Dragon Becomes First Commercial Spacecraft to Attach to the Space Station

Today, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) made history

when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle

in history to successfully attach to the International Space

Station. Previously only four governments – the United States,

Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency – had achieved

this challenging technical feat.

The vehicle was grappled by station’s robotic arm at 9:56 a.m.

Eastern. It was pulled in Dragon’s passive common berthing

mechanism successfully attached to the orbiting laboratory at

12:02 PM Eastern.



SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk will join NASA

Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini, NASA COTS

Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer and NASA Flight Director

Holly Ridings for a press conference to discuss the remarkable

achievement at 1:00 PM Eastern.

When asked for his initial thoughts on Dragon’s capture and

move into the history books, Elon Musk stated, “just awesome.”

This is SpaceX's second demonstration flight under a 2006

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement

with NASA to develop the capability to carry cargo to and from

the International Space Station. Demonstration launches are

conducted to determine potential issues so that they might be

addressed; by their very nature, they carry a significant risk. If

any aspect of the mission is not successful, SpaceX will learn

from the experience and try again.


Mission Highlights:

May 22/Launch Day: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the

Dragon spacecraft into orbit from the Cape Canaveral Air Force

Station.
May 23: Dragon orbited Earth as it traveled toward the

International Space Station.
May 24: Dragon’s sensors and flight systems were subjected to

a series of complicated tests to determine if the vehicle is ready

to berth with the space station; these tests included maneuvers

and systems checks in which the vehicle came within 1.5 miles

of the station.
May 25: NASA gave Dragon the GO to attempt berthing with the

station. Dragon approached. It was captured by station’s robotic

arm and attached to the station.


Coming up Next:

May 25 - 31: Astronauts open Dragon’s hatch, unload supplies

and fill Dragon with return cargo.
May 31: Dragon is detached from the station and returns to

Earth, landing in the Pacific, hundreds of miles west of Southern

California.

about

The Dragon is a reusable spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an

American private space transportation company based in

Hawthorne, California. During its uncrewed maiden flight in

December 2010, Dragon became the first commercially-built

and operated spacecraft to be recovered successfully from

orbit.On 25 May 2012, an uncrewed variant of Dragon became

the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with

the International Space Station (ISS).
Dragon is contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under NASA's

Commercial Resupply Services program, and is scheduled to

begin regular cargo flights in 2012. Additionally, NASA awarded

SpaceX a Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) contract in

April 2011. The Dragon is planned to carry up to seven

astronauts, or a mixture of personnel and cargo, to and from low

Earth orbit. The Dragon's heat shield is furthermore designed to

withstand Earth re-entry velocities from potential Lunar and

Martian spaceflights.