NASA offers public chance to experience next manned mission virtuallyNASA is now offering the general public the opportunity to virtually experience the next manned Dragon flight to ISS, set to launch on November 14th.
“Members of the public can attend the launch virtually, receiving mission updates and opportunities normally reserved for on-site guests,” NASA officials wrote in a statement on Tuesday (Nov. 3). “NASA’s virtual launch experience for Crew-1 includes curated launch resources, a digital boarding pass, notifications about NASA social interactions and the opportunity for a virtual launch passport stamp following a successful launch,” the agency added.
While much of this will be fun to do, much of it is also pure hype, designed to sell NASA to the public, even though the mission is being launched and run almost entirely by the private commercial company SpaceX, not NASA.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
NASA is now offering the general public the opportunity to virtually experience the next manned Dragon flight to ISS, set to launch on November 14th.
“Members of the public can attend the launch virtually, receiving mission updates and opportunities normally reserved for on-site guests,” NASA officials wrote in a statement on Tuesday (Nov. 3). “NASA’s virtual launch experience for Crew-1 includes curated launch resources, a digital boarding pass, notifications about NASA social interactions and the opportunity for a virtual launch passport stamp following a successful launch,” the agency added.
While much of this will be fun to do, much of it is also pure hype, designed to sell NASA to the public, even though the mission is being launched and run almost entirely by the private commercial company SpaceX, not NASA.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Seems like a good sign to me. I’d love to see a bunch of companies hype their launch experiences, while all using SpaceX (and hopefully sometime soon some competitors) rockets. I think it would mean that space travel is getting closer to what airline travel is now.
I hope NASA doesn’t forget the virtual “Tang” OJ for everybody!
These interesting times are where “virtual” is a mere change of medium used for the same purposes that media from drums to print to broadcast to social, have done since men first began communicating to large groups of other men.
This new digitally grounded virtual life however adds a Dzahnibekov dynamic to how media affects its consumers’ s societies and worth. One “virtually” explores risk-free by way of GPS and aps, where once an individual risked much and used maps, compasses, and brainpower. One “virtually” tunes an instrument via eyesight on a digital tuner, a virtual replacement for the human ear which served to tune all instruments for all centuries prior.
What appears as an advance is actually a regression with “virtual,” I suspect.
For those interested in watching something else than SpaceX or NASA, here’s a three-year old recording from inside Blue Origin’s capsule.
Mannequin Skywalker’s ride to space onboard Crew Capsule 2.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZJghIk7_VA
A CLPS mission should place a pole with a 360° camera on top and the power & broadcasting equipment very close to the landing zone of the first crew landing sites. In this way, people on Earth could be virtually present when the historic lunar return missions take place.