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| International Space Station's Canadarm2 installs SpaceX Dragon cargo craft to the Earth-facing side of the Harmony node [PHOTO: NASA TV] |
Houston: The Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Dragon
spacecraft was berthed to the International Space Station at 8:03 a.m. CDT
Wednesday, a key milestone in a new era of commercial spaceflight. The delivery
flight is the first contracted resupply mission by the company under NASA's
Commercial Resupply Services contract.
"I want to
congratulate SpaceX and the NASA team that worked alongside them to make this
happen, and salute the astronauts aboard the space station who successfully
captured the Dragon capsule," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.
"This marks the start of a new era of exploration for the United States,
one where we will reduce the cost of missions to low-Earth orbit so we can
focus our resources on deep space human missions back around the moon, to an
asteroid and eventually to Mars."
Space station Expedition
33 crew members Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and
Sunita Williams of NASA used the station's robotic arm to successfully capture
Dragon at 5:56 a.m. The capture came 2 days, 10 hours, 21 minutes and after the
mission's launch. The station was 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean, just west
of Baja California.
Following its
capture, the spacecraft was attached to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony
node. The station crew could open the hatch to Dragon as early as Wednesday
afternoon to begin unloading its cargo. The capsule is scheduled to spend 18
days attached to the station before returning for a splashdown in the Pacific
Ocean off the Southern California coast.
Dragon delivered 882
pounds of supplies to the orbiting laboratory, including 260 pounds of crew
supplies, 390 pounds of scientific research, 225 pounds of hardware and several
pounds of other supplies. Dragon will return a total of 1,673 pounds, including
163 pounds of crew supplies, 866 pounds of scientific research, and 518 pounds
of vehicle hardware and other hardware.
Dragon's capability
to return cargo from the station is critical for supporting scientific research
in the orbiting laboratory's unique microgravity environment, which enables
important benefits for humanity and increases understanding of how humans can
safely work, live and thrive in space for long periods. The ability to return
frozen samples is a first for this flight and will be very helpful to the
station's research community. Not since the space shuttle have NASA and its
international partners been able to return considerable amounts of research and
samples for analysis.
The Dragon spacecraft
lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:35 p.m. EDT
Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission was the first of at least
12 Space X cargo resupply missions to the space station through 2016. The
resupply contract with NASA is worth $1.6 billion.
"Under President
Obama's leadership, the nation is embarking on an ambitious space program that
is bringing critical launches back to the United States, in-sourcing American
jobs, and keeping the nation on the cutting edge of technology development and
innovation, all the while, maintaining America's world leadership and dominance
in space exploration," Bolden said.
SpaceX is one of two
companies that built and tested new cargo spacecraft under NASA's Commercial
Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. SpaceX completed its final
demonstration test in May when it launched a Dragon capsule to the station and
performed a series of checkout maneuvers, before Dragon was grappled by the
station crew and installed on the orbiting laboratory.
Orbital Sciences is
the other company participating in COTS. Orbital's Antares launch vehicle is on
the launch pad at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The rocket and pad will
undergo a series of fueling tests that will take about three weeks. After the
tests are completed, a hot fire test of the Antares first-stage engines will be
conducted. A flight test of the Antares with a simulated Cygnus spacecraft will
be flown in late 2012. A demonstration flight of Cygnus to the space station is
planned in early 2013.
NASA initiatives like
COTS and the agency's Commercial Crew Program are helping develop a robust U.S.
commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe,
reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the space station and
low-Earth orbit. In addition to cargo flights, NASA's commercial space partners
are making progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next 5
years.