The Space Launch 2020

Justin Williams | @justinwillliams

Setbacks. We have all been there. But very seldom do our life setbacks involve the casualties of others.
The year was 1986, ten years before I was born. The Space Shuttle Challenger, loaded with a crew of seven individuals, was soaring toward the final frontier. A fatal setback occurred and exploded the craft into pieces. The Challenger Crew, all seven individuals, perished.

This major setback did not stop a handful of Silicon Valley geniuses from changing the game. They knew that with a different outlook on space travel, they could change space travel for centuries to come.
Enter Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX. A total change of pace from the typical government-run space program. A privatized company, ready to smash barriers and create not only the safest ever rocket system but the most advanced… ever.

Setbacks, instead of ruining hopes, created a drive for SpaceX and NASA to team up and create the Crew Dragon. Along with Crew Dragon, the Falcon 9 reusable rocket and the first manned space flight from the United States of America in approximately 10 years.

For those unaware, the Crew Dragon capsule will house the two-man crew of this flight. It is equipped with Super Draco thrusters, which in the case of an emergency (Rocket Explosion, trajectory issues, etc.) it will blast off the Falcon 9 Rocket and drift down to the earth virtually unscathed. This provides an unprecedented safety implementation basically saving the crew from any potential disasters.

The Falcon 9 rocket, as I mentioned previously, is reusable. This means the rocket will blast the capsule into space, break off and fall back to earth. However instead of splashing down in the ocean and never being used again, it will be remotely controlled to land back on the same launch pad it took off from. A professional’s example is that is the equivalent of “standing on the empire state building, dropping a pencil, landing it on the eraser, and doing all of that while aiming for a postage stamp.”

My favorite quote from all of this reigns as: “if it is not beyond the realm of physics, there is an engineering way to get it done.” I sit on my couch in the North East eagerly awaiting the launch of one of the most historical times for my generation, 3:00PM EDT and launch is scheduled for 4:33PM EDT.

HERE. WE. GO!
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The dawn of the new Space Era is upon us.