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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:
Now they can't wait to unload the Dragon to see what goodies they were sent ....
No national pride to be found here. I'm sure the billionaire is proud of their achievement.
And why shouldn't he be?
He isn't a billionaire, yet. He came to America to do something important, and has a few plans in that regard. Thinks America is the best place to do it. Despite j**kwads like U.
Not only do I have national pride in this accomplishment, I am proud that I live relatively close to SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, CA.
splendid accomplishment by a private firm, lots of educated people with the desire to succeed...kinda what this country is built on...not entitlement mentality
This is indeed the first step to getting back out there many years after Apollo. Just like how the Europeans settled in America, private enterprices will lead the way to colonize outer space. It's slow going but we'll get there. :)
Space-X is an *American* company, so there is national pride here. Instead of placing our astronauts on Russian rockets, we'll have them on *American* rockets to the ISS. We should be proud an American company is leading the way for our return to space. :)
Wonderful accomplishment. It is great to live in a country where private business can do space exploration for profit, instead of having the goobermint's military objectives being the only reason for it and the only game in town. Go SpaceX!! Great cause for "National Pride"!
I want to put my company's decal on the side of Dragon or Falcon 9.
How much to do that, please?
This could work to raise x-tra capital....like the NASCAR or NHRA cars. Speaking of NHRA....let's put a nitrous bottle on that baby and see how far/fast it can go...HA! HA! "To infinity and beyond!!!"
Wouldn't it burn off during lift-off or re-entry?
Eh, I'm sure they can work something out.
Sf,
That's the beauty of it for SpaceX. Put ad's on the side, Earth's atmosphere scrubs it off, and the Dragon is clean and ready for new ad's next trip.
This SpaceX liftoff brought to you by Viagra. Assisting Go for Liftoff for since 1998.
This SpaceX reentry is broght to you by Trojan. Trojan, protecting rockets since ....
Congrats and Kudos to Space X on a job well done so far.
Hopefully this will be the beginning of the beginning for an eventual base on the moon or some other planet body.
Congratulations to Elan and the entire crew of the SpaceX on their success to dock the maiden voyage of Falcon 9 at the ISS. Continued success guys with God's speed and more success in the future.
(...brought it in for the orbital outpost's first-ever hookup with a commercial spaceship.
(...represents the culmination of years of planning and hundreds of millions of dollars of spending by NASA and California-based SpaceX ...)
I guess this is costing taxpayers like the USPS. Does like like Privatization to me.
Well, supplying the ISS and our astronauts up there is a government objective. It's not like the astronauts themselves can afford to pay for the supply drop.
SpaceX has a contract with NASA, and that contract will save NASA (and thus the US) significant money over shipping supplies to Russia and having the Russians send it up. And yes, as ISS is a NASA venture, it is the government's responsibility to maintain their (i.e. taxpayer) property and personnel.
Elon Musk is one of those people that really has futuristic vision and be able to apply it. It will be interesting to see where the space program goes within the next 10 years. It will also be interesting to see what Elon Musk will try to accomplish next. The scary thing is that he's only 40 years old and has accomplished so much.
Hopefully Mr. Musk is not into Trans-humanism..... now that's a scary topic indeed.... Ciao
Sigh...the transumani-phobe is back. And off-topic as usual.
As a government (in an election year), we are committed to undo what we did!
To quote, "We’re committed to ending the outsourcing of work on America’s space program and bringing these jobs back to the United States."
Wasn't it the politicians in Washington D.C. that made the decision to retire the shuttle program thereby creating the need to outsource? But in this election year, particularly when job creation is center stage, the Federal government (with Obama taking the credit) wants to end the outsourcing. Out of which side of his mouth does he want to talk to us today. More lip service, little real leadership. Oh how we love the 15 second sound bites or the internet news. It tells us so little. I guess we prefer the dark over being truly informed.
Tom, don't be mystified. Yes, it was Congress that failed to close the "space gap" we currently have in regards to space transportation (human or cargo). But, considering SpaceX was founded in 2002, Dragon had an orbital test flight in 2010, and has been in testing and development for a few years before that, I would hardly say this is happening due to the "election year". The timing has nothing to do with politics, but you can sure bet politicians (from all sides of the aisle) will take "credit" for something they fell ass backwards into getting.
Last shuttle, July of 2011. First commercial trip to the ISS, May 2012.
Less than one year.
Harcourt and Tony,
I was talking about the OUTSOURCING issues. I understand how we find ourselves in a "space gag" if in fact we really are in one at all. Lets focus on the outsourcing issue. What jobs have been outsourced except perhaps using the Russians to transport our astronauts. From my perspective, we did not so much "outsource" as "curtail" our domestic space program.
"Outsourcing" has just become one of those buzz words that gets coupled with the notion that the Presidential candidates are going to somehow bring back the "outsourced" jobs to United States. We won't without significant tax reform. But, that is likely to be problematic until the rating agencies downgrade the U.S. debt instruments some more.
Tom,
I understand, and even made a post in another article questioning the author's use of "outsourcing" since that word/term punches a lot of political buttons. Calling SpaceX an "outside service" contracted to transport cargo (and eventually humans) to the ISS and low Earth orbit is probably less threatening to people who see the word "outsource" and get all red and huffy.
I don't believe we actually outsourced any NASA/space agency jobs to Russia due to the space gap. Obviously we pay them to transport Astronauts to and from the ISS, but as far as I know, there are no jobs that left when we temporarily lost our human spaceflight capability. Both NASA and Russia have trained ISS-bound personnel at their own facilities for awhile.
I believe the issue comes back to SpaceX being used as an outside service to launch cargo (and eventually humans) to the ISS, much like ESA does with their automated craft. You say "outsource", and people think of US jobs going to ___— country. In this case, US job are staying in the US, as SpaceX is headquartered in Hawthorne, CA, and will hopefully be looking to expand its operations.
Harcourt-
Totally agree with everything you said in your post.
There are certain words, outsourcing being one of them, that politicians use to manipulate people. When I hear a Presidential candidate using the word "outsourcing", I simply understand that they are about to try to manipulate me. Would it not be so much better if they tried to persuade me instead?
That was my point, perhaps not too well articulated. Have a good Memorial Day.
"Last shuttle, July of 2011. First commercial trip to the ISS, May 2012.
Less than one year."
Yep.
I said time and again, that anyone who thinks the end of the Shuttle was 'the end of manned space flight,' (even though ISS still operates) or 'the end of The Space Program' (whatever that really means...the DoD always has, does, always will have its own space projects, with little or nothing to do with NASA) were not paying attention.
Maybe now they will. This is only the beginning.
Hmmm.... i guess the Aurora failed the Berthing-Op, Simulation tests?
just imagine if society in general actually realized what their life would be without "NERDS", not even be able to watch their fascination with sports on TV, use their cellphone, or listen to their I"whatever"...fortunately "NERDS" do not have to live a life without imagination and creativity!...they spend their time doing things that really make a lasting difference. So ask yourself who deserves the most respect?
Politician , Sports player, Banker, or the NERD?
fortuantely for NERDS it not all about the $$$
NERDS for sure!! NERDS RULE MAN!! The NERDS will surely defeat the Corrupt Politicians... Corrupt Bankers, and all involved with the New World Order (Wall Street and Federal Reserve)... An Army of Trans-Humanistic NERDS to battle the NWO. Sounds like a Winning- Plan to me..lol... Winning!!!! BTW i am totally serious, no sarcasm here. An Army of Nerds would easily crush the NWO. Ciao
Lest all the private enterprise enthusiasts overwhelm themselves with this success, bear in mind that Elon Musk did not do this out of the goodness of his heart, but under a billion dollar contract from NASA, on which I'm sure he did not lose money! That is still your and my tax dollars at work! Follow the money!
That said, it is still a step forward to have multiple vendors to choose from when giving those contracts!
Still cheaper than having the Russians do it and it's money that is being put back into our economy through jobs, etc.
" Elon Musk did not do this out of the goodness of his heart, but under a billion dollar contract from NASA, on which I'm sure he did not lose money!"
Yes, that's kind of the point. Even if it's currently funded by government objectives, this is a huge expansion of the space industry. Once people can make money from doing more than just overcharging NASA for parts, more producers, designs, and research can be put to work to figure out new space craft.
Of course, the ultimate dream (besides colonization, anyway) is space exploitation, in which resources or research in space can actually pay for the space flight and equipment itself. Only then can space travel be accomplished without government money or the whimsy of obscenely rich people.
Congratulations to Elan and the entire Space X crew for successfully pioneering the private sector space exploration with the docking of the Falcon 9. As a fan of your work in technology, ranging from your IT success to Solar and the first fully powered electric vehicles, I am just giggling like a toddler in a candy store on this milestone you just crossed and added to huge resume of success. Bravo Elan Musk. God bless you, God bless America, and continued success.
WOW! Congratulations to SpaceX. It’s an amazing achievement of human technology. A small technology
advancement for man, but a march for human in space exploration. North Koreans should learn how to better
shooting their space rockets. They always say "Go West!"
Nasa has been sending rockets up for over 40 years. So why is this supposed to be impressive? just because its privately funded? big deal. who cares.
Your ignorance doesn't seem to be providing you with bliss.
My sympathies. ;-(
You didn't answer my question. What makes this so impressive? Hell the Russians sent a rocket into space over 50 years ago. So this one is privately funded...and? big deal.
Well, for one thing, it represents the movement of technology from the government to the private sector, and a shifting of the responsibility of "space travel" from government (and it's goals and largess) to civilians (and their goals and their limitations/innovations). Depending on how heavily these ventures are regulated, this could potentially open up space travel to entirely private, for-profit ventures. What kind of ventures? Nobody knows yet. That's kind of the point.
Does the USPS move mail on government owned planes that serve no one else, whose design was specified by them, and developed by a cost-plus contractor?
Or do they simply contract for fixed-price transportation services like any other customer on commercially built aircraft that may serve anyone? (mail may well have been in the cargo hold of an airliner you've flown on)
Yes, I know it looks pretty much like 'any other' ISS cargo docking, but what's important is that the above operations model is finally being used in space. NASA just pays for services (ultimately to include crew, and at least one other supplier), with minimal oversight, from space transportation companies that can serve other users as well.
What other users are there? Google 'Bigelow Aerospace.'
And the fact that the same capability developed in the traditional way would've possibly cost 10 times as much, and taken 5 times as log to get to this point. And the fact that we will ultimately longer be completely reliant on the Russians for single-source ISS access...at about $60 million USD per seat.
(If there should be a serious technical problem with either spacecraft or launcher that grounds the Soyuz fleet for an extended time, where are we? [it almost happened recently] If there's a major political problem with Russia and they cut off our access, where are we? Remember, the current Dragon is a cargo version of what will be a manned spacecraft. Indeed, were you willing to take a fair risk, and a quick-and-dirty air supply and seat with you, you could have ridden aboard this one, or the previous three-orbit Dragon test flight.)
That's what makes it (and the rest of Commercial Crew) different from what's gone before.
Alan;
2 corrections, 3 additions.
1) Dragon has 4 pairs of 2 Draco rockets for escape and maneuver. The SuperDracos now in development will allow dry land touchdowns.
2) NASA predicts 2017; SpaceX says 2015. NASA says, 'well, maybe'.
i) The SpaceX manned flights to ISS would be $140 million, flat. No matter the number of occupants, 1-7.
ii) Elon is determined to make all rocket stages re-usable, and cut launch costs by 10-100X.
iii) He once dropped a hint that he thinks Dragon can outperform Orion. The whole company and its launches cost ½ of what has gone into Orion so far. LOL
Thank you for these pointless details.
ms1, Perhaps that's all he has to do waiting for his welfare check.
Those details are only pointless if you have total indifference to the topic, and frankly, if you do I'm kind of wondering why you spend time on the article and comment board.
True, Elon says humans can be flown in three years, but I think that's dependent on projected funding from NASA, and Congress is not going to provide as much as NASA has been asking for. But I might hedge a bit on that 2017 figure.
being from an aerospace background years ago I find all this very interesting and hopeful for our country, we dang sure need something to be hopeful about.
I must agree with Alan. I love that this flight has gone extremely well so far, but getting cargo to ISS is one thing. Getting humans, safely, to ISS is another thing entirely. I hope they stay on target for three years, but all sorts of weird stuff can come up when you start thinking about human-rating a spacecraft.
Harcourt, Dragon was designed for humans from the start. (as was Falcon-9) Not unlike the fact that the Progress derivative has most of the same systems in common with a manned Soyuz. (and unlike a Progress, even a cargo Dragon will return intact, giving a greater downmass capability than Soyuz has.)
A proper life-support system, launch escape/landing rockets and a few other systems, and it'll be good to go. A manned Dragon berthing and docking would look like what you're seeing today.
(indeed, it would've been possible to ride this Dragon, given a makeshift seat and air supply)
See OBAMA??? Look at what private commercial enterprise can accomplish without your socialist, marxist and communist ideology!! you OBAMA are the biggest JACKASS I have ever seen!!
Must you?! The cleaners called and said they could not get the blood out of your white robes and hood.
stock sure if it ever is available
But......right now.....I Want the 'T' shirt !!!!!!!!!
love the 'caught the Dragon by the tail' quote
have to have a Dragon 'T' shirt and in July a 'Curiosity' shirt
"We’re committed to ending the outsourcing of work on America’s space program and bringing these jobs back to the United States." <~~~~ Before everyone forgets how Charlie?????
This is probably one of the greatest engineering achievements by this new form of private firm and NASA partnership. NASA/Govt money is better spent this way (I guess money is both Govt. contracts and private investments by MUSK) than NASA entirely spending them in Billions to develop its own docking stations or paying Russians for Soyuz. NASA or big govt budgets should do more of this, with clear objectives and milestones.
Congralulations to NASA and Space X.
Many such things can be achieved by a good honest Govt. private partnership, as long as Congressmen do not interfere to push pork-barrel projects that bypass oversight and develops cronyism. I see that this kind of partnerships are needed to efficiently spend our Tax money, and to keep US jobs in USA and protect new technologies.
But then there are politicians, greedy lobbyists and corporate hawks and govt. bureaucrats who expect suck-ups. As long as we can get rid of these people away from the path of flow of tax money into useful national projects that help to build our engineering base stronger, we can progress much faster...
Congrats to SpaceX and NASA. This is not only an achievement but a milestone and should serve as a wake up call to the nation that we should be "up there" by any and all means necessary.
Earth is not our destination, it is the launch pad for humankind in his destiny to populate the universe. So, let us all work together, US, Russia, China, India, Japan, Europe and Africa to pool our resources to accomplish what is inevitable.
Show the damn video of the thing coming together!!!! morons I'm tiered of watching stills.
Now that the GOP backed industry is putting us in orbit and saving the "big" government billions what can we expect as citizens. The private industries price will need to inflate to make it work.The rich get richer and the poor ge poorer.
And you come to the conclusion that lower prices inevitably lead to higher prices... how? And then the later connection that the space program (ultimately funded by taxpayers, a group from which the poorest are mostly excluded) is disenfranchising the poor comes from what?
Really, I'm impressed you're so devoted to your economic misinformation that you even try to paint space exploration with the class warfare brush.