Launch Day

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

Assuming the weather clears up, which is a big assumption, Demonstration Mission 2 launches from Cape Canaveral this afternoon. This will be the first crewed US space launch from American soil since the last shuttle mission in 2011.

To give some perspective, since the last shuttle mission ended, I completed my senior year of high school, took six years to get a four-year degree, was unemployed for a year, and am now halfway through a master's degree. Nobody expected this long of a gap when the shuttle program ended.

Nevertheless, there's some nice continuity between the shuttle and commercial crew eras. Both the SpaceX and Boeing crewed test flight crews include an astronaut from the final shuttle flight. (The Boeing astronaut, Chris Ferguson, has since left NASA and is technically flying as a private-sector crew-member.) Since the crew of STS-135 left a US flag on the station, it's nice to know that either way, the program planners set it up that someone from that same crew would get to capture the flag and bring it back to Terra.

Watch on NASA TV. The launch is scheduled for 4:33 EDT, though be sure to keep an eye on the weather.