SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to dock with ISS on May 3rd
58 replies, posted
[QUOTE="Ars Technica"]According to a tweet on Wednesday by Jeff Foust, SpaceX's Company President Gwynne Shotwell used the Satellite 2012 Conference to announce that it has a thin launch window on April 30 that would get it to a scheduled May 3 berthing slot at the International Space Station. The mission, known as COTS 2/3, carries a political payload far larger than the food and clean underwear inside the spacecraft.
For Congress and the Administration, the launch might help make the case that the company's Dragon spacecraft is a viable option for ferrying astronauts to the Station some day. Moreover, it might prove that the six-year-old COTS program, which allows NASA to partner with corporations to gain access to low Earth orbit, can actually transition to a backbone for manned and unmanned spaceflight.
The upcoming flight is a maneuvering and docking test, but some time this year (probably after the November elections) Congress will vote on the 2013 NASA budget. This will include funding for CCiCap (the successor acronym to CCDev), NASA's commercial partnership for manned low Earth orbit flights. When that time comes, one or two successful private cargo flights would strengthen the case for human crews flying on domestic commercial rockets. It would also make a better case for justifying the full $830M NASA budget request for Commercial Crew.
Not least, SpaceX also hopes to continue to prove it can carry out a possible $3.2 billion in space station resupply flights. The company has twelve resupply flights on its launch manifest, the first scheduled tentatively for July of this year. Counting the first COTS mission and three DragonLab missions, that's 16 SpaceX/unmanned Dragon spacecraft flights currently scheduled from now through 2015.
Because SpaceX is well ahead of the other Commercial Crew competitors, they hit big milestones like "first docking maneuver by a privately developed spacecraft" before anyone else does. Later this year, it may have company, as Orbital Sciences hopes to launch its Antares rocket and unmanned Cygnus cargo spacecraft for the first time.
Space Station resupply and crew delivery are currently carried out by Russian, European, and Japanese spacecraft. Although the Russian Soyuz rocket that does the majority of ISS support is famously reliable, a August 2011 launch failure disrupted crew rotations and created concern that Station might need to be evacuated. The problem was isolated and a new crew was delivered in December. A Progress cargo resupply mission followed in January to the Station.
All of the current resupply vehicles are expendable, designed to burn themselves up in the atmosphere. The upcoming Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft is expendable as well. A major departure in the Dragon spacecraft is that it's reusable, making it possible for SpaceX to charge NASA $133 million per delivery—far less than, say, the $300 million it costs just to build a European ATV cargo craft. An ATV will launch next week to resupply the station, but it is only the third to fit in the budget in five years.
Despite the reliability, the ISS' reliance on Russian (and other non-domestic) missions has created a great deal of friction in Congress centered around a loss of American ability to send humans to space. Another issue that may crop up is that NASA needs a waiver to the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act, which would otherwise bar the agency from buying goods and services from Russia. That waiver expires in 2016.
As was the case with previous flights, SpaceX is trying to minimize the anticipation. The SpaceX Updates page now no longer contains any announcement regarding the April 30 date, and now states simply, "SpaceX continues to prepare for our upcoming test flight in which we will attempt to send the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station."[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://static.arstechnica.net/assets/2012/03/20101215_07-4f62109-intro-thumb-640xauto-31598.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Source:[/B] [URL]http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/03/spacex-announces-hotly-anticipated-first-private-spacecraft-docking-set-for-april-30.ars?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A[/URL]
Will this be the first time a private company's shuttle has docked with the ISS?
Holy shit. I hope this succeeds.
cerberus
[QUOTE=wootmonster;35183022]Will this be the first time a private company's shuttle has docked with the ISS?[/QUOTE]
The Dragon was the first space craft put into orbit by a private company, so yes.
The internet has done terrible things to my mind because I can't look at dragon without thinking of... well you know.
and it's docking with the ISS
[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;35183188]The internet has done terrible things to my mind because I can't look at dragon without thinking of... well you know.
and it's docking with the ISS[/QUOTE]
Avatar fits
Also, this is awesome, the spacelaunch that is
[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;35183188]The internet has done terrible things to my mind because I can't look at dragon without thinking of... well you know.
and it's docking with the ISS[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljzjihmzeZ1qiluo6o1_500.png[/IMG]
This is a huge damn deal, can't wait to see the result.
[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;35183188]The internet has done terrible things to my mind because I can't look at dragon without thinking of... well you know.
and it's docking with the ISS[/QUOTE]
In a few years similar Dragons will be probing Uranus.
Okay that was bad.
Honestly I'm more interested in ideas like a space elevator and a manned Mars mission. I don't doubt that when necessary, humanity will indeed go there. But there's a long way to go, and we may as well start now.
[editline]17th March 2012[/editline]
I wonder if corporations will ever seek to acquire land on the moon or other planets.
Every time I see a piece of news I get more hopeful for when I'm going to be entering the field.
[QUOTE=archangel125;35183447]Honestly I'm more interested in ideas like a space elevator and a manned Mars mission. I don't doubt that when necessary, humanity will indeed go there. But there's a long way to go, and we may as well start now.
[editline]17th March 2012[/editline]
I wonder if corporations will ever seek to acquire land on the moon or other planets.[/QUOTE]
Well, this is a first step towards that. Without way to ferry supplies into orbit during the construction of the elevator, we'll have a tough time of getting it built.
And of that, I have no doubt. I practically guarantee it. Only thing I wonder is, if we'll go to lengths to protect the environments of these new planets much as we do with Antarctica, allowing no country to claim sovereignty and such.
and when the ISS crew open the hatch the dragon's hull cracks and everyone's blood boils and they die
[QUOTE=archangel125;35183447]Honestly I'm more interested in ideas like a space elevator and a manned Mars mission. I don't doubt that when necessary, humanity will indeed go there. But there's a long way to go, and we may as well start now.
[editline]17th March 2012[/editline]
I wonder if corporations will ever seek to acquire land on the moon or other planets.[/QUOTE]
SpaceX is planning on giving the Dragon the ability to land using it's launch escape rockets.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr2aV85byEM[/media]
Combine that with the Falcon Heavy, or the other rockets planned in the future:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTwRxtmQ9IY[/media]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/7Btcf.jpg[/img]
In conclusion: SpaceX is the best company ever.
[QUOTE=Soleeedus;35183080]cerberus[/QUOTE]
Make a news node about space, Check. Mass Effect reference ready for action.
[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;35183312][IMG]http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljzjihmzeZ1qiluo6o1_500.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Get it right, those are insectile aliens!
[QUOTE=meppers;35183496]and when the ISS crew open the hatch the dragon's hull cracks and everyone's blood boils and they die[/QUOTE]
I hope you get your skull cracked open and bleed to death in an alley while being anally raped by giant spider clowns because of that post.
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Flaming, again" - Autumn))[/highlight]
Holy shit, this is a huge step for commericalized space, BUT WHAT IF THE CHINESE TRICK US INTO OPENING THE AIRLOCK AND KILLING ALL THE ASTRONAUTS
Wow, they're moving fast.
[QUOTE=meppers;35183496]and when the ISS crew open the hatch the dragon's hull cracks and everyone's blood boils and they die[/QUOTE]
any crack short of the thing falling in two would probably leave them with enough time to survive
[QUOTE=meppers;35183496]and when the ISS crew open the hatch the dragon's hull cracks and everyone's blood boils and they die[/QUOTE]
If that happens it wouldnt cause the blood to boil, it would first pull all the air out of your lungs, then when your body tries to get oyxgen to your lungs you would bloat, and pass out and die a minute later.
Blood boiling and exploding are all bullshit
[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;35184254]If that happens it wouldnt cause the blood to boil, it would first pull all the air out of your lungs, then when your body tries to get oyxgen to your lungs you would bloat, and pass out and die a minute later.
Blood boiling and exploding are all bullshit[/QUOTE]
Water boils at lower/higher temperatures depending on the air pressure of the environment around them. If you put water inside a syringe, then try pulling the plunger out of the syringe while the tip is blocked, with enough force the water will boil because it's pulling the particles out of a liquid state and into a gas.
If you went into an environment with no air pressure (ie: space), the water in your blood/body is most likely going to expand and cause your body to burst.
[QUOTE=Diealready;35184345]Water boils at lower/higher temperatures depending on the air pressure of the environment around them. If you put water inside a syringe, then try pulling the plunger out of the syringe while the tip is blocked, with enough force the water will boil because it's pulling the particles out of a liquid state and into a gas.
If you went into an environment with no air pressure (ie: space), the water in your blood/body is most likely going to expand and cause your body to burst.[/QUOTE]
[quote]"Various minor problems (sunburn, possibly "the bends", certainly some [mild, reversible, painless] swelling of skin and underlying tissue) start after ten seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Injuries accumulate. After perhaps one or two minutes, you're dying. The limits are not really known.
You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory system. You do not instantly freeze because, although the space environment is typically very cold, heat does not transfer away from a body quickly. Loss of consciousness occurs only after the body has depleted the supply of oxygen in the blood. If your skin is exposed to direct sunlight without any protection from its intense ultraviolet radiation, you can get a very bad sunburn"
-NASA ([url]http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html[/url])[/quote]
You bloat but don't burst, your skin is very strong, the air in your blood escapes but not the blood.
[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;35184554]You bloat but don't burst, your skin is very strong, the air in your blood escapes but not the blood.[/QUOTE]
You can be in space for a few seconds without injury? That's cool as fuck.
[QUOTE=Mind Infection;35184637]You can be in space for a few seconds without injury? That's cool as fuck.[/QUOTE]
It wouldn't be enjoyable in the slightest.
a pair of guys I was in scouts with work at SpaceX now. I'll have to prod one of them for a tour or something.
Why does SpaceX make everything sound so bad ass with their name, fucking dragon man.
too much marijuana .
[QUOTE=Joazzz;35183367]In a few years similar Dragons will be probing Uranus.
Okay that was bad.[/QUOTE]
Really, Commander?
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