LIVE: SpaceX Dragon COTS Demo (C2+) FD4 UPDATES

[ChrisC]

I will take advantage of Chris B.'s license to us to congratulate SpaceX on the achievement.  I watched live from 3am to 10am ET and enjoyed every minute of it.  That period around 70 meters was a real nail-biter because I could see we were getting late in the timeline and I started envisioning a wave-off to tomorrow.  Fuel margins, etc., not good.

The White House's collection of quotes is really nice and is the capstone statement that I've been sharing with everyone this evening:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/25/space-community-leaders-historic-berthing-dragon-international-space-station

That and Jim Oberg's great, simple quote:

Just back from taping comments for NBC Nightly News tonight -- I called today one of the 'top ten days in all of space history', and said that Dragon may have been the flagship but there is an entire fleet of varied vehicles being prepared in a dozen workshops to advance commercial/private access to space.

Finally, SpaceX_MS's great quote here:

How did you like that? HOW DID YOU LIKE THAT!!! Game face all day and I'm not ashamed to say I'm now in tears.

Tenth time I'm reading that and every goddamn time ... pardon me, I've got something in my eye.

[robertross]

Station Crew Video of the Dragon Grapple and Berthing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGoJ66WNapE&feature=youtu.be

An all american spacecraft on an all american node again 

Can't tell you how happy I am to see that, and how much I thought I never would again after Atlantis left. Thanks for posting that.

Are you kidding me?........WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any Navy guys or ham radio operators here? The strobe on Dragon is not uniform. I have to wonder if there is a Morse code signal in it.

[rdale]

Slightly off-topic but the crew was just awakened by an on-board alarm.

Where did you hear that? I just checked the archives and they show no audio in the last 4 hours (just a few mic clicks after bedtime.)

[Bubbinski]

OK I'll add my congratulations to this thread.  Great job SpaceX!  I remember when they had all those problems with the Falcon 1, they've come a long way.  I was waiting and seeing how they would do, and the last couple of flights along with other developments have made me feel more optimistic that the commercial sector can "close the gap", and that eventually we'll go out from earth orbit again.

After STS-135 I was cautiously optimistic but also uncertain about the future of the space program.  I do sense now that there will be a future for US piloted space travel and that the supply situation for ISS is in better hands now.

[FinalFrontier]

Slightly off-topic but the crew was just awakened by an on-board alarm.

Where did you hear that? I just checked the archives and they show no audio in the last 4 hours (just a few mic clicks after bedtime.)

I am not hearing anything.

[Herb Schaltegger]

Okay, so the procedures are as follows.

(snipped)

6) Connect vestibule jumpers between ISS and Dragon (2 power jumpers, 2 data cables and one ARS (Atmosphere Revitalization System) jumper)

The first ARS drawings and schematics for this stuff back in the early 90's have my name on them as the responsible engineer. Makes me absurdly pleased that the little bits and pieces I worked on right out of college still get used for every visiting vehicle that berths to a CBM all these years later.

Congrats to everyone at SpaceX for accomplishing a very difficult task!

[rdale]

Slightly off-topic but the crew was just awakened by an on-board alarm.

Where did you hear that? I just checked the archives and they show no audio in the last 4 hours (just a few mic clicks after bedtime.)

I am not hearing anything.

Forgot to refresh the archive Found it and discussing in ISS thread.

[FinalFrontier]

Slightly off-topic but the crew was just awakened by an on-board alarm.

Where did you hear that? I just checked the archives and they show no audio in the last 4 hours (just a few mic clicks after bedtime.)

I am not hearing anything.

Forgot to refresh the archive Found it and discussing in ISS thread.

Alright thanks. Will discuss with you there.

[Jorge]

Station Crew Video of the Dragon Grapple and Berthing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGoJ66WNapE&feature=youtu.be

An all american spacecraft on an all american node again 

Alenia would be amused to hear people think Node 2 is "all American".

[FinalFrontier]

Station Crew Video of the Dragon Grapple and Berthing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGoJ66WNapE&feature=youtu.be

An all american spacecraft on an all american node again 

Alenia would be amused to hear people think Node 2 is "all American".

You know what I mean (yes I know its not all american) 

[majormajor42]

How did you like that? HOW DID YOU LIKE THAT!!!  Game face all day and I'm not ashamed to say I'm now in tears.

And thank you so much for this site Chris. I don't post much outside of L2, and I think I've said it before, but I want to post it. This is NSF. This is a site started to cover Shuttle and NASA. To see this amount of support and coverage for us is special. We appreciate the respect and giving us a level playing field.

GO DRAGON!!!

Makes me happy I just joined L2 for the first time on Tuesday after the launch. It was neat to discover that SpaceX is here! What coverage, what a website. I'm an island when it comes to space, nobody else I know personally cares as much as I do so it is nice to come here and hang out with all of you.

Thank you Chris for the chance to congratulate NASA and SpaceX today. An amazing day. With so much new insight into how hard all of this is, makes me wish I was here for some of the other past significant events. Years from now, though, I'm sure I'll remember I was here for this day.

Just past midnight in NY. Had to go to sleep before the grapple so I could wake up for a night watch at work. Just read through this thread from page 9 on my smartphone. Great stuff! Dr. Evil, Don Pettit (my new favorite the last few weeks), Gwynne checking off that next box on the milestones,...great moments. And no more having to watch artist impression videos of what it looks like when a Dragon berths. Excelsior!

[tigerade]

Station Crew Video of the Dragon Grapple and Berthing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGoJ66WNapE&feature=youtu.be

That's one beautiful spacecraft. 

[Confusador]

Station Crew Video of the Dragon Grapple and Berthing

Oh that is lovely.  Plenty of footage for the promo reel off of that!

I got to watch the capture this morning, but I had to sleep after that, and then work, so I'm just now getting caught up on all the excitement of berthing.  Great work Chris on putting together this site, reading through all of this and the party thread really captured the feeling of it in a way no news article could. 

Huge congratulations to SpaceX!  You're not out of the woods yet on this mission, but you can see the clearing from here.  So far it's been an entirely fitting beginning to the age of commercial spaceflight.

[jacqmans]

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-097

NASA ADMINISTRATOR CALLS STATION FOLLOWING SPACEX HISTORIC FEAT

WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden offered his
congratulations to the International Space Station Expedition 31 crew
and mission flight control teams at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston and SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., following
Friday's successful first-time berthing of a commercial company
spacecraft, SpaceX's Dragon, to the space station.

Bolden talked with NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Joe Acaba, and
European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers during a call to the
space station Friday afternoon live on NASA Television. Bolden told
the crew, "You made history today and have firmly locked into place
the future direction of America's space program."

To view the call between Bolden and the Expedition 31 astronauts,
visit:



At 9:56 a.m. EDT Friday, Pettit used the station's robotic arm to
grapple Dragon. Kuipers then used the arm to attach the capsule to
the station's Harmony node at 11:52 a.m. Acaba completed berthing
operations by remotely bolting the Dragon to Harmony at 12:02 p.m.
The crew members spent the rest of their day preparing to open the
hatches between the two spacecraft on Saturday morning.

The SpaceX demonstration mission to the space station is the second
under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program,
which provides investments intended to lead to regular resupply
missions to the station and stimulate the commercial space industry
in the United States.

For more information about the SpaceX mission to the space station,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/spacex

For information about the International Space Station and the
Expedition 31 crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

[bolun]

SpaceX Dragon´s photographs by André Kuipers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/sets/72157629901589668/

[John44]

SpaceXDragon ISS Grapple and Berthing - Interview with Astronaut Cady Coleman
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7607

SpaceX/Dragon ISS Grapple
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7603

SpaceX/Dragon ISS Berthing
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7604

SpaceX/Dragon Hatch Opening full Coverage (only download)
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7606

[SolSystem]

SpaceX Dragon´s photographs by André Kuipers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/sets/72157629901589668/

Anyone found any hires images taken of berthing once grappled? I haven't seen any yet and NASA HSF space station gallery doesn't have any yet. Could be the long weekend though.

Thanks

[WM68]

Some screencaptures of the HD handheld video.

[manboy]

SpaceX Dragon´s photographs by André Kuipers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/sets/72157629901589668/

Anyone found any hires images taken of berthing once grappled? I haven't seen any yet and NASA HSF space station gallery doesn't have any yet. Could be the long weekend though.

Thanks

There not up yet. I'm not sure what's taking so long.

Some screencaptures of the HD handheld video.

FYI the video is now up on youtube

EDIT:Fixed link

[Halidon]

That youtube link is broken.