Free Republic

While SpaceX has sent plenty of cargo Dragons to the space station, crew Dragon is a different beast. It docked autonomously under the station astronauts’ watchful eyes, instead of relying on the station’s robot arm for berthing. The capsule’s nose cap was wide open like a dragon’s mouth, to expose the docking mechanism. Behnken said that’s the way it should work when he and Hurley are on board; they may push a button or two and will have the ability to intervene, if necessary. As part of Sunday’s shakedown, the station astronauts sent commands for the Dragon to retreat and...

Russia will charge the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) $71 million to transport just one American astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard its Soyuz spacecraft in 2016. That’s more than triple the $22 million per seat the Russians charged in 2006, according to a July 8 audit report by NASA’s inspector general.

Feb 4, 2007 — CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Two astronauts left the International Space Station on Sunday to finish hooking up a new cooling system that will pave the way for installation of European and Japanese modules beginning this year. Station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Sunita Williams left the station's Quest airlock at 8:38 a.m. EST (1338 GMT) for the planned 6-1/2 hour spacewalk. It was the second of three planned spacewalks over nine days, the most ambitious station assembly work ever attempted without a U.S. space shuttle crew present. Lopez-Alegria and Williams, both U.S. astronauts, will...