SpaceX Dragon Capsule Successfully Captured by ISS

[Eugene]

Source: PC Magazine

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404895,00.asp

SpaceX Dragon Capsule Successfully Captured by ISS

By Chloe Albanesius
May 25, 2012 10:26am EST

The SpaceX Dragon capsule was successfully captured by the International Space Station Expedition 31 crew this morning, making SpaceX the first commercial company to send a spacecraft to the ISS.

The station's robotic arm captured the Dragon at 9:56 a.m. ET after a journey that took three days, six hours, 11 minutes, and 23 seconds. At the time of capture, the ISS was 250 miles above northwest Australia and now continues over the Pacific Ocean.

The ISS crew is currently working to install the Dragon on the bottom side of the station's Harmony node.

"SpaceX has done it," NASA Mission Control in Houston announced shortly after Dragon had been captured.

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Read more: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404895,00.asp

[GObamaGO]

1. Glad it was succesful

[MadHound]

2. Woohoo! The privatization of our space program continues apace. n/t

[ProgressiveEconomist]

3. NASA was privatized from the beginning--President Obama

simply is replacing a corruption-prone :"COST-PLUS" contracting system with a more competitive "FIXED-PRICE" contracting system.

Under "cost plus", NASA gave Boeing, Northrop, Grumman, and company blank checks ensuring they would make more and more profits from delay and failure. Under "fixed price", SpaceX has incentives to work efficiently and to succeed the first time, or they will lose money or face crippling lawsuits.

See for example http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1288/1 .

[backscatter712]

4. ++ to this - I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes SpaceX.

The cost-plus programs almost universally resulted in cost/delay spirals, and the pace of progress was glacial.

SpaceX was told "This is what you get for R&D, and no more!, and when you're done, the spacecraft needs to do these things. If you can do so for less than what we give you, you can keep the profit, but if you go over, you eat the loss."

[Uncle Joe]

5. That's good, I believe mastering space flight and exploration will be best accomplished by using

both public and private endeavors.

Thanks for the thread, Eugene.

[pokerfan]

6. Statement from the White House

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/25/dragon-spacecraft-has-berthed-international-space-station

[angeli0105]

7. Space delivery: A giant leap for commerce

It looks like a new era of commerce has began when a privately-financed space vehicle delivered cargo to the International Space Station. SpaceX is a commercial venture began a decade ago by entrepreneur Musk. It’s mission in the short term is to assist with supply runs, which has been accomplished in the recent past by space cargo ships launched from Russian, European or Japanese facilities. Related article: Space delivery: A giant leap for commerce.