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 ...
I care about what actually gets done.
"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit"
R. Reagan, President of the United States.
Personally, I'm just glad that NASA is out of the business of handling or operating spacecraft, and the deadwood from the Shuttle era can find productive work doing something useful.
/johnny
We will see what the result will be. Right now, we must depend on the Russians to get our people back and forth on the space station. We will see if Obama’s vision is the best one. His track record is not very good.
/johnny
LOL. Like Tesla?
Let's see you start up a launch company.
/johnny
Didn’t William Shatner already do that?
Come on kabar.
Gore implied he made the Internet possible?
Ya believe him?
Bama took total credit for Bin Laden as several military Generals winked and nodded and shook his hand as if he led the mission and planned it from the beginning. Most people know better.
Who cares what politicians take credit for?
They lie.
Too much politics here.
In fact, this is why SpaceX donated to the Democrats and Republicans. This is what most all large private businesses do in order stay in biz, gain favor and move ahead.
So can this private company out source and manufacture in Malysia, Taiwan or Mexico? Can this private company sell rockets or technology to foreign countries?
They did nothing new. NASA did that in the 1960s. Private Industry just copied similar designs done in the past. Russians do what private industry has done. Private industry didn’t think anything up. You missed that point.
Coming up with a new way to get into space and returning would be new.
To remember what the regs were, I had to go get my ancient RSA T-shirt that I bought to support Philip Zimmermann. I normally only wear that when I get a new picture for my driver's license. ;)
/johnny
/johnny
This is the greatest real achievement of NASA paving the way for private exploitation of space. This is what discovering new worlds is all about.
But NASA has provided private industry with the launch facilities and other support.
If private industry had to do it on their own, the costs would be higher.
This mission is not entirely funded or supported by private industry.
Unforunately you are wrong.
GM had a large investment in Detroit. Now most of their cars are being made in China.
I was a project lead for a ground station in Malaysia in ‘96. I had a s/w engineer on my team that had a red passport. He was a PRC citizen. All approved by the Clinton administration.
This was just before Loral and Hughes Aircraft taught the Chinese to launch multiple satellites at a time.
Oh yeah. Apple was heavily invested in California at one time too.
I had to go get my ancient RSA T-shirt that I bought to support Philip Zimmermann. I normally only wear that when I get a new picture for my driver's license. ;)
I have one of those! RSA in PERL with the machine readable part in barcode. An export controlled T-shirt. Nobody gets it, ever.
I, for one, welcome our new NSA Overlords /.
Also, private industry did not spend anything on design or materials since all they had to do was look to the past.
I think we will have to end up agreeing to disagreeing on this subject.
A government agency is paying a private company for a service, and only paying for meeting milemarks, not just cost plus. And the taxpayer is getting a big break on the price.
Best thing that ever happened in space developments.
The first Falcon 9 was privately funded because no-one wanted to be the first. When Musk made his bones on that, lots of folks, not just government lined up for launch spots.
/johnny
And when I tried to explain it to him, he fork-bombed or something. Blank stare.
/johnny
... which are only of any use at the very last moment of the trip. Along with the wings, tailfin, and all the equipment needed to control them, all making up a huge chunk of mass that could be better used to send more useful things into orbit.
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