Watch Starliner’s return to EarthThe astronauts on ISS closed the hatch yesterday on Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule in preparation for its return to Earth today, with a planned landing at White Sands, New Mexico, at 6:49 pm (Eastern).
I have embedded NASA’s live stream below. The undocking at 2:36 pm (Eastern), with the live stream beginning at 2:30 pm (Eastern). After the capsule separates and ends joint operations with ISS the live stream will break off until 5:45 pm (Eastern), when it will resume to cover the landing.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
The astronauts on ISS closed the hatch yesterday on Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule in preparation for its return to Earth today, with a planned landing at White Sands, New Mexico, at 6:49 pm (Eastern).
I have embedded NASA’s live stream below. The undocking at 2:36 pm (Eastern), with the live stream beginning at 2:30 pm (Eastern). After the capsule separates and ends joint operations with ISS the live stream will break off until 5:45 pm (Eastern), when it will resume to cover the landing.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Bob,
I wonder if you will hear the sonic boom from your location? White Sands is about five to six hours away from your city?
Jay: Tucson is more like 10 hours away from White Sands. Also, sonic booms are much more localized, probably not heard more than 30 miles away.
Did I hear right? There are more issues with the OMS/RCS thrusters (beyond the earlier shutdowns), but “there’s plenty of redundancy to draw from” according to the Boeing commentators.
Granted, it’s a test flight, but as I’ve said before you couldn’t pay me to set foot on this deathtrap.
V-Man: My understanding is that there have been no additional problems today. Two OMS thrusters shut down prematurely during the final orbital burn after launch. Then two RCS thrusters failed during maneuvers prior to docking.
Today Boeing engineers did tests of those failed thrusters after undocking to try to better understand why they failed.
Robert Zimmerman noted: “Also, sonic booms are much more localized, probably not heard more than 30 miles away.”
This is probably true. Several years ago, the Space Shuttle’s reentry path took it about 60-ish miles north of where I was. It was a nighttime reentry and beautiful to watch. Some observers thought it was kind of purpleish but I thought it was more pinkish. The point, though, is that when the sonic boom reached us, it was more of a very quiet “puff puff,” certainly too quiet to be heard from 60 miles away during the daytime, with all the regular ambient noise.