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Original poster

Anyone else watching the SpaceX launch live?

215 replies

JacobReesMogadishu · 27/05/2020 19:41

It’s being broadcast on the nasa YouTube channel and website.?

Just under 2 hours to launch, they’re just shutting the hatch now.

OP posts:
notimagain · 30/05/2020 22:42

I'm not sure how bright it looked from the UK.

It's in a lower orbit than the ISS so is moving a bit faster but nothing like as fast as a meteor.

Where we were it appeared to be a white, brightish star but nothing like as bright as the ISS . TBH because of it's position relative to the Moon/Moon's glare I doubt we would have spotted if we hadn't had the ISS give a clue as to where the Dragon was going to tracking relative to the stars 5 minutes later. we kept looking along that same line and eventually it popped up on time.

ElectricTonight · 30/05/2020 22:42

Damn I didn't see the spaceship I saw the ISS! Still exciting though.

FreezerBird · 30/05/2020 22:43

I'm pretty sure what I spotted was a meteor then. It was a cool one.

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FreezerBird · 30/05/2020 22:44

Thanks for the links!

cyclingmad · 30/05/2020 22:49

I saw it in London! The white arrows around it in the pic...was flying low and on same trajectory as ISS which flew higher in orbit slightly earlier. Wooohooo

Anyone else watching the SpaceX launch live?
ILiveInSalemsLot · 30/05/2020 22:52

We saw the ISS and then were looking quite low for the Dragon and didn’t spot it. Wish we’d known to look along the trajectory of ISS. Sad
The bright orange light was exciting though. It could’ve been a satellite apparently.

1point21gigawatts · 30/05/2020 22:58

We saw both, but the dragon was so much dimmer we almost missed it.

There was also another moving "star" on a trajectory perpendicular to the ISS one. It was there about the same time as the dragon went over. Some sort of satellite do you think?

Furball · 30/05/2020 23:00

We only saw the ISS, but that was a really good long view tonight

ElectricTonight · 30/05/2020 23:05

@cyclingmad that's what I saw, but looking on twitter people are saying it's the ISS.

bonsaidragon · 30/05/2020 23:07

A moon picture while I was waiting.

Anyone else watching the SpaceX launch live?
cyclingmad · 30/05/2020 23:12

For me I doubt it because ive being looking at ISS passes all last week and its always higher and not over those trees and I saw the ISS in its usual pass just before.

The pic I took that was definately much lower than when I have seen the ISS pass over - never seen it pass above those trees.

YourVagesty · 30/05/2020 23:20

Freezerbird

We are in mid-Wales and we saw that too. Mustve been a meteor - it was so bright and orange Shock!!!

Does anybody know anything about it?

cyclingmad · 30/05/2020 23:25

that was a meteor you saw @Freezerbird

Yubaba · 30/05/2020 23:28

A satellite passed overhead at the same time as the dragon headed south to north

Papergirl1968 · 30/05/2020 23:28

I’m in the West Midlands. I saw the ISS moving west to east at 22.12. Couldn’t see the rocket - according to the local Facebook page I don’t think anyone else did either) but just as I was giving up and coming in I saw an orange flash going east to west, just out of the corner of my eye. Was that the meteorite some of you saw?
(Ps I got so tense during the launch. I’d never make an astronaut!)

notimagain · 30/05/2020 23:30

There was also another moving "star" on a trajectory perpendicular to the ISS one. It was there about the same time as the dragon went over. Some sort of satellite do you think?

From where we were (southern France) around the same time, or just before Crew Dragon went over there was a satellite visible tracking from south to north..it was quite slow moving, so high..so possibly visible from the UK.

bonsaidragon · 30/05/2020 23:33

From where we were (southern France) around the same time, or just before Crew Dragon went over there was a satellite visible tracking from south to north..it was quite slow moving, so high..so possibly visible from the UK.

The one we saw was very fast moving, much more than the iss and was west to south east and very low - lower than anything I've seen before.

WaffleCash · 30/05/2020 23:36

Saw the space station and the dragon tonight. The dragon was much brighter and faster than the space station but also lower in the sky. If you don't have an open view to the south it would be easily obscured

notimagain · 30/05/2020 23:39

@cylingmad

From the UK it would make sense that Crew Dragon's trajectory would appear slightly lower in the sky than ISS..I think if you know you definitely saw the ISS at 22:whatever and then something else came along just 5 minutes later, tracking slightly lower in the sky than ISS had then I can't see what else it would be but Crew Dragon.

bonsaidragon

Nice picture, thanks.

YourVagesty · 30/05/2020 23:40

How do you know that Cycling? I'm so thrilled I've seen a meteor!

notimagain · 30/05/2020 23:47

The dragon was much brighter and faster than the space station but also lower in the sky.

Faster yes but TBH I'm struggling with Dragon being brighter than ISS..The Space station is the size of a football field whereas Dragon is the size of a minivan...as a result the satellite prediction websites were certainly not predicting Dragon to have anything like the brightness of ISS.

cyclingmad · 30/05/2020 23:51

@YourVagesty cos on virtualastro twitter I have started following people had mentioned it there and it was confirmed that if you saw something orange it was a meteor

I didn't see the meteor though.

cyclingmad · 30/05/2020 23:54

@notimagain yes, the app notifies me when its about to pass over so ISS started to pass over before 10.15 and would have been way over to the east by 10.15 as its usually only 6 mins you get to see it before it has gone.

Shame there are no more pass overs before it docks.

YourVagesty · 30/05/2020 23:58

Thanks Cycling - I'm relieved that it wasn't part of the rocket burning up Smile

bonsaidragon · 31/05/2020 00:15

The orange thing we saw looked more like a very fast aeroplane but with static lights not flashing. It was horizontal and not at an angle and was very low, it didn't look like a meteor to me, it wasn't SpaceX though.

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