Cidersomerset
25th May 2012, 18:06
http://live.drjays.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/SpaceX-and-Scotty.jpg
As if the advances in private space flight weren’t awesome enough, yesterday’s flight of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carried something extra for fans of interstellar travel: the ashes of actor James Doohan, best known for playing the engineer Scotty on Star Trek.
The spacecraft, known as Dragon, is on the first privately-funded voyage to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is carrying over 1,000 lbs of supplies. NASA has looked to private industry to stock the ISS after recent budget cuts.
While it sucks that NASA is being given sufficient resources to fulfill it’s mission, that doesn’t diminish from SpaceX’s (and billionaire backer Elon Musk‘s) accomplishments. The video of the early morning takeoff provides a dramatic reminder that this feat, unimaginable for millennia, is anything but routine:
Doohan’s ashes were part of a payload from Celetis, a company that offers to launch remains into Earth orbit. Remains from original Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper were also onboard, along with hundreds of others.
The ashes were part of a secondary stage on the rocket, which detached during flight. It will orbit the Earth for about a year, before falling back and burning up in reentry.
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ISS Welcomes SpaceX Dragon — First Private Spacecraft at Station
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2012/05/DragonISS1-660x499.jpg
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully berthed with the International Space Station this morning after a long overnight approach including several unplanned maneuvers. The crew at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, concluded a long night of flight demonstrations and troubleshooting by watching astronaut Don Pettit control the station’s robotic arm and grapple the Dragon at 6:56 a.m. PDT.
“Looks like we’ve got a Dragon by the tail,” Pettit said from the station’s Cupola module once the capture was made.
Pettit’s successful capture of the Dragon was greeted by cheers at both SpaceX’s Hawthorne headquarters and NASA’s mission control in Houston. For both SpaceX and NASA the capture moment marks the beginning of a shift in how cargo will be delivered to and from the space station, with the eventual goal of changing how manned flight itself is done to low Earth orbit.
But Dragon’s overnight approach was not without hiccups, demonstrating the true test-flight nature of the mission. A problem with the devices used to guide the Dragon as it approached the station forced an initial retreat. In the end there were a handful of changes made to the initial flight plan, but at 6:49 a.m. PDT, the Dragon sat just 10 meters (32 feet) from the ISS when NASA flight director Holly Ridings gave the command SpaceX had been waiting years to hear: “go for capture.”
Early Friday morning the SpaceX team in Hawthorne completed the approach initiation burn of the Dragon’s Draco thrusters to move the spacecraft roughly 1,000 meters to a point where it could change its alignment relative to the station before performing the first series of demonstration maneuvers close to the ISS. The Dragon spacecraft could be seen on Earth by its flashing strobe light against the night sky.
Once in place at 350 meters, Dragon completed a 180-degree yaw rotation to align itself, and then another short burn was performed to move to the 250-meter point where the demonstrations would begin.
At 2:29 a.m. PDT, the SpaceX team confirmed Dragon was holding at 250 meters (820 feet), but Andre Kuipers, the Dutch astronaut on board the station, noticed the spacecraft was slightly forward of where it was expected to be. NASA engineers in Houston said the position was acceptable.
Rest of article....
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/05/spacex-docking/
As if the advances in private space flight weren’t awesome enough, yesterday’s flight of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carried something extra for fans of interstellar travel: the ashes of actor James Doohan, best known for playing the engineer Scotty on Star Trek.
The spacecraft, known as Dragon, is on the first privately-funded voyage to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is carrying over 1,000 lbs of supplies. NASA has looked to private industry to stock the ISS after recent budget cuts.
While it sucks that NASA is being given sufficient resources to fulfill it’s mission, that doesn’t diminish from SpaceX’s (and billionaire backer Elon Musk‘s) accomplishments. The video of the early morning takeoff provides a dramatic reminder that this feat, unimaginable for millennia, is anything but routine:
Doohan’s ashes were part of a payload from Celetis, a company that offers to launch remains into Earth orbit. Remains from original Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper were also onboard, along with hundreds of others.
The ashes were part of a secondary stage on the rocket, which detached during flight. It will orbit the Earth for about a year, before falling back and burning up in reentry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ISS Welcomes SpaceX Dragon — First Private Spacecraft at Station
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2012/05/DragonISS1-660x499.jpg
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully berthed with the International Space Station this morning after a long overnight approach including several unplanned maneuvers. The crew at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, concluded a long night of flight demonstrations and troubleshooting by watching astronaut Don Pettit control the station’s robotic arm and grapple the Dragon at 6:56 a.m. PDT.
“Looks like we’ve got a Dragon by the tail,” Pettit said from the station’s Cupola module once the capture was made.
Pettit’s successful capture of the Dragon was greeted by cheers at both SpaceX’s Hawthorne headquarters and NASA’s mission control in Houston. For both SpaceX and NASA the capture moment marks the beginning of a shift in how cargo will be delivered to and from the space station, with the eventual goal of changing how manned flight itself is done to low Earth orbit.
But Dragon’s overnight approach was not without hiccups, demonstrating the true test-flight nature of the mission. A problem with the devices used to guide the Dragon as it approached the station forced an initial retreat. In the end there were a handful of changes made to the initial flight plan, but at 6:49 a.m. PDT, the Dragon sat just 10 meters (32 feet) from the ISS when NASA flight director Holly Ridings gave the command SpaceX had been waiting years to hear: “go for capture.”
Early Friday morning the SpaceX team in Hawthorne completed the approach initiation burn of the Dragon’s Draco thrusters to move the spacecraft roughly 1,000 meters to a point where it could change its alignment relative to the station before performing the first series of demonstration maneuvers close to the ISS. The Dragon spacecraft could be seen on Earth by its flashing strobe light against the night sky.
Once in place at 350 meters, Dragon completed a 180-degree yaw rotation to align itself, and then another short burn was performed to move to the 250-meter point where the demonstrations would begin.
At 2:29 a.m. PDT, the SpaceX team confirmed Dragon was holding at 250 meters (820 feet), but Andre Kuipers, the Dutch astronaut on board the station, noticed the spacecraft was slightly forward of where it was expected to be. NASA engineers in Houston said the position was acceptable.
Rest of article....
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/05/spacex-docking/