Crew dragon are heading to ISS - predicted visible passes tonight.

[Roy]

https://www.heavens-above.com 

The first crew-carrying launch of the Dragon capsule is currently scheduled for 20:33 on May 27th. There are potentially good sighting opportunities to see the capsule before it docks to the ISS.

This is data for Sevenoaks but you can log in with your own location to get more accurate timings, pages also give ISS passes.

ate   Brightness   Start   Highest point   End   Pass type
(mag)   Time   Alt.   Az.   Time   Alt.   Az.   Time   Alt.   Az.
27 May   0.0   21:53:06   10°   W   21:55:11   60°   SSW   21:57:22   10°   ESE   visible
27 May   2.9   23:27:24   10°   WSW23:27:30   10°   WSW23:27:30   10°   WSWvisible
28 May   0.6   21:55:05   10°   W   21:57:04   39°   SSW   21:59:01   11°   SE   visible
29 May   1.4   21:57:07   10°   W   21:58:56   25°   SSW   22:00:39   11°   SSE   visible
30 May   2.1   21:59:22   10°   WSW   22:00:46   16°   SSW   22:02:12   10°   S   visible

Thanks to Robin for alerting us to this.

[MarkS]

Cancelled because of poor weather at launch site

[ApophisAstros]

Shame the Starlink launches are not delayed the same way.
Roger

[MarkS]

Saturday 30th - did anyone see it?

Something very bright passed under the moon around 10:13pm but was it the ISS or was it SpaceX Dragon (the 2nd pass)?

All the tracking sites were overloaded so I was unable to get precise timings.

Mark

[Edit:  In retrospect the ISS is much larger so it was almost certainly the ISS I saw.  The Dragon was a few minutes behind. ]

[Carole]

Watched the live relay, very impressive launch, none of that building up "steam" below and eventually the rocket slowly lifts off the pad, it just went straight up.  Then the live stream showed inside the capsule, it was great to see the Astronauts in action.

From what I have read the 2nd pass was (for us) low in the SW.

Carole 

[Hugh]

Yes, watched the live relay of the launch.  I thought the rocket lifted very quickly away from the pad and expected to see the engines start much sooner; perhaps we see too much of the Saturn 5/Shuttle  launches which seemed so much slower away from the tower, with the earlier engine start to build up of power to get it off the ground? 

Interesting to note the tower being angled away from the rocket prior to launch to avoid the rocket possibly being blown against it ~ Saturn 5 launches were similar.  Would like to know a lot more about those last 10 seconds before launch ~ such as was the rocket held down fractionally before a full power launch (as Saturn 5 also)?

The change to the interior of the capsule is so stark and futuristic in comparison to NASA launches of old ~ like something out of 2001 ~ with all the screens and so much interior room!  The space suits are very Hollywood as well; I understand tailored with input from a fashion designer (although not sure of the 'Wellington Boot' look)!

The launch pictures from the rocket cameras as well, so clear with so much detail.  Pity we missed the actual landing of the 1st stage back on the remote platform ~ but what a feat of engineering that is!  Just makes you realise the improvements in technology since the days of the shuttle.

Wasn't sure that we would see a pass after launch so didn't look out ~ but have seen several recent ISS passes ~ right overhead ~ which have been very bright with the clear skies.

A great event overall!

Best

Hugh

[Mac]

Originally the heavens above app showed the trajectory, which should have been visible over the uk,
but about 10mins before the launch, it pulled all the data for it, dont know why.
I only saw the ISS pass, couldn't see anything else following.

Didnt manage to get out for the second pass of the ISS though

Mac.