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Subscribe to RSSFor the first time in history, a commercial spaceship has journeyed to the International Space Station, carrying vital supplies to the astronauts. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
The International Space Station's crew reached out today with a robotic arm to grab SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule and brought it in for the orbital outpost's first-ever hookup with a commercial spaceship.
It marks the station's first linkup with a U.S.-made spacecraft since last year's retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet, and potentially opens the way for dozens of commercial cargo shipments. If the long-range plan unfolds as NASA hopes, U.S. astronauts could be shuttled back and forth on the Dragon or similar spacecraft within just a few years.
"Today, this really is the beginning of a new era in commercial spaceflight," said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA's commercial crew and cargo program.
The hookup comes after Tuesday's successful launch of the Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket, and represents the culmination of years of planning and hundreds of millions of dollars of spending by NASA and California-based SpaceX, known more formally as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. The company was founded a decade ago by dot-com billionaire Elon Musk, with aspirations of eventually sending humans to settle on Mars.
Musk said the technologies that were tested today will blaze a trail for those more ambitious trips to come. "This is a crucial step, and having achieved this step, it makes the things in the future and the ultimate path toward humanity becoming a multiplanet species much, much more likely," he told reporters after the hookup. "The chances of that happening just went up dramatically, so people should be really excited about that."
But first things first: Today's operation marked the first full in-space test of the robotic Dragon spacecraft's procedure for approaching the station, and for that reason, every step along the way was carefully planned out and checked over the course of several hours. The first steps in the procedure were tested on Thursday, during a series of maneuvers that successfully brought the 14-foot-long, 12-foot-wide, gumdrop-shaped capsule within 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) of the $100 billion space station.
Today, a far more ambitious set of maneuvers brought the Dragon all the way to the station — but the trip wasn't always easy.
Fixing the glitches
The craft started out by taking up a position 250 meters (820 feet) below the station. From that vantage point, the Dragon was put through a series of maneuvers to test the station-to-spacecraft communication system. The space station's astronauts had the Dragon approach, then retreat, then approach, then hold its position.
After assessing the data, NASA said it wanted to do a double-check on the Dragon's thermal imagers, which are part of the rendezvous sensor system. The spacecraft was commanded to approach to a distance of 200 meters (656 feet), then stop while NASA took stock again. Space agency spokesman Josh Byerly said SpaceX's team made "minor modifications" to the thermal imaging system, just to make sure that it was providing tracking data in line with what other instruments were showing.
The Dragon was on its way to a 30-meter (98-foot) checkpoint when the team at SpaceX's Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif., ordered the spacecraft to retreat to a distance of 70 meters (230 feet). NASA's Mission Control said the SpaceX team wanted to correct bad laser sensor readings that the Dragon was getting from a stray reflector on the station's Japanese-built Kibo laboratory. To work around the problem, SpaceX narrowed the field of view for the laser sensor so that it wouldn't pick up light from the offending reflector.
"One of the lasers wasn't working well, so we had to recalibrate the laser and tighten the beam, and then it did work," Musk explained afterward.
Catching a Dragon by the tail
Once the fix was made, Dragon returned to the 30-meter checkpoint and moved in for the final approach. When the craft reached a distance of 10 meters (33 feet), NASA astronaut Don Pettit used the station's 17-meter-long (60-foot-long) robotic arm to grab hold of the Dragon's grapple attachment at 9:56 a.m. ET.
"It looks like we've got us a Dragon by the tail," Pettit told NASA's Mission Control.
"Congratulations on a wonderful capture," Mission Control's Megan Behnken replied. "You've made a lot of folks happy down here, over in Hawthorne and right here in Houston."
Pettit joked that the operation went so smoothly it felt like a computer simulation. "This sim went really well," he said. "We're ready to turn it around and do it for real."
It took another couple of hours to pull in the Dragon and get it fully hooked up to the station's Harmony module. NASA and SpaceX refer to this operation as a "berthing" rather than a "docking," because the Dragon is being passively pulled in rather than powering itself into the docking port.
The completion of berthing at 12:02 p.m. ET put SpaceX in the company of four governmental space ventures — NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency — that have built vehicles capable of hooking up with the space station.
Musk said that he'd probably have to relax SpaceX's rule against drinking alcohol at its Hawthorne headquarters to accommodate a champagne celebration, but it was clear that the hundreds of employees who gathered to watch the berthing were already on a natural high. They cheered for Musk as he spoke to reporters over a video link — and when he told them, "I love you guys, too," they broke into a chant of "E-lon, E-lon, E-lon!"
Unloading the cargo
Dragon's hatch is scheduled to be opened early Saturday morning. The station's six astronauts will unload about 1,000 pounds (460 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothes, batteries and a laptop, plus 15 student-designed experiments. Then about 1,455 pounds (660 kilograms) of Earth-bound cargo — including personal items from the crew as well as completed experiments and old equipment — will be loaded up on the Dragon. These payloads don't come anywhere close to the Dragon's capacity (6 tons going up, 3 tons coming down), but they were made part of the mission as non-essential ride-alongs.
On May 31, the capsule will be detached from the station and sent back down toward a Pacific Ocean splashdown and recovery off the coast of Southern California. That part of the operation went off successfully during Dragon's first orbital test mission in December 2010, but this would mark the first-ever return of a commercial spacecraft from the space station. Russia's Soyuz capsule is the only other existing space vehicle capable of returning space station payloads.
A fully successful mission would open the way for commercial space station resupply missions to begin in earnest. SpaceX already has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for 12 Dragon shipments through 2016. If all goes well, the first flight covered by that contract could lift off in September, said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager. Another company, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., is developing a cargo spacecraft known as Cygnus to take on space station shipments as well, under the terms of a $1.9 billion contract. The Cygnus has yet to be flight-tested, however.
In addition to the cargo contract, SpaceX is one of four companies that is receiving millions of dollars from NASA to produce spaceships capable of carrying astronauts. In SpaceX's case, the Dragon would be modified with a launch escape system, while the other companies — Blue Origin, the Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp. — are working on other spaceship concepts, ranging from capsules to Sierra Nevada's mini-space plane. The first astronaut flights could take place as early as 2017.
Until that time, NASA will have to depend on the Russians to transport U.S. astronauts on Soyuz spacecraft, at a cost of more than $60 million a seat. SpaceX and other players in the commercial space race say they can meet or beat that price.
The transition to commercial operations for orbital transport is a key part of the Obama administration's plan for future space exploration.
"We’re handing off to the private sector our transportation to the International Space Station so that NASA can focus on what we do best — exploring even deeper into our solar system, with missions to an asteroid and Mars on the horizon," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said after the Dragon's launch. "We’re committed to ending the outsourcing of work on America’s space program and bringing these jobs back to the United States."
More about the mission:
- 'Star Trek' Scotty's remains go into space
- Video: Scenes from the SpaceX hookup
- Next steps in a new space race
- Cosmic Log archive on SpaceX
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
The importance of this first foray into space by a commercial venture cannot be underestimated. This opens the way to for unfettered imagination and initiative to create far more cost effective launch systems.
Just imagine what today's smart phone would look like if it had only been produced under government contracts.
Exactly, the (long term) future of the Human Species may very well hang in the balance...and it is just a guess...If the "private sector" had initiated space exploration (and found profit in it) we would likely have "colonies" on Mars and the Moon right now...and a few generations from now we would know what a "black hole" tastes like
A Big shout-out to "Howard Wolowitz" up there in zero gravity! No worries, Howie... Bernadette is being well taken care of by your mom and Raj!!!
Howard, Howard! This is your mother! Why isn't there one of your toilets on the SpaceX Dragon capsule?
You are all wrong. Anyone wonder why they are paying oodles of money to do this? Maybe put who they feel are the Aryan race up there nuke the planet, or use neutron bomb. Come back repopulate with only people like them? There is only short term money in contracts to get stuff up there. Anything after that will take a LONG time to overcome. If you don't think I am right read some physics about approaching the speed of light. It will never happen. So end game is only about getting that place prepared for the final countdown for the rest of us who don't matter. You are all foolish foolish people.
Stop the Fed, that makes no sense. If the rich, white folks did that, they would have no one to work for them. No one to feel superior to.
Or the rich black folks .....
Stop the Fed: Your abyssimal I.Q. is showing.
Stop the Fed -
1. You're an idiot. I'm probably 10+ years younger than you and know more about human nature than you - that's sad.
2. They're not going to take the "rich folk" because honestly, who cares who is rich and who isn't. They're going to take the intelligent. Who wants an entire world populated by idiotic hicks and ghettos? We already have a nation almost completely filled with that now (if you don't believe me, come visit Florida for a week) - they're going to want somewhere where intelligence and perseverence rules. People who can and will strive for the best of the best. Yes, maybe some of them will be rich, but that may just depend on the fact that they've used their intelligence to amass wealth.
Stop the Fed: That's hilarious. Aryans are putting people in orbit so they can nuke the planet and claim it for themselves. You can't make this stuff up... oh, wait.
Holly hell, where did I put my tinfoil hat?
@Stop the Fed
Put Your Hands In The Air And Step Away From The BONG!!!!!
Stop the Fed: you're crazy. You don't know what you're talking about. Everybody knows it won't be a neutron bomb, it'll be nerve gas. Didn't you see "Moonraker"?
Nasa's Shuttle, designed for 'cheap access to space' space shuttle cost $1.5 billion per flight, or $28,000 per pound payload to orbit..
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy costs only $100 million/flight, to lift TWICE the payload, costing less than $1,000 per lb..
And Nasa failed miserably at producing it's own booster/capsule, Constellation. despite spending $20 billion...
Meanwhile, private enterprise SpaceX efficiency, innovation, spirit, produced a new booster/capsule far advanced of anything NASA is capable of.. for only $300 million.
Now, NASA is pursuing it's own booster/capsule.. estimated to cost $60+ billion... despite the fact that SpaceX has superior hardware proven/flying.... and most everyone knows NASA will fail miserably as always to meet it's cost/schedule/performance goals..
If NASA were capable, we wouldn't be begging/buying rides from Russians, would we?
Stop the fed Please take your meds.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It would be nice if we did have someplace other than earth to go in case one of thos large mass bodies floating around in the universe decide to play kiss face with earth.
@breadex
Except it's more a matter of when and if we've discovered a viable means of avoidance rather than "in case". Sooner or later one will come our way, hopefully it's later...much later...much, much later.
It appears that our space program is developing passengers and scientist rather that astronauts and spacecrafts. Maybe a good thing, i dont know.
My reply is for Amerman. Don't blame NASA that is misguided. Elon Musk has properly praised NASA for it's help and none of this would be happening if it wasn't for NASA. It is kind of like blaming the scientists and researches who discovered the cure for a disease but since they didn't actually implement the vaccination plans for millions they should be blamed for doing nothing.
I blame Congress for directing NASA funds into the powerful "Space States" mainly Texas and Florida in order to turn NASA into a jobs program. These NASA jobs became a political football.
When you get past the space stuff, SpaceX's commercial crew contracting model with NASA is going to be a case study for privatization of government services. Considering how much tax payer money was saved by allowing a private company to freely develop a launch system vs. the very expensive old NASA models it makes a strong case.
If you don't think I am right read some physics about approaching the speed of light. It will never happen
Funny, they said the same things about the sound barrier only 100 years ago.
Amerman, I agree your overall praise of SpaceX, but you exagerrate some of the facts, and other points should be clarified (I'm largly in agreement with "PhillyJimmi")...
Firstly, congrats to SpaceX!! I agree that commercializing operations in low earth orbit, will lead to breakthroughs in space exploration going foward, but to make a couple comments on your post:
This is the cost when you take the entire history of the Shuttle program into consideration, including R&D. By the end of the program, costs were down to about $450 million per launch ($8,400 per pound to LEO). This info is readily available on the Web.
The Falcon Heavy has not been built or launched yet, so it's not really a fair comparison. R&D cost overruns are par for the course. It's pretty much a given that these figures will increase once FH becomes a reality.
Orion was not a failure, it is flying it first test flight in 2014. Other hardware developed under Constellation (such as the J-2x engine, 5-seg boosters, the launch platform, and the LAS) will now be utilized on the revised launch vehicle, the SLS.
To say NASA isn't capable of producing this technology it kind of pointless statement, when you consider that launch vehicles have never been built by NASA per se. They have always been built by private companies in partnership with NASA.
SpaceX has not developed, and is not in the process of developing a viable laucher for manned deep space missions. When built Falcon Heavy will launch 54mt to LEO. Not sufficient for most manned missions to Moon, NEO or Mars. This is what NASA has in store for the SLS, which will lift 70 to 130mt.
This is false, and you don't speak for NASA.
False logic. Constellation was underfunded then cancelled by congress. They are primarily responsible for the gap in American space flight. It has nothing to do with technology or capability... it's dollars and cents.
@Amerman,
You sure figured this one out all on your own, right? If you actually would care to read the article, this is the primary reason why the administration killed the shuttle program - it just wasn't cost effective anymore for the government (read NASA) to run the program. If you knew anything about how government contracts work or if you ever did any business with the government, you would understand that they are not in the business of making a profit, like a commercial enterprise. Hence, there are little to no checks and balances when it comes to the cost side of the equation.
However, by contracting with the private sector - which is how most major government initiatives have come to fruition in the past 20 years - they are able to spark competition. Again, if you read the article, SpaceX is not the only corporation in the race to deliver payloads to the space station.
But since everything Obama says or does is wrong (if you care to remember the revolt by the conservative masses when he declared the shuttle program dead), then it simple must be without regards to facts.
Stop the Fed, this never leads to good dialogue. Don't insult everyone in a discussion.
You're suspended for a day for violating #1 of the Code of Honor.
...
Folks who responded in kind, check the second part of that rule:
Folks in case you were wondering, here's Stop the Fed's inspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KEueJnsu80&skipcontrinter=1
Restore "Stop The Fed " ....
So everyone can read how goofy it thinks .... "LOL"
@Stop the fed
Having lunch with Ted Nugent today?
So far so good..its way cheaper then paying millions to the Russians to deliver cargo and humans for just one trip. Plus our beloved shuttle fleet was aging and that's a risk..good move by our president on this decision to go commercial space flights!
OBAMA 2012
Where are all of the naysayers who were so critical of SpaceX a week ago when the Falcon launch was aborted for two days? There are far too many Americans who have bought into the culture of Immediate Gratification and Shiny New Toys rather than taking the time to Do It Right as SpaceX and others are doing in coordination with NASA.
@Stop the Fed I'd say something suitably insulting at your post but everyone else did it for me.
Good thing we didn't outsource this to the North Koreans!
How is Space X supposed to land. Do we waste it all on every shot?
Typically those capsules have a parachute to deploy after re-entry. I don't see it in the diagram, but that would be my guess.
SF: I'm not taking about the capsule; I'm talking about the missile. Lots of waste?
A quick Google shows that they will land via parachute in the waters off the coast of California and be picked up. However they also plan to eventually have it land on the ground using retractable landing gear and a suped up version of it's current boosters.
I can find nothing about whether or not the boosters to get it into space are re-usable but I would assume so. However the part of the Dragon called the trunk, that contains the 2 solar arrays you see in the pictures, is designed to detach during re-entry and burn up.
That's correct Chris. This video on youtube illustrates how the "Super Draco" engines would be used for landing on ground. They are build into the capsule, and are available for use in launch abort/escape or for landing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiZel9DLeRs
Bolden - "...with missions to an asteroid and Mars on the horizon." Yeah, right -- WHEN??? Mars by what, maybe 2060? WIthout a goal, timeline germane to the next couple of decades, and consistent history of sticking with and backing one large booster or capsule project, does Mr. Bolden think anyone (i.e., the people who count - legislators) will be interested enough to even put their $$ behind it?
That being said, kudos to SpaceX on this mission of paramount importance and great historical significance. Mr. Musk will likely provide the leadership to get the first human(s) on Mars before 2040, and the funding will very likely come from the private sector. This is outstanding news, and I wish the private sector and SpaceX in particular all the best.
Yes, sadly with NASA's budget being changed every 4 years it will be very difficult for them to accomplish any long term goals. Which, as you mentioned, is why I am so excited about companies like Space X getting up and running.
We spend so much more killing each other than we do exploring our universe. Hundreds of years from now, if we live that long, our descendents will look back on this time and wonder how we could have been so stupid.
AG, that's based on the curious assumption that we'll have stopped killing each other for petty reasons hundreds of years from now. I'm a big believer that human civilization is getting better rather than worse, but I don't see that happening.
Most interesting thing about this is that this company outdid the Russians in 1 decade and they have been doing it for 50 years. Nasa didn't even have a program to automate supply runs to the station. And it was done much cheaper then NASA could ever do.
Pathetic government fail. I'm with the old school astronauts on this one. Nasa needs to be collapsed and re-instituted. Free of all the bureaucratic and union who-haws. It has become too much of a hazard to itself to accomplish anything worth while.
LOL..
The same bloated, pork driven, top-heavy bureaucratic red-tape Federal Agency who after 50 years doesn't even have a vehicle to reach low earth orbit ... thinks they are the ones to go to deep space... after failing to in the 40 years and $500 billion wasted on manned space since Apollo? LOL
SpaceX's goals are making space affordable for all Americans... lunar/mars colonies, advanced technology/efficiency
NASA's goals, as for all Government Agencies, is increasing it's own budget/power, and delivering pork to key congressmen and big doner corporations...
Our Govt is a shameless, greedy parasite.
@AG99
I imagine people were saying that very thing hundreds of years ago and they'll still be saying it hunreds of years from now. Heck it was less than one hundred years ago that we fought the "war to end all wars". Turns out, not so much.
I think it's the executives taking every nickel and blaming the workers again
Funny thing is, the way things are going, SpaceX may actually beat NASA to Mars.
Despite my agreeing with many of the complaints about NASA, it does have a role in future space exploration, simply because it has access to vast resources with pretty much 0 investor responsibility. That means you have a lot of money that can just go toward trying things, and if it fails, then oh well, nobody gets fired for it.
It's an extremely inefficient way to run... well, anything, but in a field as experimental and non-lucrative as space travel and exploration, it may be the only setup that can make significant headway.
@Cniht:
Despite the inabilities of goverment to run programs efficiently, I remind you that without NASA there won't be a space program in the U.S. and companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada won't have a head start as they do today. Before you bash NASA, you should care to read its accomplishments: the Apollo program and first man on the moon, the Shuttle program, the International Space Station, the Hubble telescope, GOES, Solar Dynamics Observatory, Cassini, SOFIA, The Mars Rover program, the Mars Phoenix Polar Lander, the Kepler program (yes, the same one that has us talking today about similar planets to Earth and deep space exploration).
You know that comfortable tempur-pedic mattress you sleep on today? That was developed commercially based on NASA's R&D and having tried it out for years in space.
As like with many NASA programs, is not what you see, is what you don't see.
@Amerman:
"SpaceX's goals are making space affordable for all Americans... lunar/mars colonies, advanced technology/efficiency"
No, here's where you are wrong. SpaceX's goal is to make money... lot's of it! SpaceX is not a not-for-profit organization, it's a corporation, run by very powerful people. Their goal is to earn multi-billion dollar contracts and get their money out of the investments they made. I would know this, since I happen to run a business of my own.
We are many, many years away from the consumerization of space. SpaceX will probably operate a B2B model for many years before it decides to go B2C. If and when it does go B2C, it will cater to a very select (as in rich) clientele. So your idea of "making space affordable for all americans" is just a wish dream.
To put matters in perspective, commercial aviation has been relatively affordable to all Americans since 1914, yet a great deal of Americans have not left the country...ever! If you think $700 for the average Transatlantic flight is expensive, wait until you have to fork out $1M to travel to the ISS - let's not even talk about how much it would cost to get to Moon or Mars.
If you believe your statement, then you are calling yourself Shameless, Greedy and a Parasite because the United States Government is SUPPOSED to be owned and MANAGED by "We the People". So, by extension, if you believe the REPUBLIC of These United States' Government is "a shameless, greedy parasite", then you would think you yourself are a shameless, greedy parasite.
but in all reality NASA is nothing more than another government agency that devours money. It is supposedly non-partisan...maybe. But it employs many many people, just the commerce dept and so on. But I dare say that NASA has contributed a lot to mankind via the scientific research over the last 50 odd years way more than most other government agencies. If it were audited like most agencies I am positive that one would find graft, corruption and fraud as usual. But without wouldn't we more likely to not have a lot of technology that we have today? I know when I started in the aerospace industry in 1966 there was not even electronic calculators...crazy idea but true. You know hard it is to divide ten decimal places by another 10 decimal place number? Slooooowwwwwwww. Just sayin......things are better due to NASA maybe not totally directly but.................
@justredd64
By definition, government entities are expenditure based, not profit based organizations like your average corporation. In fact, NASA has always operated on a very lean budget by all accounts. Could they do better and by extension, could the government do better at optimizing resources? Yes they could, of course. It's funny, but in the last days I have met several government employees, military officers, and alike, currently performing "internships" with private corporations. All these internships are geared toward optimizing the way government does business. In other words, learning how for profit corporations conduct business and applying some of these concepts to the government buying procedures.
On a final note, NASA has, for the most part, partner with private entities to develop its technology, so to say that NASA has always gone it alone is plain and simply not true. I can't understand how some posters come up with the stuff they come up with.
"If you think $700 for the average Transatlantic flight is expensive, wait until you have to fork out $1M to travel to the ISS - let's not even talk about how much it would cost to get to Moon or Mars."
And yet, over my lifetime, that idea has gone from a laughable dream to "well, maybe in ten years or so, if you're a millionaire". That's quite a leap. Even rich people can't charter a flight on the space shuttle.
And of course, since you brought up flight, there's a good example of a technology that was once exclusive but was eventually commoditized; plane travel is available for most, if not quite all, ordinary people and has created thousands of business opportunities and innovations.
Space is unlikely to be nearly as lucrative, of course, just because there's not much out there... but who knows?
This is amazing! Thank you, Elon, for your can-do spirit!! To infinity and beyond!!!
The billions didn't hurt, either.
Great to see American ingenuity ands effort to get this Space vehicle to the Space Station. I saw the early morning launch and it felt like old times here on the space coast. It was bitter sweet to have the info from the Columbia Investigation after she broke up over Texas and lost 7 astronauts. Decided to shut down the Shuttle program and let the private sector do it. Smart move. Get NASA out of it and let the genius of the young people put their heads together and provide the Space Industry the shot in the arm. And of course thanks for Taking Scotty into space. Live Long And Prosper SpaceX. Go Dragon!
It's not so much getting NASA out of it as moving NASA on to bigger and better things. At this point in time having NASA launch rockets to LEO is a complete waste of time and resources. They have been there and done that. It is past time that they turn this part of space exploration over to commercial entities. We all need to contact our elected representatives and do what we can to get that boondoggle Ares booster cancelled. They are getting ready to spend $60 billion on a rocket that does not have a mission and will be obsolete by the time it's built, if it ever is. SpaceX will have a fleet of Falcon Heavy's by then. In ant event, NASA does however have a mentoring role to play with SpaceX and others. We see this with the current launch. NASA and SpaceX are working well together. Excellent job by both.
Its great to see that at least some of the US is working towards keeping people in space...since NASA can't be given a budget to do it (after all, someone's budget has to pay for Afghanistan), at least there's pioneers here in the US who are ready, willing, and seemingly able to take up the slack.
Except that SpaceX is being primarily funded by NASA dollars. Not to mention NASA experts giving a guiding hand. The cost savings comes from NASA not directly contracting the building of the rocket and being dictated by powerful politicians that the rocket must contain some engineering feature that is manufactured in their home district. It leaves out the pork and lets the engineers design a machine that does exactly what it is supposed to do using components that make sense and are also cost effective.
COTS flights are just one part of the Falcon 9 manifest, admittedly, its about 40% of it, but far from the sum total. They're booked pretty well through 2017 with unmanned launches.
Maybe with a for profit company in the mix the US can again use its own resources to go back & forth to the station. Hitching rides with the Russians is really embarrassing.
Putin probably laughs his butt off every time we pay millions to hitch a ride. Says to his buddies: See, America is not so great after all. They need us or the station is a failure for them. Without Russia they are nothing. Only the Great Motherland can accomplish the great feats. That capitalist society is greedy and weak.
I am an American born and raised. but greed in the government makes your comic quip true
All I want to know is when the stock will come available. Definitely dont want to miss the boat on that
All true, although Russia is capitalist too, you know. That whole "Marxism" thing fell apart a while ago.
we haven't hitched many rides yet. The reason that the shuttle was mothballed was because we had viable commercial opportunities coming available. This is one of them. It is not coincidence that as soon as the last shuttle is taken out of service a private corporation already has the technology and resources and does a successful launch and docks with the space station. Timing of the launch and NASA's budget and the shuttle was all planned
If stock would become avaiable I'd buy some just to feel like in some small way that I was part of it.
Heck..... For years I donated money to the Planetary Society. So why not
"The reason that the shuttle was mothballed was because we had viable commercial opportunities coming available"
Shuttle cancellation was decided in 2004. It wasn't clear at all at that time that this was coming...and there are still people who want to kill most of it, in favor of Orion/SLS. (which is serious overkill for ISS support, and commercially out of the question for any future private stations)
Plus all the money wasted on pipe dreams people will never live on mars or the moon except in their dreams. enough money has been wasted there to pay off our national debt or at least make big hole in it HOORAY FOR OUR STUPID GOVERMENT
Stop bitching, you dont know what your talking about.
Stop bitching, you dont know what your talking about.
Money we spent on space on exploration is money well spent. And it would not even put a dent in our national debt.
There are three big avenues of technological innovation: 1) University research 2) Space Exploration 3) Military.
There's two of the three I prefer, but unfortunately they're also the two suffering the most cuts.
The current US National debt is 57,553,000,000,000
Over the past 55 years, NASA's budget TOTAL was 490,361,000,000
Normalized to 2007 dollars the TOTAL budget for 55 years was 879,424,000,000
NASA's Budget over 55 years equals 0.152% of the National Debt
Contrast that with the Department of Defense spending for 1 year of over 1,000,000,000,000
The money we spent in one year on defense exceeds a 55 year spending history on space exploration
As an accountant, I applaud SafetyMan's concise and quantified response to your concern about money wasted.
Keep in mind, Safetyman is only considering NASA's budget in relation to the total US debt.
When you compare NASA's spending in comparison to the total spending of the US government in the past 55 years, that already itty bitty percentage falls off a cliff...
Burgereater,
Get over yourself. Just like the earth was not the center of the solar system in medieval times it is not the center of the universe today.
There a lot more things out there then fast food joints and hooters bars that you can stuff your face at.
"Man who says it is impossible, should not get in the way of man doing it."
- Chinese proverb.
Are you serious, or are you just a troll looking for some attention?
I wish i had a hundred or so years left to see what happens,maybe my greatgrandchildren will see what mankind can do in a society that values things like conservation,brotherhood,integrity,kindness,wisdom, all the things my generation has missed! All we seem to care about is PROFIT MARGIN!
So youre talking after about the total collapse?
How odd that you think those things can't co-exist with proft margin (as it has ever since the birth of trade and markets).
@Daniel Cowen
Profit margin is what makes all of those things possible. If you made no money what sort of life would you have? And I don't know what generation you are but mine has seen plenty of all of those things. Perhaps if you weren't so cynical you'd see them also.
Congradulations SpaceX. Bravo.
There are two ends of the spectrum of rich in this world. #1 are the Hugette Clarks, the money grubbers and useless resource takers. Money has no conscience and seems to gravitate toward bankers, drug dealers, pornographers, real estate brokers, insurance salesmen, and financial predators.
Then there's the Elon Musks, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs of the world. These are the brilliant multidimensional people that make huge leaps for mankind. I use my Paypal account generously. Elon spends his billions well. How awesome. He lives his life in luxury, works hard, is scientific and progressive thinking, and sends rockets into orbit.
Capitalism once again redeems itself.
Go SpaceX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go Elon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, Alan, for a great article...again. I'm watching this unfold live on the NASA channel...just amazing that any of this space exploration has EVER happened. I wish my Dad were alive to see this. He was part of the space program (Gemini & Apollo), and there was so much excitement in our home with every launch, and angst with every failure.
Hopefully the private sector can make this next step in the human experience in space work. It would be a sin to lose all the progress we have made as a species leaving "home world" for the sake of $$$$$.
This is so cool. I wish that I could be there looking out a portal.
Waste of my tax money, even if I don't pay any !
Then crawl back into a cave. The rest us want to go forward and discover new things.
Janise, would you like some flint and steel to light your fires?
Then as someone who DOES pay taxes, I guess my enthusiasm trumps your complaints then, does it?
SF Accountant;
She wants it for herself, instead. Unlimited cheese chips!
Non-payment of taxes = no right to complain. And remember, it wasn't the FBI that got Al Capone, it was the IRS.
no payment of taxes and no vote..no right to complain. NASA has made all our lives just a little better
ELON has done what few VISIONARIES accomplish. He had the resource and the backing of others like him. To open a WHOLE NEW BUSINESS that involves SPACE, HUMANS and our very PLANETS. This goes down in the HISTORY BOOKS.
The ECONOMY AND JOBS ARE ENDLESS. The propblem is the OLD SMOKESACK ERA needs to FADE OUT FAST and not HAMPER these new ventures. CONGRESS AND BIG BUSINESS JUST DO NOT GET THE PICTURE !!!!!!
I think government support will increase again , once we get through this present debt and deficit disaster Alain ....
And yes ....
This is certainly historical ....
Thanks Alan Boyle ....
The live feed is great ....
@Alain Deflandre
You think this would be possible without "big business"? I suspect we won't be seeing any spacecraft built by mom & pop businesses anytime soon...or ever.
I dare say I want nothing do with the craft built by hillbillies next their still..LOL. If you have never been in aerospace plant then do some research, it is an awesome thing to see what can be accomplished by BIG biz and PEOPLE
Anyone LIKE Janice and Burgereater can only have IQ's of 1.2. Brains of walnuts !!! Completely uneducated and quite STONE AGE !!!
Agree with you 100%. If these people were in charge we would still be using candels and rowing across the Atlantic.
But think of all the money we'd save!
I don't know what we'd do with it... but we'd have no debt problems, that's for sure!
I swear to God, watching this live brought tears to my eyes! I have been following the work by SpaceX for years wondering if and when this day would ever happen - and here we are, seeing it live. So cool. It's not quite the same as the first step on the moon, but the event is equally significant in other ways. GO!
The LIVE FOOTAGE IS OUTSTANDING. As it all will be written in History !!!
Space is not a waste of money. If it was possible id volunteer in a second to live in a colony on the moon or mars. Read up on what advances nasa has accidently brought to the public. Things such as gps are because of space.
One small step for a company, one giant leap for private enterprise.
Lets pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.
C.S. Lewis
I'll spread my iniquity where I darn well please, thank you.
Anyone else watching the docking?
Cool. The arm is moving.
WE HAVE CAPTURE! ®¿®
Capture is confirmed!
Congratulations Space X ....
Great job ....
Thanks again Alan Boyle for providing us a live feed ....
FANTASTIC!
Just watchd the whole thing.
We have a Dragon by the tail.
The Eagle has landed.
Historic words.