley represents a huge milestone. And we owe it to commercial spaceflight. Thank you, Elon and Jared Isaacman (and Axiom Space). edit: This comment is one of my more downvoted comments. I'm not sure why.

Galaxity 5y ago
> Thank you, Elon and Axiom Space. For clarification. This flight is not operated by Axiom Space. The commander, Jason Isaacman, purchased the flight directly from SpaceX. Axiom Space's first mission will be in January 2022.

chinathrow 5y ago

The view from the newly built cupola must be awesome. https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/cupola-scaled.jpg https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/c...

consumer451 5y ago
Here are some more recent photos of the crew inside the cupola in Hawthorne. https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1433192632457564160 https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1433192632457564160

vivferrari 5y ago

He had to wave his, had he not. Having said that, anybody got data on the pollution footprint of spaceflight. Since we are rapidly making the planet unlivable. Now the people in Louisiana want to move north unable to bear the heat.

Cipater 5y ago
Deep dive into the topic. How Much Do Rockets Pollute? Are They Bad For Our Air? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4VHfmiwuv4&t=3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4VHfmiwuv4&t=3s

TheJoeMan 5y ago

“ Proctor … is a community college educator… She nabbed her ticket to space by winning a contest … that sought inspirational entrepreneurs “ Any idea what Proctor’s business is? I find it odd the article went with “educator”

moberley 5y ago
It is called Space2Inspire and currently sells art prints, shirts and some other products. https://myspace2inspire.com/ https://myspace2inspire.com/