Inner space, outer space there isn't that much difference...…..

This is the first time I've really actually heard the roar of the thing as it heads out. It must sound massive in person. It's an awesome sound.

Mark your calendars this Sunday for The Return of Bob and Doug:

Weather permitting, NASA and SpaceX are targeting 2:42 p.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 2, for the splashdown and conclusion of the Demo-2 test flight mission, which is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, lifted off May 30 on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

I was at the Cape today for this launch. That was the loudest rocket I've heard since the Space Shuttle. It was shaking the metal doors behind me.

Wonder if they'll have to put them in the Gulf. There's a hurricane bearing down on Florida on the Atlantic side.

This weekend could be a lot of fun. On top of Bob and Doug coming home, SpaceX will hopefully be ready to hop Starship SN5. No set date and time on that one, but probably Sunday or Monday at the earliest.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/8lpvwbeC4R">pic.twitter.com/8lpvwbeC4R</a></p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1288935356310552576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Looks like they think that weather in the Gulf will be OK on Sunday.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NEWS: Teams from <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NASA</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpaceX</a> remain GO with plans to bring <a href="https://twitter.com/Astro_Doug?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Astro_Doug</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AstroBehnken?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AstroBehnken</a> home to Earth on Sunday afternoon. We will continue to monitor weather before undocking Saturday night. Read more: <a href="https://t.co/GjXe4q6tQA">https://t.co/GjXe4q6tQA</a></p>&mdash; Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) <a href="https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1289368655545786368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It's probably not going to be the most engaging television, but departure is tomorrow night at 7:34 p.m. EDT. Splashdown will be much more of a stress-inducer and is scheduled for 2:42 p.m. EDT on Sunday.

Also, I'm not sure if anyone else is geeky enough to care like I do, but Gwynne Shotwell is scheduled to be at the post-splashdown press conference. I love her interviews. She takes Elon's insanity and compresses it into a plan that's actually achievable.

Sounding like it. I read that they have four potential recovery areas to pick from. Does that mean that they have four different recovery ships on those areas?

This is cool!

https://spacexfleet.com/next-2/

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Visual of the two sites in red.<br><br>Scrollable map: <a href="https://t.co/PLa4xeEA7q">https://t.co/PLa4xeEA7q</a> <a href="https://t.co/gzT0OaERmy">pic.twitter.com/gzT0OaERmy</a></p>&mdash; Gavin - SpaceXFleet.com (@SpaceXFleet) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet/status/1289333553642139649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Yeah, that's a nice resource. Cool.

To your earlier question, I would assume that the decision set is winnowed down as we get closer to the window. I know they started with 7 options, and you had alluded to 4. Now it looks like they're down to 2. So they probably just need to move the recovery ships to the right place, but I bet they can do that in 12 hours or so on either side.

Makes sense. I shudder to think of the math required to get the accuracy needed. Those really don't look very far off land.

Eh, it's super complex I'm sure, but it's also super predictable, and the equations haven't really changed since the early days of space flight. These days, I'm sure computers can figure it out nearly instantly.

I looked it up. Some of the Mercury and Gemini flights were off by tens of kilometers. One was 400. No worse than 5 kilometers for Apollo.