Meeting the President at the Falcon 9 launch site, from left: Neil G. Hicks, Florence Li, Brian Mosdell, President Obama, Leslie Woods Jr
Posted on 05/25/2012 8:45:26 AM PDT by mandaladon
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station for a historic docking Friday, captured by astronauts wielding a giant robot arm.
It succeeded in making the first commercial delivery into the cosmos.
U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit used the space station's 58-foot robot arm to snare the gleaming white Dragon after a few hours of extra checks and maneuvers. The two vessels came together while sailing above Australia.
"Looks like we've got us a dragon by the tail," Pettit announced from 250 miles up once he locked onto Dragon's docking mechanism.
"You've made a lot of folks happy down here over in Hawthorne and right here in Houston," radioed NASA's Mission Control. "Great job guys."
NASA controllers clapped as their counterparts at SpaceX's control center in Hawthorne, Calif. — including SpaceX's billionaire maestro, Elon Musk, of PayPal fame — lifted their arms in triumph and jumped out of their seats to exchange high fives.
This is the first time a private company has attempted to send a vessel to the space station, an achievement previously reserved for a small, elite group of government agencies. And it's the first U.S. craft to visit the station since the final shuttle flight last July.
The astronauts wasted no time getting the Dragon capsule into position for actual docking to the space station. The unmanned capsule is carrying 1,000 pounds of supplies on this unprecedented test flight.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
unless you’re howard wallowitz. have you seen how he dresses?
I have no idea who that is.
But watch this...
Some happy people for a change.
SpaceX Employees Cheering Outside Mission Control 1
Video: SpaceX employees standing outside mission control at SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, California, watching the successful stage separation...
So you would run away from religious oppression? That would not be very religious of you. Or were you intending to be sarcastic?
Meeting the President at the Falcon 9 launch site, from left: Neil G. Hicks, Florence Li, Brian Mosdell, President Obama, Leslie Woods Jr
I’ve seen it, thanks!
It’s nice to see something good, actually happening in America,
If ya haven’t’ seen this, it’s short and worth the watch.
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SpaceX Employees Cheering Outside Mission Control
SpaceX employees standing outside mission control at SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, California
A manual has already been written, it would be as a backup / takeback plan.
it was addressed at the post launch presser.
“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.”
Watched it, thanks! That’s a nice facility in Hawthorne.. Little ‘ol Hawthorne of all places. I bet that little city enjoys the revenue.
Meanwhile, his staff is probably looking into regulations they can devise to kill the project.
It’s all about him isn’t it. Why look what all is happening on my watch.
But then, "University allows 38 year old male to use women's bathroom" ....Is somehow breaking news?
A school has liberal agendas? Major breaking stuff?..lol
Fact is, there are individuals out here who are not too happy about the successes here..It can be seen in several posts on this thread...So it was quickly sent to the corn field.
Things can get really ugly folks.
Great job!
Thanks Markman46. I didn’t see that.
One could ask Dagny and Hank...
I think it should stay in ‘Breaking’ too and wondered why it was pulled. Oh well. It’s historic, no doubt about that. I’m one of those “unhappy people” but my hat is off to SpaceX and it should get top billing.
I’m not thrilled with what happened to NASA, but this is real history in the making. In fact, NASA is still part of it, but like everything else, we need to start moving away from total government control of things like space exploration, education, business, etc. Moving away from government control is like escaping earths gravitational pull. It’s really difficult, every single inch of the way. Failure to break free, will eventually result in total systems failure.
not a problem. next up is Orbital and their Cygnus, they start a test flight in August and a Demo in Dec, should be interesting times
Which is really too bad. Because like it or not, our only choices are to go into space or go back to the caves. If civilization endures, we will need the stuff that is up there: limitless energy, abundant natural resources and lots and lots of empty space to do the big, audacious and dangerous engineering projects that space-faring civilizations need to do to prosper. Eventually we will need more elbow room, too. There ae several planets and large moons to chose from.
The alternative is the long, slow stagnation, contraction and eventual death of civilization. Human beings don't do "sustainable"-it's not in out nature and never will be. We long to build, to grow, to excel. We always want new, and we always want more. To thrive we need more space and more stuff. The only place left to get it is Up There. We will go up or we will go down. It is really that simple.
Puts away soapbox...
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