HSP Congratulates SpaceX on its Historical Achievement: Docking Dragon to the ISS

WAAYTV.com--

By Rebecca Shlien--

A historic day for American space flight.  For the first time, a private company docked a spacecraft to the International Space Station.  The California-based SpaceX sent the un-manned rocket and capsule into space.  This successful mission has some real implications for the Rocket City.

When the U.S. Government cut NASA's shuttle program, hundreds of Rocket City NASA jobs were slashed along with it.  Andrew Sutinen founded Huntsville Space Professionals to help those former employees, and now, he feels SpaceX's achievement will be a big boost for Huntsville's big industry.

Sutinen explains, “It'll take some time, but the city of Huntsville is the nexus, it is the focal point for space research and space exploration in the United States, so at least these private companies will realize this is the place to start for them to procure, obtain their talent."

In addition to helping other private companies succeed, SpaceX's 'mission accomplished' could help Huntsville researchers who depend on getting to the space station.  This is mainly because launching a payload with a private American company is cheaper and easier than through Russia, the only current alternative.

Huntsville Space Professionals Communications Director Chris McLemore says, "Now that they have a vehicle to do that, they'll be more likely to participate and carry their experiments to space."

Now that NASA has signed a 12-launch contract with Space X, McLemore feels privatized space is here to stay.  To him, this means that the government agency can concentrate on exploring deeper space.  He says, "I think that NASA can actually focus its effort on doing cooler things: going to asteroids, exploring deep space, because now low earth orbit, at least for today, has been shown that it's covered."

The group Huntsville Space Professionals plans to bring SpaceX to Huntsville within the next few months to discuss privatized space flight, and how the company could collaborate with Rocket City space professionals in the future.

The International Space Station as captured by thermal camera on-board Dragon. (Credit SpaceX)

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SpaceX completes historic docking with the space station

LA Times-- By W.J Hennigan

Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station. (NASA / May 25, 2012)

SpaceX's cargo-carrying Dragon spacecraft docked with the International Space Station in a historic first for spaceflight.

The unmanned, cone-shaped capsule became the first privately built and operated vehicle to ever dock to the orbiting outpost at 9:02 a.m. PDT.

Shortly after docking, a smiling Elon Musk, SpaceX's 40-year-old billionaire founder and chief executive, appeared in a press briefing at the company's sprawling rocket-making facility in Hawthorne.

"This is the culmination of an incredible amount of work," he said, surrounded by a throng of cheering SpaceX workers. "There's so much that could've went wrong and it went right."

The arrival of the Dragon to the space station wasn't flawless. A problem with the spaceraft's onboard sensors pushed back the capture for about two hours later than planned.

After SpaceX engineers solved the issue, the Dragon floated in for docking. It was first grappled by the space station’s 58-foot robotic arm at 6:56 a.m. PDT, controlled by astronaut Don Pettit. Then, it was drawn in closer, inch-by-inch, to docking.

The Dragon has spent the last three days circling the Earth.

NASA officials said the crew plans to begin unloading the half ton of food, water and clothes aboard Dragon at 4:40 a.m. Saturday.

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SpaceX rocket blasts off; Cargo ship heads to space station

From CBS News. Story by By Mark Strassmann. May 22, 2012 7:05 AM EDT.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., early Tuesday (AP Photo)

(CBS News) NEW YORK - For the first time, a private business is sending a spaceship to the International Space Station.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off early Tuesday morning on an unmanned supply mission.

If the mission goes well, it could change space travel forever, marking the start of what could be a new era in American spaceflight.

You could think of the launch as the first audition for SpaceX, one of the private companies hoping to become NASA's taxi to the space station.

The launch had been scheduled for this past Saturday, but a half-second before liftoff, computers detected high pressure in the center engine's chamber and aborted the mission.

Engineers say they fixed a faulty valve, and SpaceX's Dragon capsule is now on its way.

This time, the astonishing but familiar sight of a rocket launching skywards, fire curling underneath, was unlike anything seen before.

SpaceX cargo ship blasts off to space station

SpaceX's Dragon capsule breathed life into the newest turn of space exploration.

The capsule, carrying 1,000 pounds of non-essential cargo -- primarily food and clothing -- will navigate within reach of the space station's 58-foot robotic arm.

The mission, if successful, would make it the first commercially operated capsule to do so.

A small step for space travel, one giant leap for privately owned, commercial enterprise.

SpaceX is the brainchild of billionaire entrepreneur and PayPal co-founder Elon Musk.

"We're really at the dawn of a new era of space exploration," he says. "I think there's perhaps some parallels to the Internet in the mid-'90s, when the Internet was created as a government endeavor, but then, the introduction of commercial companies really accelerated growth of the Internet, and made it accessible to the mainstream."

The launch was a vital test.

Completing the mission would enable SpaceX to collect on a $396 million contract to develop a cargo ship, and enter into a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for a dozen future cargo flights.

When "CBS Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley visited the SpaceX factory in March for "60 Minutes," he found that Musk's goal is grander than cargo.

"You know," Pelly remarked, "what I noticed about your cargo ship is that it has windows."

"Yeah," Musk responded. "The windows are there in case there is an astronaut who wants to look up."

"But," Pelley said, "people don't put windows in cargo ships."

"That's right. Exactly," Musk replied.

"What that tells me," Pelley said, "is that this was never intended to be only a cargo ship."

"No," Musk confirmed. "Dragon was always designed to carry astronauts."

With the shuttle fleet now retired, NASA relies on Russian Soyuz rockets to carry astronauts to and from the space station. The future plan is to contract the ferrying of astronauts to proven, private companies such as SpaceX.

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SpaceX Launch Aborted at Last Moment

From ABC News.  Story by  Lisa Clark. May 19, 2012 9:54am

AP Photo/NASA

It was to have been the dawn of a new era, private companies launching into space and on to the International Space Station.

The first such launch was set for before dawn this morning, and it came tantalizingly close.

But the SpaceX rocket never got off the ground.

The launch was aborted just half a second before liftoff.

It was so close, that even NASA announcer George Diller was caught by surprise.

“Three, two, one, zero and liftoff,” said Diller. Then he realized the rocket was still on the pad, “We’ve had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur.” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell blamed high combustion pressure in engine no. 5, one of nine engines needed for liftoff.

Onboard computers detected the problem, and shut everything down.

Shotwell said engineers will now being trouble shooting to find and fix the problem, and switch out the engine if necessary.

The next possible launch date is next Tuesday, May 22.

Despite the disappointment of today’s near-launch, Shotwell insisted, “This is not a failure. We aborted with purpose”, she said, “It would be a failure if we were to have lifted off with an engine trending in this direction.”

SpaceX is one of a handful of private companies racing to get into space, hoping to send cargo and eventually astronauts to the space station for NASA.

With the space shuttles parked in museums and NASA relying on the Russians for space transportation, the agency is looking to private companies to fill in the gap.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told ABC News, these commercial companies are “now going to be primarily responsible for building and operating, and we’re going to buy the service from them or purchase the service from them.”

NASA has shelled out $396 million to SpaceX for test flights, like this mission. It also has a $1.6 billion contract with the company for 12 cargo flights to the space station.

SpaceX is the dream of billionaire Elon Musk, who made his fortune creating PayPal.

He began his space efforts a decade ago.

Before the launch he was both realistic and optimistic.

Musk told ABC News, “I think we are more likely than not going to succeed in this mission but it is a test flight. And there is certainly any number of things that could go wrong. And so we may not actually. We have 2 more flights for later this year. So I’m confident that one of those flights will make it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Full Story: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/05/spacex-launch-aborted-at-last-moment/

SpaceX to Launch 1st Private Capsule to Space Station This Week

SPACE.com Staff

Date: 14 May 2012 Time: 12:19 PM ET

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the first Dragon spacecraft bound for the International Space Station is seen resting atop SpaceX’s launch site in Cape Canaveral, Fla. CREDIT: SpaceX View full size image

The private spaceflight company SpaceX is preparing to launch a robotic capsule to the International Space Station this week, following a series of delays that postponed the historic first flight of a commercial spacecraft to the orbiting outpost.

SpaceX is slated to launch its Dragon capsule to the space station atop the company's own Falcon 9 rocket on May 19 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is set for 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT).

The test flight was originally scheduled to occur on April 30, but has been delayed several times to complete final checks of the spacecraft's flight software.

The Dragon launch will now occur shortly after three new crewmembers arrive at the orbiting complex. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft, carrying NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, is slated to blast off from Kazakhstan tonight (May 14), and will arrive at the station on May 17.

Full Story: http://www.space.com/15671-spacex-capsule-space-station-launch.html