Another Dragon Joins the ISS
SpaceX CRS-1 Mission Update: October 10, 2012
“The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has been successfully captured at the International Space Station. At approximately 6:56AM ET / 3:56AM PT, Expedition 33 crew member Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency used the station’s robotic arm to grapple Dragon. Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of NASA remarked, “Looks like we’ve tamed the Dragon. We’re happy she’s on board with us.”
Congrats to all concerned, and chalk one big one up for having an Engine Out capability.
I’ve heard remarks from the company implying that it actually has two-engines-out capability. Wow.
Only one during lift-off, two anywhere else in flight.
Nice job Spacex Rangers and NASA!
Often the most important cultural and technological shifts occur after the original headline grabbing events. This second Dragon success in docking with the ISS is surely one of them. SpaceX has changed the way we will ever after look at entrepreneurial space and its many partners in this evolutionary step will both benefit and help build the foundation for a different future. NASA deserves major credit for being a good partner in strengthening the US space enterprise with the private sector.
Amen…
Two for two, even with an anomaly. A nice testament to a robust, fault tolerant system.
Magisterial! Take that, Congress!
Take that Lexington Institute!
For the next 2.5 weeks, ISS has an extra escape capsule
I saw a video with Elon looking up at them testing some seats for dragon rider. Seems NASA should put the hurry on sending some spare seats to be stored on ISS plus adding some air conditioning to cargo dragon to be able to do just as you suggest. Can cargo dragons shelving system come out easily while on orbit or not???
I like that idea. It would add a measure of safety to ISS duty, and also give an opportunity to evaluate Dragon on long-duration duty before it begins to fly humans uphill.
I’m pretty sure something could be worked out if the money is there, and doubtless the astronauts would be capable of re-configuring the cargo racks and installing seats (if necessary–I’d fly a Dragon with both seats and cargo) using tools on board.
Mark:
Crew Dragon for ISS support would probably carry less crew so they can take their own dry goods and rations for the mission. Maybe two SpaceX pilots and two station crew. They could spend a few days transferring cargo and head home leaving the station crew behind. Another case for a lifeboat Dragon. This frees up the Dragon for refurbishment and relaunch. For taxi missions like this, they don’t even need a trunk or solar panels, just a short ring shaped interstage between Dragon and the second stage. They could do a same day launch to docking with ISS and just a few hours from undocking to reentry. This could be accomplished with batteries or fuel cells for power with ISS power while docked. Because the overall payload would be lighter, this would be the ideal configuration to employ recoverable first and second stages. It would reduce ‘seat prices’ by a couple of orders of magnitude.
tinker
Gimme a bean bag chair, a 6 pack of Moose Drool, and my uncle Henry’s emphysema nosetube ox tank and I’d ride that thing down to sea level right now. I’d also name that Dragon…thinking of calling it ” Smaug”.
Dwedle:
That’s the pioneering spirit that made America great in years gone by!
tinker
It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a contingency plan sitting at SpaceX for emergency crew return.
could they crew rate a Dragon for safe return to earth from the iss as of this time?
You’d have three issues to solve–
1) Onboard life support for x-number (minus 1) crew for about 4.5-6 hours between station departure, reentry, and recovery. Dragon has some limited capability, part of the evolution process for human rating is a more robust ECLSS.
2) Someone has to stay onboard ISS to “release” Dragon with the arm, since it isn’t cleared for proximity ops.
3) Securing crew for reentry. You could fake this with padding and straps and maybe duct tape. It would be better if they had a “Dragon escape kit” with harnesses and air mattresses/bags.
In a real emergency, if it meant leaving a crew behind I doubt that anyone would care whether it was “cleared for proximity ops”.
Very slick, nice job! I think they should send Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia next time.
Sociological Note: The astronauts demonstrated what is called “ice-cream seeking behavior” today, opening the hatch and entering Dragon a day early.
I think I know what’s for desert tonight.
Mark:
I laughed when I saw them open up Dragon, Suni snooping around to how easy it would be to get to the freezer.
tinker
I sometimes as why hasn’t there been commercial space* before. One answer I heard was before NASA thought only govt can do “space.” But after flight of Paul Allen funded Spaceship One and the CSXT Space Shot 2004, it was figured commercial companies can do “space.”
We all have our diatribes about SLS, maybe this Dragon flight shows what future may be. Spaceships flying around are all commercial flights or commercial flying govt flights, and NASA does R&D (but needs the $ and charter to do so) and flies the really difficult (i.e. going to outer planets).
Comparing Dragon to Orion, I didn’t think of it before but Dragon’s hatch is a lot bigger so larges pieces of equipment can be transferred.
October space: Robert Goddard birthday, Sputnik 1 launch, Spaceship One wins Ansari X Prize,… looks like this Dragon mission is additional.
*technically yes as all rockets and spaceships were built by private companies.
It seems possible that NASA’s most complex future HSF missions might very well have a “commercial” component.
For example, NASA might use SLS (if it gets built) to establish relatively large stations at Lagrange points, then use commercial flights to maintain and supply them.Also only the heaviest components of a Mars mission might require SLS. The less massive material and consumables might fly on cheaper commercial launches, possibly reducing overall mission cost noticeably.This seems so reasonable to me that I’m probably wrong. Still, it seems that having this commercial capability is a good thing, something that could change the cost and configuration of many future missions for the better.
Comparing the cargo Dragon to Orion isn’t really useful; Orion was never intended to serve as a cargo ship. The crewed Dragon, like Orion, is expected to use the smaller LIDS/NDS hatch.
Actually in the days of safe, simple, soon, there was supposed to be a cargo version of Orion. It went by the wayside early on when costs and schedules went out of control.
“Looks like we’ve tamed the Dragon.”
<sigh> Are they gonna do that every single time?
It does … Drag … on… < smirk >
Did anyone really think they wouldn’t have commenced unloading operations today knowing they had yum yums in the freezer?
We are watching something very special.
Slowly, but surely, SpaceX and NASA are changing the way we all look at space.
And it is for the better… now only if the 202 area code could get on board, we would have more rapid progress.
Respectfully,
Andrew Gasser
TEA Party in Space
What’s impressive to me is the lack of fuss. Like most ELV launches there are no massive NASA readiness reviews, no VIPs from all over, no huge support deployment, and the turnaround between launches is quick already and could become faster in the future. Spaceflight should not be spectacular; it should be cheap, safe, frequent, and routine. Of course the slow, Saturn-like liftoff was pretty impressive.
Vulture,
Agreed. Whenever I’ve seen VIPs (as opposed to working people), dressed in their $600 suits at a design review, or a launch, or a press conference, or whatever, I have the same thought — if we do business with these guys, we’re paying for those suits. Whether it’s fuss or suits or whatever, any unnecessary overheads that can be eliminated is the way to go. (Have you notices how many companies print everything in color on expensive paper thee days? We pay for that too.)
Steve
Everything is wonderful,right?The contract they have with NASA has milestones.Did they meet the milestone with 1000lbs.?The contract says NASA will check to see how they are doing.Will NASA cancel their contract because of non delivery?This is a big failure.They could do more flights,but the contract says 12.Anything they do to fulfill their contract now costs them money and there goes their profit.Like building a MPLM.ATV is 48 cubic meters,Dragon is 10 internal.After they put a carrier in the Trunk,how much capacity will be left?This to me is as bad as the HST mirror being mis-figured.Gerst. did not mention it yesterday and NASA PAO will not compare the delivered amount of all the vehicles.Spin,Spin,Spin.You guys are not very good at it.
Bitch, bitch, bitch. Some people are way too good at it.
Saturn,
As I understand it, NASA picked the cargo for this flight, so whatever mismatches there may be with the contract were chosen by, and acceptable to, NASA.
I think this point has been beat to death. There’s nothing to be gained by repeating it.
Steve
Saturn what do you think happened? Do you think NASA sent SpaceX 5000 pounds of goods and then SpaceX picked through it to come up with 1000 pounds to carry?
Or do you think that is more likely SpaceX delivered all the cargo they received from NASA? If NASA chose to send 1000 pounds how do you hold SpaceX accountable for that?
Why did the airplane take off so much faster than the rocket??
The Wright brother owned the first plane.
Soon spacex will own the first re usable dragon rider capsule.
I never really thought about what that REALLY means.
Once the first dragon rider flys the REAL space age will begin.
Not super expensive dog and pony shows.
Still not sold on the NASA getting back to Exploration comment Mr.C lololol
I want to change the word exploration to settlement
lolol
NASA EXPLORES radiation shielding systems to help get people in space!! lolol