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Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st

By MARCIA DUNN | Associated Press – 2 hrs 42 mins ago


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule made a historic arrival at the International Space Station on Friday, triumphantly captured by astronauts wielding a giant robot arm.

SpaceX is the first private company to accomplish such a feat: a commercial cargo delivery into the cosmos.

"There's so much that could have gone wrong and it went right," said an elated Elon Musk, the billionaire maestro of SpaceX.

"This really is, I think, going to be recognized as a significantly historical step forward in space travel — and hopefully the first of many to come."

NASA 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.

NASA controllers applauded as their counterparts at SpaceX's control center in Hawthorne, Calif. — including Musk — lifted their arms in triumph and jumped out of their seats to exchange high fives. The two control rooms worked together, as equal partners, to pull off the feat.

The company's youthful-looking employees — the average age is 30 — were still in a frenzy when Musk took part in a televised news conference. They screamed with excitement as if it were at a pep rally and chanted, "E-lon, E-lon, E-lon," as the 40-year-old Musk, wearing a black athletic jacket with the SpaceX logo, described the day's events.

Alcohol was banned from the premises during the crucial flight operation, Musk noted, "but now that things are good, I think we'll probably have a bit of champagne and have some fun." The crowd roared in approval.

Although cargo hauls have become routine, Friday's linkup was significant in that an individual company pulled it off. That chore was previously reserved for a small, elite group of government agencies.

Not only that, the reusable SpaceX Dragon is designed to safely return items, a huge benefit that disappeared with NASA's space shuttles. It's the first U.S. craft to visit the station since the final shuttle flight last summer.

Two hours after the capture, the crew attached the Dragon to the space station as the congratulations poured in.

"Now that a U.S. company has proven its ability to resupply the space station, it opens a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space — and new job creation opportunities right here in the U.S.," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

"Nearly 43 years after we first walked on the moon, we have taken another step in demonstrating continued American leadership in space," said Apollo 11's Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step onto the moon.

The bell-shaped capsule— 19 feet tall and 12 feet across — is carrying 1,000 pounds of supplies on this unprecedented test flight. The crew starts unpacking Saturday and will have just under a week to unload the food, clothes and other contents.

After this test flight, SpaceX — officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — has a contract to make a dozen delivery runs. It is one of several companies vying for NASA's cargo business and a chance to launch Americans from U.S. soil.

SpaceX launched the capsule from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday with its Falcon 9 rocket. On Thursday, the Dragon capsule came within 1½ miles of the space station in a practice fly-by. It returned to the neighborhood early Friday so Pettit, along with Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers could capture it with the station's robot arm.
First, the capsule went through a series of stop-and-go demonstrations to prove it was under good operating control.

NASA ordered extra checks of the Dragon's imaging systems as the capsule drew ever closer to the space station, putting the entire operation slightly behind schedule. At one point, SpaceX controllers ordered a retreat because of a problem with on-board tracking sensors.

Given that the Dragon is a brand new type of vehicle and this is a test flight, the space agency insisted on proceeding cautiously. A collision by vehicles traveling at orbital speed — 17,500 mph — could prove disastrous for the space station. NASA's space station program manager, Mike Suffredini, said the way the SpaceX team handled the problem and the entire operation was "remarkable."

President Barack Obama is pushing commercial ventures in orbit so NASA can concentrate on grander destinations like asteroids and Mars. Obama's chief scientific adviser, John Holdren, called Friday's linkup "an achievement of historic scientific and technological significance."

"It's essential we maintain such competition and fully support this burgeoning and capable industry to get U.S. astronauts back on American launch vehicles as soon as possible," he said in a statement.

Without the shuttle, NASA astronauts must go through Russia, an expensive and embarrassing situation for the U.S. after a half-century of orbital self-sufficiency. Once companies master supply runs, they hope to tackle astronaut ferry runs.
Musk, who founded SpaceX a decade ago and helped create PayPal, said he can have astronauts riding his Dragon capsules to orbit in three or four years.

The space station has been relying on Russian, Japanese and European cargo ships for supplies ever since the shuttles retired. None of those, however, can bring anything of value back; they're simply loaded with trash and burn up in the atmosphere.

By contrast, the Dragon is designed to safely re-enter the atmosphere, parachuting into the ocean like the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules did back in the 1960s. Assuming all goes well Friday, the space station's six-man crew will release the Dragon next Thursday after filling it with science experiments and equipment.
Going into Tuesday's launch of this Dragon, NASA had contributed $381 million to SpaceX in seed money. The company has invested more than $1 billion in this commercial effort over the past 10 years.


news.yahoo.com . . .

Fuck le France


.

Outstanding! In any healthy society these guys should be rock stars surrounded by bling and booty.

bratwurst1978 wrote:

Outstanding! In any healthy society these guys should be rock stars surrounded by bling and booty.

It's kind of like being a fireman without the questionably gay thing.

man this should have happened 10 years ago

I hope the exploration of space goes full force now

WE NEED TO GET THE FUCK OFF THIS PLANET

LTKilling wrote:

WE NEED TO GET THE FUCK OFF THIS PLANET

Just you, LT, just you...

Please keep in mind the only fully automatic transfer vehicle and the largest is European

It docks automatically without the canadarm.

Cazeilles wrote:

Please keep in mind the only fully automatic transfer vehicle and the largest is European

It docks automatically without the canadarm.

And it took what?? six governments and their taxes to put it together? Impressive....

Seems like one single, private, American company is about to own you.. LOL

The space station has been relying on Russian, Japanese and European cargo ships for supplies ever since the shuttles retired. None of those, however, can bring anything of value back; they're simply loaded with trash and burn up in the atmosphere.

. . . . Hey eu.....we finally found something you're useful for....taking out our trash....thanks....will you also take Sean Penn?

FuhkFrenchToads wrote:

Cazeilles wrote:

Please keep in mind the only fully automatic transfer vehicle and the largest is European

It docks automatically without the canadarm.

And it took what?? six governments and their taxes to put it together? Impressive....

Seems like one single, private, American company is about to own you.. LOL

NASA is paying SpaceX, you pay tax that fund NASA... And yet there isn't any competitor on the US market. NASA decided to fund a private company and now is lagging behind Europe, Russia and Japan to ship stuff to the ISS.

For your information, an European taxpayer spend about 15 USD a year into the European Space Agency.

US taxpayers spend 4 times much...

bratwurst1978 wrote:

LTKilling wrote:

WE NEED TO GET THE FUCK OFF THIS PLANET

Just you, LT, just you...

What LTK needs is a one way ticket to the moon.

I'm sure many would be willing to help fund the trip.

"you can't get nothing for free

Not even a one way ticket to the moon"

.

NASA funded the American moon landing, ... er, ... landing[s].

Who funded the EU's moon landing[s]?

... wait, ...


By the way, your Mars rover broken down yet?

... (wait) ...


.

TexanForever wrote:

.

NASA funded the American moon landing, ... er, ... landing[s].

Who funded the EU's moon landing[s]?

... wait, ...




By the weay, your Mars rover broken down yet?

... (wait) ...
.

It's the wee morning... time to change your diaper ?

Manned missions is too costly, too risky and have a high rate of failure. The Moon has no interest and will never get some. Landing on the Moon was a political success. And nothing more.

You can list me all technologies discovered thanks to Apollo program. But I just reached my 30s so I am not contemplating my freezer everyday.

Manned missions is too costly, too risky and have a high rate of failure.

Same goes for French fighting wars

MadRusski wrote:

Manned missions is too costly, too risky and have a high rate of failure.

Same goes for French fighting wars

Like the Ukrainian fertility. Except isn't costly at all.

.

I just reached my 30s so I am not contemplating my freezer everyday.

... Hope you can make it another 50 (as I have) and can still do carpenter work, ride horses and motorcycles, drink whiskey, and chase floozies. ... Life is good.

Fuck France


.

y Cazeilles Comments: 14192, member since Wed Apr 09, 2003
On Sat May 26, 2012 08:51 AM
MadRusski wrote:

Manned missions is too costly, too risky and have a high rate of failure.


Same goes for French fighting wars


Like the Ukrainian fertility. Except isn't costly at all.

Good thing French fertility was helped by NAZIs fucking French whores while their hubbies were holding the candle.

I am not envious of Flinch fertility rates

n 2008, the French national institute of statistics INSEE estimated that 11.8 million foreign-born immigrants and their direct descendants (second generation) lived in France representing 19% of the country's population. About 5.5 million are of European origin and 4 million of Maghrebi origin.[5][6] Among the 802,000 newborns in metropolitan France in 2010, 27.3% had at least one foreign-born parent and about one quarter (23.9%) had at least one parent born outside of EU27.[7][8]

I am not going anywhere

FAGGOTS

Cazeilles wrote:

FuhkFrenchToads wrote:

Cazeilles wrote:

Please keep in mind the only fully automatic transfer vehicle and the largest is European

It docks automatically without the canadarm.

And it took what?? six governments and their taxes to put it together? Impressive....

Seems like one single, private, American company is about to own you.. LOL

NASA is paying SpaceX, you pay tax that fund NASA... And yet there isn't any competitor on the US market. NASA decided to fund a private company and now is lagging behind Europe, Russia and Japan to ship stuff to the ISS.

For your information, an European taxpayer spend about 15 USD a year into the European Space Agency.

US taxpayers spend 4 times much...

You are confusing subsidies with contracts. SpaceX won a contract... they didn't "deserve" it... like you Euros think everything is done. LOL!!!

Cazeilles wrote:



Manned missions is too costly, too risky and have a high rate of failure. The Moon has no interest and will never get some. Landing on the Moon was a political success. And nothing more.

You can list me all technologies discovered thanks to Apollo program. But I just reached my 30s so I am not contemplating my freezer everyday.

. . . . Thank God morons like this didn't get their way during the time of the great explorers.

Can you imagine King Ferninand saying to Columbus, "Sorry, manned ventures to the Far East are too costly, too risky and have a high rate of failure. The Far Eat has no interest and will never get some. Goingto discover new commercial routes would only be a political success. And nothing more."

Thankfully morons are soon swept away by history....fuck the eu!!!

For your information, an European taxpayer spend about 15 USD a year into the European Space Agency.

US taxpayers spend 4 times much...

And just what do you have to show for it?

.

... It wasn't just the Germans in france. ... Many mulatto french are the result of our WW2 military niggers getting time off from washing jeeps.



.

syscom3 wrote:

For your information, an European taxpayer spend about 15 USD a year into the European Space Agency.

US taxpayers spend 4 times much...

And just what do you have to show for it?

We landed on Titan. Huygens is the probe that landed on the farest object from the Earth.

So you landed the Huygens probe?

Care to tell us about your equivalents to the following:
Spirit
Opportunity
Curiosity
Galleleo
Cassini
New Horizons
Juno
Viking 1 and 2
Voyager 1 and 2
Sojourner
Surveyor series
Pioneer 10 and 11
Mariner 6 and 7
Mariner 9
Mariner 10
Magellan
Hubble
Mercury program
Gemini program
Apollo program
Skylab program
Space Shuttle program

Dogs and frogs in space





Actually, once taken to space by Soviets that frog could not stand Fwance any longer: he moved to US and naturalized

syscom3 wrote:

So you landed the Huygens probe?

Care to tell us about your equivalents to the following:
Spirit
Opportunity
Curiosity
Galleleo
Cassini
New Horizons
Juno
Viking 1 and 2
Voyager 1 and 2
Sojourner
Surveyor series
Pioneer 10 and 11
Mariner 6 and 7
Mariner 9
Mariner 10
Magellan
Hubble
Mercury program
Gemini program
Apollo program
Skylab program
Space Shuttle program

We can make a dick contest if you want.