NASA - SSMS Synchronized Launches Events

[spaceboy7441]

Could we do it tomorrow? I am going to Palm Beach tomorrow night. And going to Tennessee the next weekend.

[Admin]

I don't know how many can do that not on a weekend... any feedback?

/Admin

[schmidtrock]

It just so happens as it were, I've got tomorrow off. But, I'd tend to agree most folks probably won't be able to participate before Saturday.

[spaceboy7441]

Ya I am thinking the same thing.It is fine if you have to put it on the weekend. I will participate in the next one. On summer break till August.

[Pocci]

Hi folks,

mission control here ;-)

I am planning my private TCDT today. Exactly one week before launch.
This will be in 3 hours and in one hour will be T-1:50.
I will use STS-117, this was a June launch on almost exactly the same time and I invite everybody to join me on TS in 45 minutes.

See you,

Armin

[bradleyjs]

I'm here waiting....

[Pocci]

Hi folks,

bradleyjs and I confirm an on time launch of all participating shuttles.
All (both) of them

A big thank you to the ground crew for taking out the T-5 and T-2 breaks.
But be aware that there is still one moment where you can lose sync:

At T-9 minutes at the END of the holding time.

At the end of the hold time you have to manual resume the countdown with a left click on the event timer control start switch. If you do not click right in the moment the comm tells you to do so, you will lose every second you wait between comm announcement and mouse click.
I do not know what happens in the real shuttle. Is the event timer just an information for the crew or does it trigger the ignition of engine and booster?
In the game, the countdown waits for you to start the event timer and launch is performed 9 minutes and zero seconds after that. But in the game the real time clock stops as well until you start the timer.

It is possible to use that freezing of the real time to resync with NASA:
Timeskip a little, so that the end of the hold is earlier than at NASA and the simulator shows a NO GO while the real time clock on F11 is stopped.
Then start the event timer, when the NASA countdown resumes. This will help if NASA decides to have the T-9 hold shorter or longer than the ingame 10 minutes.

Armin

[uri_ba]

the T-9 minute hold is never 10 minutes on ISS missions, it's more like 25..
there is no other way other then pausing at the end of the hold and wait for the real countdown clock. release the pause few seconds prior to the mark, and then just hit the switch on the maek.

[Admin]

the T-9 minute hold is never 10 minutes on ISS missions, it's more like 25..
there is no other way other then pausing at the end of the hold and wait for the real countdown clock. release the pause few seconds prior to the mark, and then just hit the switch on the maek.

Uri, the T-9 hold can change from launch to launch. We decided on a 10-minute wait to alleviate the "wait-pain" of those who do things in real-time.

OT: I had to merge this new topic with the main "Synch launches events" thread in the stickies. Currently, this is the only place to post TCDT event announcements/comments, etc. If these events become as popular as we hope, we might even open a specific forum for it but for now, please keep all the TCDT activity confined to this thread.

Thank you,
/Admin

[Pocci]

Admin, thanks for merging the topics. Sorry for opening a new thread.

Admin, the 10-minute decision is perfect. It is not too long and most of it can be timeskipped.

Uri, there is even no need for pausing the game, as it freezes at exact T-9:00 minutes and wakes up on starting the event timer.
It might be interesting to pause a few seconds after starting the event timer, to take care of the reaction time of yourself to recognize that the NASA countdown is running again.

And it would be very helpful to have a link to an official NASA countdown clock, so that we are independent of NASA TV (and if they show the clock at my pause time or not).

Armin

[uri_ba]

the T-9 minute hold is never 10 minutes on ISS missions, it's more like 25..
there is no other way other then pausing at the end of the hold and wait for the real countdown clock. release the pause few seconds prior to the mark, and then just hit the switch on the maek.

Uri, the T-9 hold can change from launch to launch. We decided on a 10-minute wait to alleviate the "wait-pain" of those who do things in real-time.

Thank you,
/Admin

I know
the hold window changes in size and it's larger as the launch window narrows.

on ISS missions launch window is about 5 minutes if I'm not mistaken, HST window is 2 minutes.

so they tend to have a longer T-9 holds, so they will have more time to assess the issues (such as the white room door on STS-126). if the hold was shorter, they would have probably scrubbed the launch, or if the window is HUGE, extend the hold and send someone to fix it.

I think that 10 minutes is a good value,
But I'm not sure how much time we can hold at the "resume" comm without getting the launch scrubbed by the game.
so if you need to cover the 20 somthing hold window you can just pause at the end of the game window, and wait for the real one to resume. few seconds before that happens you unpause the game, and hit the Mark.

[Pocci]

So how do you define "few seconds before that happens"?
It does make more sense to unpause few seconds after that happens.

[bradleyjs]

Pocci and I had a real "Blast" at exactly 1939 EDT

Suggestion: Perhaps a multi-player type functionality could be incorporated to allow each user's sim to dynamically sync to a primary source provider -- like the NTP (Network Time) protocol does with servers.

[bradleyjs]

Pocci,

What time EDT on Saturday do you plan to MC this event?

As, I plan to participate -- got clearance from GC (AKA "the wife") to proceed as planned...

[schmidtrock]

I should be available as well.