Author: Lupi

Crew-3 and Other News

posted on 28th October, 2021 12:00 pm by

One post a month isn’t many to make, but with launches as infrequent as they are, it’s not like there’s much to talk about otherwise! I had planned on making a post for Lucy, but for reasons I’ll get into later, I elected not to do so.

As far as Crew-3 is concerned, I’ve been posting updates on Twitter as options present themselves. Thus far, I’ve only seen few available options.

UPDATE 1:00 PM EDT 3-Nov-21: The launch has delayed to a new date and time of 11:36 PM EDT on 6 November from its original timeslot of 2:21 AM EDT on 31 October,

– First and foremost, the Kennedy Space Center Visitors’ Complex is offering paid viewing, which includes admission, food, swag, and such in addition to the general experience they offer. At this point, their Feel the Heat package ($250), which offers views clear across the water to the launchpad from the Banana River Viewing site, may be sold out, but their Feel the Fun package remains if you’re content with viewing from the main visitors’ center. It retails for $150, with all the inclusions listed.

– Star*Fleet Tours is offering paid viewing as well, and tickets should have gone up for sale by the time this post goes live at noon on the 28th. They offer views from boats chartered to sail out into the Atlantic and sit near the edge of the keep-out zone, offering a unique launch view! In addition to the viewing itself, they offer a pre-launch cruise to see the rocket up close on the pad, sailing right along the shore and offering photo opportunities. If all goes well, I’ll be lending them a hand on these cruises, so, feel free to say hi!

– This is where we get to the difficult part. Night launches are a bit of a challenge, as most viewing sites I’d recommend are public parks along US1. These parks are only open dawn to dusk, according to Brevard County Parks and Recreation, and therefore not open for night launch viewing. Ahead of Lucy, I reached out to the Parks department with an email, hoping to get clarification on whether launch nights were considered an exception, but I have yet to hear back, and that’s why no Lucy post was ever made. Between the lack of paid options, and the lack of info from the Parks department, I had nothing to post.

– The only park I could get clarification on was Space View Park, operated by the City of Titusville rather than by Brevard County. Space View Park is open for launch viewing, provided you can find street parking. They do not want you parking in private parking for businesses, and those businesses can and will have you towed, as is their right. I was downtown for a farmer’s market, and someone had parked in Titusville Towers and either gotten towed, or came real close to being such. Fortunately, Titusville has a decent amount of street parking, so assuming you get there early enough, you should be fine. It’s a lovely view on a nice seawall, and folk like Ozzie Osband (responsible for the campaign to get our local area code set to 321) offer commentary and live updates, hosting from the park.

Now, as far as the site goes, not much has changed. The most notable thing is that I tried to get the email for the Twitter account changed to our team@launchrats.com address from Wayward’s personal, but it turns out Wayward had used it for a second account, @LaunchRatsNet, which got suspended for being inauthentic because it never did anything after being created. So I just changed the email to lupi@launchrats.com instead, and gave up there.

I hope to get some help untangling the mess of accounts, domains, hosting, and inboxes that Wayward left behind to streamline everything, but at least I’m getting the hang of fumbling my way through the little stuff. Every little bit is progress, even if I’m learning to hate this WordPress editor.

Once I get everything on the back end straightened out, I’d love to reach out to local businesses about advertising, there’s a ton of places I’d happily endorse and it’d be nice to make the site self-sustaining in the process. If you’re a local business (Titusville, Cocoa Beach, and City of Cape Canaveral area) and you’re seeing this post, I’d welcome your email @ team@launchrats.com!

Happy launching,
Lupi

An Uninspiring Update

posted on 9th September, 2021 1:57 pm by

LaunchRats After Wayward, and Inspiration4 viewing advice.

I think this is my first actual posting to the site, because the only other thing on here that’s mine, was sent as a Google Doc (to bennu and back, happy 5th anniversary OSIRIS-REx).

I’m trying to pick up all the pieces that Wayward left behind. I’ve been cleaning and rearranging the house, went through and donated a lot of their stuff, and I’ve tried here and there to poke at this site, without knowing much at all about how websites work.

A few weeks ago I updated the sidebar, which I have no clue how I did. But I’m writing this post to say first and foremost that I finally figured out how to update the contact form. Up until this point, all submissions on the Contact Us page were being sent directly to Wayward’s inbox, which meant I had to boot up their old computer to check for them.

I’m happy to report those now point towards the Team email which means they should be accessible to me, and any future folk who join me here. In the meantime, I’m sorry that I missed a handful of inquiries, though it seemed like a lot of the form submissions were just spam.

So, let’s talk Inspiration4.

I won’t mince words, Florida is a COVID cesspit right now, DO NOT TRAVEL HERE FROM OUT OF STATE. No launch is worth it, not even this one. Even if you’re traveling within the state, be careful. I don’t recall how much of a hotspot Brevard County is, but I’m sure it’s no different from the rest of Florida.

This launch has a Netflix deal. It should be no trouble watching it from home, with far better coverage than most launches get these days. It has John Kraus covering it for photography, it has the local space media being all but frozen out of coverage in favor of major media outlet exclusives like said Netflix deal.

For better or worse, you’ll probably have a better time watching from home. They’re saying this has a 24 hour window? The longest window I can remember was the Falcon Heavy Demo Flight in 2018, and that was only from something like 10am to 4pm. It used that entire window, launching at 3:45 PM that day. And let me tell you, it was a great day, but not a great time. By the end of it, my traveling companions were lobsters from not using sunscreen, and I still got burnt even though I was.

Your options are the $250 Feel the Heat package from the Kennedy Space Center, but I don’t know how that works with a 24 hour window, are they gonna keep people there for the whole attempt, or, what?

Given half of the launch window is during the night, Playalinda Beach is already likely to be off the table. But even so, we don’t know whether they’ll open it at all during the day, they have recently been closing it for launches from 39A.

So for the most part, the options are the same as always, in that they’re “pick a park along US1 and see if it’s open/full.”

If you do visit, please wear your mask and be courteous to those around you with social distancing. I don’t imagine we’ll be getting Falcon Heavy crowds, considering the Feel the Heat package doesn’t even appear to be sold out with less than a week to launch.

Take care,
Lupi.

Q & A: Launch Viewing From Hilton Head, SC

posted on 21st July, 2018 1:08 pm by

We received an inquiry at LaunchRats that said:

I will be in Hilton Head, South Carolina Aug 6th… will I be able to see the Parker Solar Probe launch… even a little? If not, how far down the coast would I have to go to be able to see it?

And we have an answer! 

Glad you asked! I’m a South Carolina native myself, Greenville born and raised, and I often vacation in Charleston and Hilton Head. If you mean to say you’ll be staying on the island itself, you should see something. It’s 4 am, headed east, and you’ll just have to look generally south to see it; a Charleston friend I know said they could see a previous launch from the Isle of Palms. Granted, a lot of this depends on the trajectory it takes, so I can’t be absolutely positive. For some launches, NASA will publish viewing/visibility guides, but I haven’t seen one for Parker Solar Probe yet.

If you’re staying in a resort and they have southeast-facing coast like Palmetto Dunes, you should be fine, depending on their open hours. If not, there’s Coligny Beach Park, though it suffers from the same issue of unknown operating hours.

Of course, driving down is always going to give you the best results, but it’s roughly four hours’ drive to the Space Coast. The exit to HHI is basically the halfway point from where I start in Greenville. Not exactly a slog you’d wanna take just for the launch; maybe look into the price of Kennedy Space Center admission with your dealfinder of choice and make a day trip out of it, as there’s plenty to do at the Space Coast, and you’ll ideally be settled for the day after the launch goes up (or doesn’t) at 4 am. Maybe even bring your beachwear and scope out Cocoa Beach, see if it’s your kind of place for future beach travel. It’s nowhere near as private as Hilton Head, but it’s still fairly sleepy, with great sun and surf.

If you choose to stay put, you may want to have NASA TV open on your phone, and a pair of binoculars. Also, Hilton Head has a nice little museum, buried in the mess of overpasses at the entrance to the island. Maybe check that out after, as it’s got some space hardware in it!

– Lupi

A piece of an Atlas V fairing from the 2010 launch of an X-37B

A piece of an Atlas V fairing from the 2010 launch of an X-37B, located in the Hilton Head Museum in South Carolina. Photo courtesy of Lupi.

To Bennu and Back, or How I Became A Launch Rat

posted on 8th March, 2018 12:35 am by

OSIRIS-REx, launching on an Atlas V 411 from SLC-41 on 8th September 2016, as seen from the LC-39A gantry. Photo by Lupi.

OSIRIS-REx, launching on an Atlas V 411 from SLC-41 on 8th September 2016, as seen from the LC-39A gantry. Photo by Lupi.

It was the first week of September when my family descended upon Cocoa Beach for one last hurrah of summer. We’d gone twice prior that year: once for a beach week in July, and a short trip to watch NROL-61 and surf. I had been hoping beyond hope that the second launch I got to witness would be a Falcon 9, with the AMOS-6 launch scheduled for the night we arrived. The second launch scheduled for that week, OSIRIS-REx, was in my eyes a bonus, an afterthought. I didn’t know anything about it, and my first Atlas launch had been a let-down, leaving me less excited for it than I was for Falcon.

That focus changed September 1st, the day before we climbed into the car. Space Twitter erupted with reports of an explosion at Pad 40, followed by USLaunchReport’s notorious video capturing the fiery affair. This was a bit disappointing at the time, but accidents and delays happen in spaceflight on a regular basis, and I still had another launch to look forward to! I just happened to know a lot less about it, or what I was an amazing experience I was in for.

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