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Bert22306
C VanDorne
"Betrayed" and "cheated" are two words.
Update: Dragon docked to space station
George Leopold
5/25/2012 10:02 AM EDT
WASHINGTON – Astronauts swiftly docked a U.S. commercial cargo ship to the International Space Station on Friday (May 25) just over two hours after the historic capture of the spacecraft by the station’s robotic arm.
The Dragon spacecraft launched by SpaceX on Tuesday is the first U.S. visitor to the space station since space shuttle Atlantis docked with the station last July during the final flight of the shuttle era.
Earlier Friday, astronauts on the space station reached out and grabbed Dragon in darkness over northwestern Australia at 9:56 a.m. EDT as it drifted about 10 meters from the station. The “berthing” procedure was quickly completed at 12:02 p.m. EDT. “It was a great day today, let’s continue with Dragon,” Expedition 31 commander Oleg Kononenko told mission controllers after Dragon was securely attached to the space station.
The crew will next begin equalizing cabin pressures between the Dragon hatch and the station’s Harmony mode, then complete power and communications links. “Everything has gone very smoothly,” a NASA spokesman said after the docking procedure was completed.
Expedition 31 flight engineer Don Pettit used the space station’s robotic arm to grab the Dragon cargo ship launched by SpaceX on Tuesday. “Capture is confirmed,” Pettit told NASA’s Mission Control in Houston. “We’ve got us a Dragon by the tail!”
Dragon had been flying in formation with the space station since a successful rendezvous on Thursday.
The "grappling" procedure was delayed by almost an hour while flight controllers worked out kinks in Dragon's laser range-finding radar. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said during a celebratory mission status briefing after the successful docking that SpaceX engineers had to recalibrate the laser radar to "tighten the beam, and it worked."
Dragon spacecraft after being captured by the International Space Station's robotic arm (Source: NASA)
If the current schedule holds, the space station's six-man crew will open Dragon's hatch on Saturday, then unload its approximately 1,000-pound cargo of food, clothing and equipment. The crew will then fill Dragon with return cargo such as unneeded space-walking equipment.
NASA is scheduled to hold a status briefing on Dragon's historic mission to the International Space Station later today. Live video from the International Space Station can be viewed here.
The Dragon spacecraft as seen from the International Space Station on Friday (May 25) at a distance of about 30 meters. (NASA TV)
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george.leopold
5/25/2012 10:25 AM EDT
Don Pettit joked after the capture that it was a pretty easy "sim" and he was ready to do it again for real....
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george.leopold
5/25/2012 12:04 PM EDT
Dragon now docked to the International Space Station.
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dylan.mcgrath
5/25/2012 2:42 PM EDT
At the start of the mission, I wonder what they thought the chances would be of success on first try....
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george.leopold
5/25/2012 4:12 PM EDT
NASA and SpaceX spent most of last week dampening expectations for what was after all a "test flight." Few could've guessed Dragon would make it all the way to the International Space Station on the first try. The sensor, comms and other navigation systems used for the first time on this flight worked as well as could be expected. When faced with a last-minute radar glitch just meters from the ISS, the SpaceX team fixed the problem.
SpaceX did what it said it would do. Now NASA has what looks like a viable way of getting back to low Earth orbit. Now the space agency must do what it says it will do and come up with a system that will take us somewhere beyond Earth orbit.
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Bert22306
5/25/2012 4:35 PM EDT
Thanks for the updates, George. This is great news, IMO, and the logical next step in space ventures.
And its not JUST that we're dealing with a private company operating without the direct involvement of NASA program management. It is also that a reusable space craft has been sent up unmanned. Let's hope for continued success.
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R Sweeney
5/25/2012 6:55 PM EDT
I feel like a kid watching John Glenn on my parent's Dumont TV.
This is the long delayed future.
The TOTAL cost of SpaceX developing the engine, the booster AND the Dragon is less than 1/2 what NASA pays Boeing per YEAR to develop the Orion Crew vehicle. Both started the SAME year, Boeing has yet to fly.
Bravo SpaceX folks, you are making geeks proud.
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rick.merritt
5/25/2012 7:08 PM EDT
I watched the moon landing on a B&W TV and can now watch Space 2.0 arrive on the Internet. Geez, engineers just don't get enough credit for the amazing stuff they do.
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nicolas.mokhoff
5/26/2012 1:49 AM EDT
I second that Rick. Just as then Man landing on the Moon was amazing, to me it was equally amazing that it was transmitted back to Earth to our TV receivers; with the current feat we are equally amazed to witness updates of this newest Space adventure streamed to our portable devices: http://www.spacex.com/updates.php. Here's to ingenuity and innovation!
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Sanjib.Acharya
5/26/2012 5:20 AM EDT
Great to witness the first major commercial success in space and that too on the very first mission! ...@Nic, thanks for the link!
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ibm221
5/27/2012 8:33 PM EDT
why americans are so pathetic ?
get a life all.
This is just re-engineered stuff with a new shell.
Are you all getting excited everytime microsoft releases sth like Windows 7, 8, 9 ?
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C VanDorne
5/29/2012 9:22 AM EDT
ibm221: I have expressed many disagreements with Mr. Leopold's opinions but on this one I stand with him. Besides, if it is "pathetic" that you are looking for, how about your English?
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george.leopold
5/28/2012 11:53 AM EDT
ibm221: We suggest you inform yourself before launching your next personal attack. Start here:
http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Visionary-Launchers-Employees.html
SpaceX is not pushing the state of the art. What it is doing is attempting to reduce launch costs. As we have stated, $10K/pound using the shuttle is unsustainable. SpaceX is aiming for $1K/pound. Maybe they'll make, maybe they won't, but the focus of the U.S. commercial space effort is to move from gold-plated spacecraft to safe, reliable spacecraft that don't cost a fortune.
We fail to see what is "pathetic" about that.
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ReneCardenas
5/30/2012 4:15 PM EDT
George, thanks for the update, this is awesome stuff and thanks for your effort. It is very much appreciated.
And a word to: ibm221, You have chosen to make a fool of yourself by making uninformed comments that have little room in this forum.
I just hope that you are a pretender or wanna be IBMer. As an ex-IBMer, I find your words of poor taste and little value.
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ibm221
5/30/2012 8:28 PM EDT
LoL, all these reaction are expected.
I think you all are just being fooled by your politicians, again.
it always cost more to r&d the 1st new product, you know why indian generic drug are so much cheaper than US? r&d cost !!!
what obama did is steal the IP from hard working NASA folks and hand over it free to Musk. Now guess what will happen next... layoff .. thousands of NASA employee who has labored their life for this.
It's just like someone steal the IP from Pfizer and give it to someone else to offer you cheap viagra.
Is this what you all excited about?
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ibm221
5/30/2012 8:33 PM EDT
Today (July 22), NASA is expected to begin issuing layoff notices to about 3,200 contractors, agency officials have said.
http://www.space.com/12391-space-shuttle-program-nasa-workers-layoffs.html
If NASA is a private corp, they will hold all IP and sell their own rockets and keep their employee. but now they give out IP and layoff their employee, isn't these ugly?
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Bert22306
5/30/2012 8:50 PM EDT
You continue to miss the point. It is the US people that own the IP of NASA, get it? SpaceX is going beyond what NASA had done, by creating a self-guided reusable craft. However the NASA IP is ours. The government here is not above us, it IS us.
When a government agency lays people off, ideally the private company that takes over that task will hire at least some of these, so it can start operating fast. And yes, because the goal is to reduce costs, it would be strange if everyone layed off from NASA would find work at SpaceX.
This country is not a socialist state. The government is not supposed to provide employment in general, but only for those tasks that legitimately belong to the government. We own the government, and we tell them what tasks they can fund with our taxes.
The biggest problem is only if SpaceX divulges its IP to China or other places, which would then potentially export those jobs and that talent. But once again, it is up to us, the people, to TELL the government whether we want strict export controls on this stuff.
That's how it works in a democracy.
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ibm221
5/31/2012 12:35 AM EDT
@bert, you sounds like a cold blooded capitalist.
yeah right, you people are the winner, less tax dollar for space transportation.
have you ever think about the thousands of poor NASA employees, who invested their education, youth, into this 'national honor' or whatever. Now in their 40s, 50s they got laid off. where you expect them to go? in a garage to fix you people's cars?
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Bert22306
5/31/2012 3:03 AM EDT
Do you really think that educated people only have a chance at a single job?
It's true that the economy went through a huge slump here, since 2008, and by the way that too was largely attributable to government meddling where it has no expertise (in the housing market). However that's hardly the norm.
The whole point of SpaceX is to commericalize the space industry. You take the space industry from a very expensive, very exclusive government R&D program into something that can more directly benefit tyhe average person. How exactly we don't know yet.
A vibrant economy is not created out of non-self-sustaining government make-work programs. Even those who hadn't figured this out were made aware of this, back around 1989-1992.
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ibm221
5/31/2012 4:17 AM EDT
take some time to read the CBS report below.
you are taking this too lightly. grow up and learn to understand the real world.
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ibm221
5/31/2012 12:38 AM EDT
If they knew after this 1 or 2 project they ll end up in the streets who would invest in a college degree in space ?
One word, they are betrayed and cheated.
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C VanDorne
6/6/2012 3:36 PM EDT
"Betrayed" and "cheated" are two words.
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ibm221
5/31/2012 12:44 AM EDT
(CBS News) When the last space shuttle took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in July -- when the crowds left and 7,000 space center workers lost their jobs -- what happened to Brevard County, Florida? Scott Pelley tells the story of a county struggling with the loss of its largest employer, and of former shuttle workers who miss both the paycheck and the deep pride they had in their work.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57407288/high-joblessness-in-the-home-of-u.s-space-flight/
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selinz
5/31/2012 2:02 AM EDT
I regret that someone is using the acronym of a great american company to defame americans.
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ibm221
5/31/2012 3:13 AM EDT
quote:
Mike Carpenter: Well, we were lied to when Obama came through, gave us a lotta hope and supposedly a lotta change. Well, I've got change in my pocket, but the hope is gone.
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ibm221
5/31/2012 3:15 AM EDT
In 2010, President Obama cancelled Constellation and turned over development of a new spaceship to private enterprise. Then, Congress dealt another blow by cutting the funding for the Obama plan in half. At the very least it will be 5 years before America flies astronauts again. Now the workers with that expertise Mr. Obama referred to are setting course for Carole Bess.
Carole Bess: And I've had several who've told me, "I was considering suicide before I came to you."
Carole Bess is a bankruptcy attorney.
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Bert22306
5/31/2012 4:05 PM EDT
And when PCs and word processor software were introduced, lots and lots of secretaries and graphics people lost their jobs too. When cars were introduced, lots of blacksmiths and horse handlers lost their jobs. When electric street lighting was introduced, lots of people who went around the city lighting gas lanterns lost their jobs.
In spite of all of this, in the US anyway, unemployment during much of the previous administration was down below 4 percent, which is considered almost too low.
Commercializing space has the potential for creating a huge number of new jobs. Many more than are now available, when space is only a high tech, high cost government R&D venture.
It's absurd to think that we need to rely on government politicans to give us food and shelter. This shift in the space program is just another example of what a good economy is supposed to do, even IF the government is involved initially for the up front basic R&D effort.
One can only hope that this nannie government mentality remains as foreign as possible in the American psyche. There's already too much of it around.
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ibm221
5/31/2012 8:36 PM EDT
the point is Mr. Obama is someone who don't have much credit.
imagine someone spent 10-20 years to be trained as an astronaut, what you expect him/her to do after layoff? work in a fitness center?
Obama has cheated all the christians in US back in 2008, they realized they were just shamelessly cheated in 2012...
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Bert22306
5/31/2012 8:46 PM EDT
Astronauts will still be required, at least to some degree. It all depends on how we "commercialize" space. It seems to me that some human involvement in whatever space facilities will still be needed. And also if we want to send humans to Mars.
My preference would have been to transition the shuttle mission exactly as is being done, but to then use NASA for more advanced space exploration. Like, new unmanned probes to Mars, at the very least, and to other planets and moons of planets. Possibly that manned mission to Mars.
If this president doesn't feel the imperative to go on, that's okay too. We have an orderly transition of presiudents, and the current one cannot serve more than 4 more years. And people can certainly make their views known to their representatives in Congress, so this is not an issue. At worst, it delays progress by a few years.
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ibm221
5/31/2012 9:24 PM EDT
ok, we can all stop here.
we ain't congress man, talking from our cube without many info.
have a nice day though, weekend as well...
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Bert22306
6/6/2012 4:03 PM EDT
Maybe I should let this go, but ...
Clearly, "someone" doesn't understand how a democracy works.
We ARE the Congress. We MUST inform ourselves on matters that matter to us. We MUST communicate this to our representatives. Both as individuals, and as parts of larger organizations, with lobbying powers.
The worst of all attitudes, in a democracy, is the complascent attitude that "they," in government, know better than we know, and that we need to shut off our brain and let them do the thinking for us.
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