Dragon successfully docks with ISS
Capitalism in space: SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, designed to carry humans to space, has successfully docked for the first time at ISS.
The flight really has only one major task left, which it to return safely to Earth, which presently is scheduled for 8:45 am (eastern) on March 7. I expect that to go smoothly as well.
NASA and SpaceX will of course need to review all the test data from this unmanned test flight before okaying a manned flight. SpaceX also needs to first do a launch abort test, using this capsule. However, I do not expect either to result in any issues that should prevent a manned launch in July, as SpaceX presently plans.
NASA however might think differently. There have been strong factions within its management and bureaucracy that are hostile to this effort, and have been working to stall or stop it.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, designed to carry humans to space, has successfully docked for the first time at ISS.
The flight really has only one major task left, which it to return safely to Earth, which presently is scheduled for 8:45 am (eastern) on March 7. I expect that to go smoothly as well.
NASA and SpaceX will of course need to review all the test data from this unmanned test flight before okaying a manned flight. SpaceX also needs to first do a launch abort test, using this capsule. However, I do not expect either to result in any issues that should prevent a manned launch in July, as SpaceX presently plans.
NASA however might think differently. There have been strong factions within its management and bureaucracy that are hostile to this effort, and have been working to stall or stop it.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
They always have two other options if the autonomous docking does not work.
They can use the arm or manually fly/dock it, either by remote or by trained passenger.
Considering the Russians are allowed to auto dock, NASA better get with the game quick start letting private companies.
The same with landing on land.
Just to clarify, all these test just to certify NASA’s astronauts on the Dragon or any humans on Dragon? Like if I had $58 million laying around, could I privately finance a launch into space with Dragon tomorrow? And if that is the case could I opt to land Dragon on land with its boosters instead of a water landing, to salvage another flight with it like originally planned.
@Kyle: I THINK That you could not land a Dragon V2 on land using super Draco’s, since they deleted the landing legs, since NASA thought it was too complex to punch holes through the heat shield. (After all the Shuttle had three such holes on every flight, and anything the Shuttle did was compleetly unsafe).
Kyle,
Musk said at the press conference that SpaceX would start to market the Dragon to non-government customers once it was in operation for NASA.
The trick is, though, that NASA has been consistently against tourists at the ISS. So unless Bob Bigelow or someone else puts up a LEO station, you’d be limited to a free flight in low earth orbit for no more than 7 days (the limit of Dragon 2 life support).
geoffc: four. You forgot the external tank disconnect.
In general one can debate the safety of shuttle.
I would think 4 seats at $50M each for a 3 to 5 day trip into orbit without a visit to ISS would find a good number of well-healed buyers. Especially if SpaceX could somehow fit larger windows on the capsule.
BTW, I was under the impression, Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s current administrator was more open to possibly allowing space tourists to the ISS. It was mentioned at the post-launch press conference on Sunday morning.
One day, a worthwhile book is going to be written on the Commercial Cargo and Crew programs of the 2010’s, and it is going to make a revealing look at why the final phase of Commercial Crew, CCtCap, has dragged on for so long and driven up costs so much, in contrast to both the earlier phases of the program (CCDev, CCiCap, and CPC) as well as Commercial Cargo.
Those programs were remarkable successes. CCtCAP, not so much.
The legs could be attached above the heat shield and extend out and over during landing.
Going through the shield is easier and lighter but …….
Even if the shield gets damaged when it hits the ground so what, it can get changed anyways.
geoffc wrote: “I THINK That you could not land a Dragon V2 on land using super Draco’s, since they deleted the landing legs, since NASA thought it was too complex to punch holes through the heat shield.”
and pzatchok wrote: “The legs could be attached above the heat shield and extend out and over during landing.”
I suspect that the fundamental problem is that NASA has become shy, where innovative design is concerned, which is a terrible shame, because we think of NASA as being technologically on the cutting edge. They tried innovation with the Space Shuttle, and that got them a system that did not perform as expected. Their solution, when it came time to replace the Shuttle, was to go back to the Apollo-like capsule concept rather than improve on the reusabilty concept. Since they have a lot of control over the Commercial Crew program, they have flexed their muscles many times, over these past few years, and prevented some innovations that showed great promise.
Fortunately, for the next segment of Commercial Resupply Services (unmanned supply delivery to ISS), Sierra Nevada is working on a much more reusable lifting body design, Dream Chaser, that is far more like the reusable Shuttle concept than Boeing (Starliner), Lockheed (Orion), or SpaceX (Dragon 2). When Dream Chaser works out well, perhaps NASA will be a little more willing to be innovative.
It is also fortunate that SpaceX is keeping government away from their Starship and Super Heavy designs, which allows the company to be as innovative as it wants to be.
I think that our main lesson learned from NASA and government control over space launches and operations is that when government runs things, all we get is what the government wants, but SpaceX showed that when We the People do things, we get what we want.