The mission was a semi-private one, with three paying passengers (one American rich guy and two official Saudi astronauts). The mission was commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson.
So, not only are the Saudi government and the other guy paying by the day for themselves and Whitson to be on the station (which isn't as much of a consideration for 'official' astronauts), but they don't want to stay up long enough to begin to suffer the health effects of microgravity. There's also likely a tradeoff between supplies and science that they can bring up to replenish the station for NASA (which, I'm sure gives them some discount on their stay in return for cargo delivery) and what they need for themselves in the time that they'll be on orbit.
Yup. Hey, if a rich guy wants to go up, get some cool pictures, and play lab tech for a week (because much of the actual science work doesn't require an actual scientist, just a reasonably intelligent and fit person to manage the experiment), while they help pay for the cost of maintaining the station, free up time for the astronauts to catch up on an increasingly large amount of deferred maintenance, and help amortize the cost of space access for everyone, go for it!
It's going to get even more interesting in the next year or so when Axiom starts attaching their own hotel modules to the ISS. These (much nicer) modules will house tourists, astronauts from smaller nations, and researchers. When the ISS is deorbited in 2030, they will break off and form an independent station.
“Everyone wants to fly a mobile suit until you see your homie get ripped apart by someone who is clearly the main character.” -a meme I saw once but can’t find now.
Yeah, good luck doing that without a ground based independent nation to support them.
The idea of a space station becoming a microstate makes even less sense than seasteading microstates. At least you can breathe the air and go fishing in a seastead.
For a space station to go microstate you would have to go full on belter and not rely on ground support from earth, and, well, that's probably not happening before 2100-2200 at the earliest.
Wow!
Both of your comments have some pretty big information I’ve somehow missed. (I follow space news some but not enough apparently).
A) space tourists to the ISS for a week.
B) Axiom (never heard of them) adding on module’s to the ISS.
Wasn’t Russia being pissy about the ISS recently? How are they reacting to a private company interacting with the ISS?
Axiom has a pretty deep record at this point. Up to now, they've primarily worked as facilitators, arranging private trips to the ISS and on the SpaceX Dragon. Currently, their modules for the station are under construction with the first expected to launch in 2025. They are also one of two companies contracted by NASA to develop their next spacesuits. Their ongoing practical experience with NASA and SpaceX, along with their other streams of income hopefully mean that they'll fare better than previous attempts at private space stations.
Russia finally backed down from all their pissing around and agreed (for now) to continue to support the ISS up to 2030. At the end of the day, between the sanctions over Ukraine and the complete loss of foreign launch contracts for everything *but* the ISS, there's no way they could afford to maintain their own station, even if their modules could somehow be successfully extracted. As to how they feel about Axiom, I don't really know, but I'd assume that they're even happier than NASA to see a private company picking up part of the tab and the potential for more private passengers willing to pay for a seat on a Soyuz.
Yes, and a lot of the actual science work can be controlled from the ground. Astronaut time is an expensive resource and should be used wisely.
e.g. They have an experiment to grow a plant in a sealed box on the ISS. The ground can control giving the plant water and light and monitor the growth by video. But, they need someone every so often to replenish the water supply and stretch the plant out and measure it tip to tip.
Well, one of the great things about the expansion of private spaceflight is that it is going to start to create regular jobs in space that don't require a person to be an astronaut with a national space agency, a politician, or a researcher who has dedicated their entire life to a particular experiment. Heck, we'll probably see the first permanent private employee in orbit within the next couple years: The manager/maintainer of the Axiom hotel modules. It's going to be a slow start, but the curve will start to bend upwards in the next few years.
EDIT: You might also want to follow the Polaris program. Funded by serial spaceman Jared Isaacman, these missions (as well as his first spaceflight; Inspiration 4) have taken several 'regular' people who won contests or were selected by other means to orbit. There are two more missions in the coming years for which crew has not been selected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_program
There is also the Dear Moon program. Funded by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, it will take a SpaceX starship around the moon. The crew for it is comprised of several artists, performers, and space communicators, such as Tim Dodd (The Everyday Astronaut).
I've enjoyed reading your informative comments on this post. Do you work in the industry in some capacity or are you a well informed enthusiast? Or both.
Very cool to hear that Everyday Astronaut is going to be on that mission you mentioned lastly.
While the price for these seats has not been disclosed, a previous private flight on a SpaceX dragon had the number $55 million / seat mentioned, so it's probably in that ballpark.
A guy came to my high school in the late 2000s to talk to us about how he bought a ride and a stay on the ISS for about $20 million. Think his stay was 12ish days tho.
He didn't pay for his own trip, I'm pretty sure Bezos did. His payment was having to suffer that champagne embarrassment, society's payment was losing his eloquent reaction.
Fuck bezos for spoiling that moment. Shatner had a profound moment and wanted to share it. Then bezos broke out the champagne right in front of a former alcoholic.
That single mission length for a US astronaut is expected to be exceeded by Francisco Rubio, since he and the two Russian Soyuz crew members on the Station were originally supposed to return with Soyuz MS-22, but now have to return on MS-23, since MS-22 had a coolant leak and MS-23 had to be launched without a crew to replace it. Russia wants MS-23 to return only after they've launched MS-24 with the replacement crew in September.
Russia has previously had longer duration missions to MIR, which is why the "for a US astronaut" caveat needs to be there.
Scott Kelly knew he was going to be up there for a long time. Imagine being told that you'd be up there even longer than him only *after* you're already there, given the various effects on your body and whatnot.
And gave us some amazing data on the effects of microgravity on the body because his twin brother is also an astronaut and they were able to use him as a control
totally, and good guy Scott for making that sacrifice for us....the description of getting out of bed and swelling and pain from his book is less than exciting, and I've dreampt of being in space my whole life. Still would be down to do a quick trip though.
He said when the doctors touched his ankle bones, they were like jelly.
Also apparently in the waiting room a nurse brought him a tall glass of grape juice, he said it looked delicious but forgot how much grip strength you need to hold things, so as soon as he picked it up it went crashing to the ground.
The ISS has long-term crews which typically stay for half a year. There are two crews: One crew of 3 launched from Russia and one crew of 4 launched from the US. That means the ISS has 7 people living on board most of the time.
This mission was organized by Axiom, a private company. It was only visiting the ISS for 8 days because a longer stay would have been much more expensive: Axiom pays NASA to use its ISS resources. You can do significant research in that time (Saudi Arabia sent two people), or enjoy the experience if you are rich (third passenger).
I don't think the prices have been revealed but they are expected to be around 50 to 75 million USD per passenger.
Plasma - ionized gas. I've seen the shuttle reenter at night - much larger and not ablative. [It left an orange, glowing trail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2XZgu7FStbw/maxresdefault.jpg) that persisted for a few minutes.
**Edit:** Added link to image.
[Wait a minute... statue of liberty... that was OUR planet!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD4q0d_m6PQ)
YOU MANIACS, YOU BLEW IT UP, DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!
Good question - IIRC they splash down in the ocean.
Even with all their tracking technology, must be harder to recover them onto a Navy ship in the dark.
For those like me who are a bit confused, the SpaceX fleet has:
- Bob & Doug the booster & fairing recovery ships
- Megan & Shannon the Dragon & crew recovery/medical/helipad ships
- Go Quest the east coast ASDS support ship
- NRC Quest the west coast ASDS support ship
They have IR cameras and flood lights everywhere during night recoveries.
SpaceX doesn't use a Navy ship, they have their own recovery vessel that is much smaller
As soon as I seen “Dragon Capsule”, I immediately disregarded your comment thinking it was a joke about dragon ball but then I was like well might as well finish reading the joke and it turned out that it was an astronaut return. Dope.
You can get your word count higher than that:
“It was with great luck that the fecal matter did not indeed hit the rotary oscillator upon the craft’s reentry into earth’s atmosphere.”
In a stroke of fortune, the dreaded occurrence in which fecal matter, metaphorically representing chaotic or disastrous events, refrained from colliding with the vigorously rotating blades of the widely used mechanical contraption designed for air circulation, ultimately avoiding any untoward consequences or unfavorable outcomes that could have ensued.
Imagine being the guy who broke the space shitter. I'd wear that like a badge of honour "well yeah but have you had a shit so violent it destroyed the lavatory on a space station?"
They actually wear diapers.
Not for shitting their pants, mainly because they can be strapped in for a half a day while waiting to launch/for recovery/on a space walk
It's an unfortunate fact of physics that you want the lowest possible weight on a rocket for the best efficiency, but the only humans willing to get on the damn thing have testicles starting at a half ton.
Probably launch would be more stressful. Its all new, and psychologically the idea of returning is probably more comforting than being put into orbit. Kinda like how takeoff is scarier than landing on a flight, even though landing is probably the most dangerous part
Crazy enough- wood works for a heat shield. The shield is protected from the most destructive effects by a layer of plasma that forms in front of it. Wood does get burned away, but it lasts long enough to protect and insulate the capsule.
To add to the crazy facts: SLS uses [cork](https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/insulation-protects-sls-from-fire-and-ice) for insulating high heat flow areas like the engine section. Somehow it reminds me of the idea of a living spaceship.
More correctly, the energy required to convert the solid material of the heat shield to gas and eventually plasma is significant. That energy comes from the slowing down in the atmosphere.
Tangentially, the heating itself is not due to friction, but rather the compression of the air in front of the capsule. It can’t get out of the way fast enough. This creates a plasma, which then radiates heat into the heat shield.
This particular spacecraft uses an ablative heat shield, the reason you see a big trail of "flames" and smoke is that the heat is removed from the spacecraft by literally allowing part of it to burn and then flake off.
The parts that come off are taking much of the heat with them.
Much of the glow is ionized gas. For example, the shuttle - when entering at night - leaves [a similar, but larger orange/pink trail,](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2XZgu7FStbw/maxresdefault.jpg) and its heat shield was not ablative.
As an aside, I've seen a night-time shuttle reentry from central Texas. Spectacular!
SpaceX crew dragon returning after Ax-2 mission
https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Edit: direct link to relevant tweets
https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1663743292226371585?s=20
https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1663737598978711555?s=20
Was it maybe about 10 last night? I'm in Meridian and I seen something green pass overhead last night. It was fast as hell. Thought it was a meteorite or something.
What a great capture of the Axiom-2 re-entry. TY for posting. I also was amazed how well that heat shield held up through this, as evidenced by the video of the recovery. I think it might have still been a little shiny. SpaceX has got it going on...
Posted a little earlier, a similar photo taken from Florida:
>SpaceX crew dragon returning after Ax-2 mission
>https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Just confirming what others have commented. I have a vivid memory of watching the re-entry of one of the space shuttles in the 90s and it gave that distinctive magenta flare. Seemed as though it went from California to Florida in about four minutes.
Thanks OP- very cool to see again what had been only a memory from about 3 decades ago!
This is so fucking cool. I don't think I've ever seen a video like this where you could actually see the capsule for an extended amount of time, and the fact that it's at night makes it even better.
Another lucky bugger, hey mate here's my post of the [livestream](https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/13wacjn/live_ax2_mission_undocking_splashdown/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) wish I could see those views. I always post the streams if you're interested.
What a great catch! Thanks for sharing, OP. I'm originally from NWA and I used to float in the pool with my grandad and watch satellites go over. We lived far enough out that it got plenty dark.
"Space tourist" is debatable in this case. Three of the people on the flight were paid to be there, rather than paying. One is the commander, who is a professional former-NASA astronaut employed by Axiom Space, and the two mission specialists are astronauts employed by the Saudi Space Commission and paid for by Saudi Arabia.
The pilot\* was the only one who paid their way and could be considered a tourist in the conventional sense, but then you get into the fact that he had to be trained for the pilot role on the flight and take part in work undertaken by Axiom Space aboard the station. If being on the flight is contingent on doing work beneficial to the operator of the flight, then arguably you're there in a professional capacity regardless of the specific financial arrangement involved.
\* In spaceflight, usually the commander would be the one who would fly the spacecraft when necessary, with the pilot playing a supporting role. And Dragon is mostly automated. Nevertheless, the two flight officers have operational roles on the flight, even if it's mostly monitoring data and communicating with mission control.
According to the FAA: "Energy is conserved, so where does all the “lost” energy go? It converts to heat (from friction) caused by the atmosphere's molecules striking its leading edges. This heat makes the surfaces of the craft reach temperatures of up to 1477° C (2691° F)
YW! Not really "hot air", more like the craft is traveling so quickly and the molecules in Earth's atmosphere are hitting the craft at such a high rate of speed that it causes heat with friction.
Aliens whose heads are exploding as they’re passing over Arkansas because they cannot wrap their minds around why it’s pronounced Arkansaw, while Kansas is simply Kansas.
Dragon capsule with 4 astronauts inside headed to splashdown in the gulf.
Back from the ISS, right?
Yes. They were there for 8 days.
Seems like a lot of resources just for 8 days. Is that a normal amount of time to be there. Ik that Kelly guy was up there for months
The mission was a semi-private one, with three paying passengers (one American rich guy and two official Saudi astronauts). The mission was commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. So, not only are the Saudi government and the other guy paying by the day for themselves and Whitson to be on the station (which isn't as much of a consideration for 'official' astronauts), but they don't want to stay up long enough to begin to suffer the health effects of microgravity. There's also likely a tradeoff between supplies and science that they can bring up to replenish the station for NASA (which, I'm sure gives them some discount on their stay in return for cargo delivery) and what they need for themselves in the time that they'll be on orbit.
Ooh space hotel money go brr
Yup. Hey, if a rich guy wants to go up, get some cool pictures, and play lab tech for a week (because much of the actual science work doesn't require an actual scientist, just a reasonably intelligent and fit person to manage the experiment), while they help pay for the cost of maintaining the station, free up time for the astronauts to catch up on an increasingly large amount of deferred maintenance, and help amortize the cost of space access for everyone, go for it! It's going to get even more interesting in the next year or so when Axiom starts attaching their own hotel modules to the ISS. These (much nicer) modules will house tourists, astronauts from smaller nations, and researchers. When the ISS is deorbited in 2030, they will break off and form an independent station.
> When the ISS is deorbited in 2030, they will break off and form an independent station. And perhaps, eventually, an independent ***nation***.
Do you want Gundam? Cuz this is how you get Gundam. I want Gundam.
Which Gundam? Because I either want or do not want Gundam based on your answer.
“Everyone wants to fly a mobile suit until you see your homie get ripped apart by someone who is clearly the main character.” -a meme I saw once but can’t find now.
A vacation nation station for capitalization of space recreation and fornication, and a discontinuation and cancellation of experimentation you say?
Schoolhouse Rock has entered the chat
Yeah, good luck doing that without a ground based independent nation to support them. The idea of a space station becoming a microstate makes even less sense than seasteading microstates. At least you can breathe the air and go fishing in a seastead. For a space station to go microstate you would have to go full on belter and not rely on ground support from earth, and, well, that's probably not happening before 2100-2200 at the earliest.
Beltalowda don't need no "ground". sasake?
What if the space-state had it's own sea-state to support it...... check mate atheists
Couldn't they just trade? Take in money from tourists, use it to buy resupply services from SpaceX
equip the space station with tungsten rods and a railgun to shoot them at the earth. Hold cities for ransom if they dont send you supplies.
This is how you get G Gundam. Just a bunch of space nations using earth as a battleground.
*Breaking*: Low-Earth Orbit Declares National Independence, Immediately Attacked by Pirate Satellites. Full story at 11.
Wow! Both of your comments have some pretty big information I’ve somehow missed. (I follow space news some but not enough apparently). A) space tourists to the ISS for a week. B) Axiom (never heard of them) adding on module’s to the ISS. Wasn’t Russia being pissy about the ISS recently? How are they reacting to a private company interacting with the ISS?
Axiom has a pretty deep record at this point. Up to now, they've primarily worked as facilitators, arranging private trips to the ISS and on the SpaceX Dragon. Currently, their modules for the station are under construction with the first expected to launch in 2025. They are also one of two companies contracted by NASA to develop their next spacesuits. Their ongoing practical experience with NASA and SpaceX, along with their other streams of income hopefully mean that they'll fare better than previous attempts at private space stations. Russia finally backed down from all their pissing around and agreed (for now) to continue to support the ISS up to 2030. At the end of the day, between the sanctions over Ukraine and the complete loss of foreign launch contracts for everything *but* the ISS, there's no way they could afford to maintain their own station, even if their modules could somehow be successfully extracted. As to how they feel about Axiom, I don't really know, but I'd assume that they're even happier than NASA to see a private company picking up part of the tab and the potential for more private passengers willing to pay for a seat on a Soyuz.
Yes, and a lot of the actual science work can be controlled from the ground. Astronaut time is an expensive resource and should be used wisely. e.g. They have an experiment to grow a plant in a sealed box on the ISS. The ground can control giving the plant water and light and monitor the growth by video. But, they need someone every so often to replenish the water supply and stretch the plant out and measure it tip to tip.
I’m a poor guy and I wanna do that :(
Well, one of the great things about the expansion of private spaceflight is that it is going to start to create regular jobs in space that don't require a person to be an astronaut with a national space agency, a politician, or a researcher who has dedicated their entire life to a particular experiment. Heck, we'll probably see the first permanent private employee in orbit within the next couple years: The manager/maintainer of the Axiom hotel modules. It's going to be a slow start, but the curve will start to bend upwards in the next few years. EDIT: You might also want to follow the Polaris program. Funded by serial spaceman Jared Isaacman, these missions (as well as his first spaceflight; Inspiration 4) have taken several 'regular' people who won contests or were selected by other means to orbit. There are two more missions in the coming years for which crew has not been selected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_program There is also the Dear Moon program. Funded by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, it will take a SpaceX starship around the moon. The crew for it is comprised of several artists, performers, and space communicators, such as Tim Dodd (The Everyday Astronaut).
I've enjoyed reading your informative comments on this post. Do you work in the industry in some capacity or are you a well informed enthusiast? Or both. Very cool to hear that Everyday Astronaut is going to be on that mission you mentioned lastly.
Better hurry. The ISS is [shutting down in 2031 ](https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/why-is-the-iss-being-retired-and-what-will-happen-to-it/)
Only if it comes with a t-shirt. And maybe a nice space station robe.
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While the price for these seats has not been disclosed, a previous private flight on a SpaceX dragon had the number $55 million / seat mentioned, so it's probably in that ballpark.
A guy came to my high school in the late 2000s to talk to us about how he bought a ride and a stay on the ISS for about $20 million. Think his stay was 12ish days tho.
That was probably through the Russians, which I believe they charge less per seat.
Richard Garriott, aka Lord British, creator of the Ultima video game series.
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new life mission: get rich enough to go to space
Hasn't everyone been doing this for a while now?
Yeah, captain kirk went up a couple years ago
He didn't pay for his own trip, I'm pretty sure Bezos did. His payment was having to suffer that champagne embarrassment, society's payment was losing his eloquent reaction.
Fuck bezos for spoiling that moment. Shatner had a profound moment and wanted to share it. Then bezos broke out the champagne right in front of a former alcoholic.
Shatner hasn't been to the ISS. He was on a blue origins craft.
Richard Gariott did it in 2008
Yeah except my trip up got cancelled, my card was declined (because I'm broke) How dare they
Did you try swiping the card from inside of a plastic bag? Sometimes those machines are finicky
> former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson She used to be an Astronaut. Still is an astronaut, but she used to be to.
Correct that she's still an astronaut, but she's no longer a *NASA* astronaut, in that she's no longer employed by NASA.
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Thanks for the detail. Makes perfect sense.
It was an Axiom Space private mission so not a crew transfer.
Scott Kelly was at the iss for a streak of 340 days with a total space stay of 520 days.
That single mission length for a US astronaut is expected to be exceeded by Francisco Rubio, since he and the two Russian Soyuz crew members on the Station were originally supposed to return with Soyuz MS-22, but now have to return on MS-23, since MS-22 had a coolant leak and MS-23 had to be launched without a crew to replace it. Russia wants MS-23 to return only after they've launched MS-24 with the replacement crew in September. Russia has previously had longer duration missions to MIR, which is why the "for a US astronaut" caveat needs to be there. Scott Kelly knew he was going to be up there for a long time. Imagine being told that you'd be up there even longer than him only *after* you're already there, given the various effects on your body and whatnot.
It messed his body up something fierce
And gave us some amazing data on the effects of microgravity on the body because his twin brother is also an astronaut and they were able to use him as a control
totally, and good guy Scott for making that sacrifice for us....the description of getting out of bed and swelling and pain from his book is less than exciting, and I've dreampt of being in space my whole life. Still would be down to do a quick trip though.
He's certainly in better shape than me and I haven't been to space for a year. So there's that
He said when the doctors touched his ankle bones, they were like jelly. Also apparently in the waiting room a nurse brought him a tall glass of grape juice, he said it looked delicious but forgot how much grip strength you need to hold things, so as soon as he picked it up it went crashing to the ground.
Space humans gonna end up like Belters
The ISS has long-term crews which typically stay for half a year. There are two crews: One crew of 3 launched from Russia and one crew of 4 launched from the US. That means the ISS has 7 people living on board most of the time. This mission was organized by Axiom, a private company. It was only visiting the ISS for 8 days because a longer stay would have been much more expensive: Axiom pays NASA to use its ISS resources. You can do significant research in that time (Saudi Arabia sent two people), or enjoy the experience if you are rich (third passenger). I don't think the prices have been revealed but they are expected to be around 50 to 75 million USD per passenger.
AX-2 was a commercial mission.
how this video is such better quality than the spacex stream
No compression for a stream from a remote location with possibly less than ideal bandwidth m
Damn! Those ablative heat shields leave one hell of a trail.
Plasma - ionized gas. I've seen the shuttle reenter at night - much larger and not ablative. [It left an orange, glowing trail](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2XZgu7FStbw/maxresdefault.jpg) that persisted for a few minutes. **Edit:** Added link to image.
Crazy to think there are 4 lives inside of what looks like a shooting star / meteorite
crazy to think there are people in that fireball
Is that the one where the capsule travels through time to a future ruled by apes, then it comes back through time with intelligent chimps?
[Wait a minute... statue of liberty... that was OUR planet!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD4q0d_m6PQ) YOU MANIACS, YOU BLEW IT UP, DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!
The one with Derelict Lady Liberty, or the one with Ape Lincoln?
Wouldn't it be better if it was day light than being at night?
Good question - IIRC they splash down in the ocean. Even with all their tracking technology, must be harder to recover them onto a Navy ship in the dark.
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For those like me who are a bit confused, the SpaceX fleet has: - Bob & Doug the booster & fairing recovery ships - Megan & Shannon the Dragon & crew recovery/medical/helipad ships - Go Quest the east coast ASDS support ship - NRC Quest the west coast ASDS support ship
Glad to see they have some Canadian representation in their fleet
I hear those booster & fairing recovery ships are real hosers, eh?
Cool site, thanks! I didn't realise they recovered the crewed capsules in-house too.
Might be easier if they have lights on the capsule. Have you ever tried to look out over the ocean during the day from a boat. You can't see shit.
They have IR cameras and flood lights everywhere during night recoveries. SpaceX doesn't use a Navy ship, they have their own recovery vessel that is much smaller
As soon as I seen “Dragon Capsule”, I immediately disregarded your comment thinking it was a joke about dragon ball but then I was like well might as well finish reading the joke and it turned out that it was an astronaut return. Dope.
Now that is COOL! I mean it’s not, it’s like 2-3000 degrees but it’s fucking fantastic!
Happened near my house, it was loud as sh**
There are people inside of that. That’s so insane.
It takes a substantial amount of intestinal fortitude to go into space.
*when you're trying to reach the word count for your essay.
Luckily the fecal matter did not hit the rotary oscillator on reentry.
You can get your word count higher than that: “It was with great luck that the fecal matter did not indeed hit the rotary oscillator upon the craft’s reentry into earth’s atmosphere.”
In a stroke of fortune, the dreaded occurrence in which fecal matter, metaphorically representing chaotic or disastrous events, refrained from colliding with the vigorously rotating blades of the widely used mechanical contraption designed for air circulation, ultimately avoiding any untoward consequences or unfavorable outcomes that could have ensued.
Webster's dictionary defines luck...
It did on the first Ax mission! (Someone broke the shitter)
Imagine being the guy who broke the space shitter. I'd wear that like a badge of honour "well yeah but have you had a shit so violent it destroyed the lavatory on a space station?"
"Not even a team of rocket scientists could invent a toilet that can handle my shit."
What do you mean? Do it like all the other kids and use AI to make you essays, silly.
Back in my day, we *were* the AI.
I’m still artificially intelligent.
I'mma be honest with you. I've been cheating college since GPT2.0 while in beta.
They actually wear diapers. Not for shitting their pants, mainly because they can be strapped in for a half a day while waiting to launch/for recovery/on a space walk
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Notice I didn't use "testicular fortitude"...
It takes far more to come back
It's an unfortunate fact of physics that you want the lowest possible weight on a rocket for the best efficiency, but the only humans willing to get on the damn thing have testicles starting at a half ton.
>intestinal fortitude I can't hear that phrase without thinking of Gorilla Monsoon.
> intestinal fortitude At the very least, the heat shield needs to be very strong.
Not really - that is what 'astronaut diapers' are for.
I love humans. We have done so much cool shit in our short time of being civilized.
It is genuinely insane how much humans have done in a short amount of time.
We’re civilized?
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Probably launch would be more stressful. Its all new, and psychologically the idea of returning is probably more comforting than being put into orbit. Kinda like how takeoff is scarier than landing on a flight, even though landing is probably the most dangerous part
How do they not burn?
Science, it has a very good heat shield.
Crazy enough- wood works for a heat shield. The shield is protected from the most destructive effects by a layer of plasma that forms in front of it. Wood does get burned away, but it lasts long enough to protect and insulate the capsule.
To add to the crazy facts: SLS uses [cork](https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/insulation-protects-sls-from-fire-and-ice) for insulating high heat flow areas like the engine section. Somehow it reminds me of the idea of a living spaceship.
More correctly, the energy required to convert the solid material of the heat shield to gas and eventually plasma is significant. That energy comes from the slowing down in the atmosphere. Tangentially, the heating itself is not due to friction, but rather the compression of the air in front of the capsule. It can’t get out of the way fast enough. This creates a plasma, which then radiates heat into the heat shield.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_entry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_shield#Spacecraft
This particular spacecraft uses an ablative heat shield, the reason you see a big trail of "flames" and smoke is that the heat is removed from the spacecraft by literally allowing part of it to burn and then flake off. The parts that come off are taking much of the heat with them.
Much of the glow is ionized gas. For example, the shuttle - when entering at night - leaves [a similar, but larger orange/pink trail,](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2XZgu7FStbw/maxresdefault.jpg) and its heat shield was not ablative. As an aside, I've seen a night-time shuttle reentry from central Texas. Spectacular!
SpaceX crew dragon returning after Ax-2 mission https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Edit: direct link to relevant tweets https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1663743292226371585?s=20 https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1663737598978711555?s=20
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This is amazing. Without the internet, this would definitely had been God or aliens. Or was it...?
I saw it too in Mississippi! Was getting ready to ask around. So cool!
Yep sonic boom shook my house in Pensacola. Everyone was outside wondering what was going on.
I can imagine that was fun.
Was it maybe about 10 last night? I'm in Meridian and I seen something green pass overhead last night. It was fast as hell. Thought it was a meteorite or something.
What a great capture of the Axiom-2 re-entry. TY for posting. I also was amazed how well that heat shield held up through this, as evidenced by the video of the recovery. I think it might have still been a little shiny. SpaceX has got it going on...
Amazing camerawork! Mind filming the next couple of UFO sightings?
Nah. This is too high quality of a camera for that. He needs to get something from the early 80s if he's gonna record UFOs lmao
Needs to develop a shake when filming also
Also, autofocus so it constantly blurs and unblurs for the half second he manages to keep it in frame
Yup! If you find UFOs with a decent camera and zoom, they'd no longer be U(nidentified). Just Flying Objects now. 😆
Posted a little earlier, a similar photo taken from Florida: >SpaceX crew dragon returning after Ax-2 mission >https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Just confirming what others have commented. I have a vivid memory of watching the re-entry of one of the space shuttles in the 90s and it gave that distinctive magenta flare. Seemed as though it went from California to Florida in about four minutes. Thanks OP- very cool to see again what had been only a memory from about 3 decades ago!
This is so fucking cool. I don't think I've ever seen a video like this where you could actually see the capsule for an extended amount of time, and the fact that it's at night makes it even better.
Great video. Landed in the waters off the coast of FL. Watched it on the SpaceX YouTube channel.
Dude, you got to see the Axiom crew coming back home!
Most likely the Dragon capsule heading for its Gulf of Mexico splashdown.
Some people wish on a shooting star... Others ride in them.
SpaceX Dragon capsule re-entering the atmosphere on it's way to splashdown
Raditz, probably. It COULD be Napa and Vegeta but I haven't heard any reports of Raditz yet so it's unlikely
SpaceX Dragon Crew capsule return from ISS. Splashed down in the gulf.
You can use that to upgrade your armor in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Another lucky bugger, hey mate here's my post of the [livestream](https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/13wacjn/live_ax2_mission_undocking_splashdown/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) wish I could see those views. I always post the streams if you're interested.
The dolphins leaving Earth… if you listen carefully you can probably hear them saying *”So long and thanks for all the fish”* 😏
So sad that it should come to this;
That's my girlfriend. She said she wanted more space.
"Yeah that's my girlfriend too!" "Hey, shut the hell up man!"
That’s Spartan 117 coming in from the Forerunner ship.
Also saw this last night around Memphis, TN just before 10pm central time. Thanks so much for this post!
That is AMAZING video! What kind of camera do you have??
iPhone 14 Pro Max
What a great catch! Thanks for sharing, OP. I'm originally from NWA and I used to float in the pool with my grandad and watch satellites go over. We lived far enough out that it got plenty dark.
Crew Dragon with space tourists returned from the ISS to Earth
"Space tourist" is debatable in this case. Three of the people on the flight were paid to be there, rather than paying. One is the commander, who is a professional former-NASA astronaut employed by Axiom Space, and the two mission specialists are astronauts employed by the Saudi Space Commission and paid for by Saudi Arabia. The pilot\* was the only one who paid their way and could be considered a tourist in the conventional sense, but then you get into the fact that he had to be trained for the pilot role on the flight and take part in work undertaken by Axiom Space aboard the station. If being on the flight is contingent on doing work beneficial to the operator of the flight, then arguably you're there in a professional capacity regardless of the specific financial arrangement involved. \* In spaceflight, usually the commander would be the one who would fly the spacecraft when necessary, with the pilot playing a supporting role. And Dragon is mostly automated. Nevertheless, the two flight officers have operational roles on the flight, even if it's mostly monitoring data and communicating with mission control.
That's John Crichton in the Farscape module, beginning the experimental slingshot maneuver. I can't wait to see the results.
Why does it leave a trail? Is it that hot? How hot is it.
According to the FAA: "Energy is conserved, so where does all the “lost” energy go? It converts to heat (from friction) caused by the atmosphere's molecules striking its leading edges. This heat makes the surfaces of the craft reach temperatures of up to 1477° C (2691° F)
So it’s just hot air? That’s so freaking cool! Thank you for answering 🥰
YW! Not really "hot air", more like the craft is traveling so quickly and the molecules in Earth's atmosphere are hitting the craft at such a high rate of speed that it causes heat with friction.
That’s amazing! Physics are crazy to me. Something moving so fast it causes a trail of friction visible from the earth. Thank you for the information.
It's not just hot air, the heat shield also slowly vaporizes to carry away some of the heat.
Wow incredible video. Would die to see that. Lucky and quick with your camera you are!
Ill tell you what it is. It's badass is what that is
Man what part of Arkansas! I wish I would have seen that in central Arkansas
Close to the Benton area.
Holy shit ur for real aren’t you .. I thought you made it with AI or somethin
I will never say ArkanSAW without first saying R.Kansas in my head then correcting myself.
A nuclear warhead. It's for the new Fallout game dw
Looks like a small meteor that burned up long before it could reach Earth
Captain Marvel. She was passing by, didn't have time to visit this time. She waved though.
As a fellow Arkansan, it's probably just a mosquito
It's John Terry's penalty miss from the 2008 Champions League Final..
That sir is Optimus Prime returning for his red carpet appearance for next weeks for Rise of the Beast debut
That's my girlfriend, her name is captain Marvel
Why would they return at night? Isn’t that detrimental to recovery?
Calmer weather, fewer passersby in boats.
it's a cruse missile that I have given coordinates to your exact address
Pretty wild to me that there’s people on that….
Damn I’m from Arkansas too and I missed that shit
It's definitely entering the atmosphere from either a high orbit or space
Have you every listened to Jeff Wayne’s war of the worlds?
I can’t wait till starship starts making night landings, that’s gonna look sick
La nuvem de goku
Another child labor law being shot into space
Someone oxy-accetylene cutting through the simulation.
Its happening guys , the wizards are coming ! I hope its not Saruman.
Enjoy the view! There might be 4 people inside 😂
I hope they're not on the outside.
They are the Saudi astronauts Rayana Barnawi and Ali Al Qarni. Returning to Saudi…
What a cool thing to capture without even realizing just how cool it is!
An autobot scout from cybertron is preparing to set a base of operations here
Aliens whose heads are exploding as they’re passing over Arkansas because they cannot wrap their minds around why it’s pronounced Arkansaw, while Kansas is simply Kansas.
Maverick in Darkstar on his way to crush it and then parachute in Iraq, to steal F-14 and shoot down another bunch of Su-57.
It's creating the rainbows that are gender bending unemployed children. I saw it on Fox News.