Better Late than Never |
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!On 11 November 2021, Spacecraft Commander Raja Chari (N.A.S.A.), Pilot Thomas Marshburn (N.A.S.A.), Mission Specialist 1 Matthias Maurer (E.S.A.), & Mission Specialist 2 Kayla Barron (N.A.S.A.) lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center's LC-39A aboard the Crew Dragon
Endurance (C210) atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Marshburn is the only experienced astronaut among the crew, with previous flights aboard the Space Shuttle
Endeavour (S.T.S.-127, 15-31 July 2009) &
Soyuz TMA-07M (Expeditions 34/35, 19 December 2012-14 May 2013). Chari, Maurer, & Barron became the five hundred ninety-ninth, six hundredth, & six hundred first persons in space, since Yuri Gagarin's pioneering
Vostok 1 flight on 12 April 1961.
The
Endurance is the third operational Crew Dragon capsule, after the
Endeavour (C206, Demo-2: 30 May-2 August 2020 & Crew-2: 23 April-9 November 2021) & the
Resilience (C207, Crew-1: 16 November 2020-2 May 2021 & Inspiration4: 16-18 September 2021). Like the Dragon
Resilience & the
Perseverance Mars rover, the name
Endurance refers to the resilience, perseverance, & endurance of N.A.S.A. personnel & the general public during the interminable COVID-19 pandemic. She is also the namesake of the
Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914–1917. This pleases me greatly.
C208 & C209 are uncrewed & thus unnamed Cargo Dragon capsules. C208 flew SpaceX Crew Resupply Service-21 (C.R.S.-21, 6 December 2020-14 January 2021) & C.R.S.-23 (29 August-1 October 2021); C209 flew C.R.S.-22 (3 June-10 July 2021) & is currently flying C.R.S.-24 (launched 21 December 2021).
Bonus! Song o' the Day: Crew-3 & the Endurance
Steppenwolf, "Magic Carpet Ride" from
Sar Trek: First Contact (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)
The Wayback Machine Tour of Launch America
Crew-2 Splashdown
Crew-1 Splashdown
Crew-2 Launch
Crew-1 Relocation
Crew-1 Launch
Demo-2 Splashdown
Demo-2 Launch
Semper exploro.
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