While Musk's SpaceX (Crewed) Dragon Rocket Sits Through A Hold, At The Cape -- Due To Hydraulics Issue With A Clamp On The Tower... We Look At Deep Space Carbon60...

The issue may be such that the team cannot trust the gantry will safely be out of the way, come launch time. . . so this may result in a scrub for tonight.

But the four crew members are loaded; the hatch has been sealed. . . and we await a "go/no go" to fuel the beast, with liquid oxygen and chemically modified kerosene. I'll just take this moment though, to re-run a favorite graphic. . . and note that when we do finally send a crew beyond the heliosphere, that crew ought to be looking for rouge planets, ones without stars -- because most may very well have the complex carbon chains from which life (we believe) arises. That is a pursuit worth. . . pursuing, indeed:

[From a Hubble release in 2019, then:]. . .[T]his is the first time an electrically charged (ionized) version has been confirmed to be present in the diffuse ISM. The C₆₀ gets ionized when ultraviolet light from stars tears off an electron from the molecule, giving the C₆₀ a positive charge (C₆₀+). “The diffuse ISM was historically considered too harsh and tenuous an environment for appreciable abundances of large molecules to occur,” said Cordiner. “Prior to the detection of C60, the largest known molecules in space were only 12 atoms in size. Our confirmation of C60+ shows just how complex astrochemistry can get, even in the lowest density, most strongly ultraviolet-irradiated environments in the Galaxy. . . .”

Life as we know it is based on carbon-bearing molecules, and this discovery shows complex carbon molecules can form and survive in the harsh environment of interstellar space. “In some ways, life can be thought of as the ultimate in chemical complexity,” said Cordiner. “The presence of C60 unequivocally demonstrates a high level of chemical complexity intrinsic to space environments, and points toward a strong likelihood for other extremely complex, carbon-bearing molecules arising spontaneously in space. . . .”

Here's to hoping, in any event, that this crew gets safely to orbit, and on to the ISS -- later tonight -- as that in turn "paves the way" for a ride home, for Suni and Butch, nearer to St. Patrick's Feast Day. Onward, smiling.

नमस्ते