Resilience successfully moves from one ISS docking port to another
With four astronauts on board the Dragon capsule Resilience tonight successfully undocked from one docking port on ISS and redocked to a different port.
This was the first time an American spacecraft had accomplished this task. It was necessary to clear the docking port that the next Dragon capsule, Endeavour, will use to bring its crew to ISS, presently set for launch on April 22nd.
Russian astronauts have piloted Soyuz spacecraft between different ports numerous times, both on ISS and on Russia’s earlier space stations. Tonight’s transfer by Resilience however was done entirely on autopilot. The American astronauts could have taken over manually at any time, but the spacecraft did the entire maneuver on its own.
There is a certain irony in how the Russians have always done this maneuver, manually, and how Resilience did this, without any human intervention. From the 1960s through the entire space shuttle program Americans and all its astronauts strongly demanded that their spacecraft be piloted, by the humans on board, rather than being controlled by software or ground control. The Russians instead insisted, at least initially, that while their astronauts had the capability of doing all maneuvers manually, their software or mission control should run things. This difference seemed to nicely symbolize the down-up nature of America versus the top-down culture of Russia.
Things are now reversed. I wonder if that tells us anything about the two cultures today.
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With four astronauts on board the Dragon capsule Resilience tonight successfully undocked from one docking port on ISS and redocked to a different port.
This was the first time an American spacecraft had accomplished this task. It was necessary to clear the docking port that the next Dragon capsule, Endeavour, will use to bring its crew to ISS, presently set for launch on April 22nd.
Russian astronauts have piloted Soyuz spacecraft between different ports numerous times, both on ISS and on Russia’s earlier space stations. Tonight’s transfer by Resilience however was done entirely on autopilot. The American astronauts could have taken over manually at any time, but the spacecraft did the entire maneuver on its own.
There is a certain irony in how the Russians have always done this maneuver, manually, and how Resilience did this, without any human intervention. From the 1960s through the entire space shuttle program Americans and all its astronauts strongly demanded that their spacecraft be piloted, by the humans on board, rather than being controlled by software or ground control. The Russians instead insisted, at least initially, that while their astronauts had the capability of doing all maneuvers manually, their software or mission control should run things. This difference seemed to nicely symbolize the down-up nature of America versus the top-down culture of Russia.
Things are now reversed. I wonder if that tells us anything about the two cultures today.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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c/o Robert Zimmerman
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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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I do not get WHY they are transferring ports? Why not have Crew-2 just dock to the other up facing port?
Also, this means there will be two Dragon Crew at the station at once (active handover), and 2 Soyuz, for a crew of 4 + 4 +3 +3.
I do not get WHY they are transferring ports? Why not have Crew-2 just dock to the other up facing port?
That port must be free for the SpX-22 cargo Dragon set to launch on June 3rd. That Dragon will carry a set of replacement solar arrays in its trunk, and the ISS robot arm can’t reach into the trunk to retrieve the arrays if the Dragon is docked to the forward port.
Also, this means there will be two Dragon Crew at the station at once (active handover), and 2 Soyuz, for a crew of 4 + 4 +3 +3.
No. The new Soyuz will launch on the 9th, and the old one will land on the 17th. The new crew Dragon won’t launch until the 22nd.
As tempted as you might be to see something admirable there, it mostly exposes a sad truth.
Spacex has excellent software engineers and a newly developed modern spacecraft and the Russian equipment is increasingly old and unreliable and needs a human pilot for redundancy. The below article on leaks on zvezda can also be portrayed as some sort of evidence of the “can do” nature of the cosmonauts. But it really just tells us that the Russian equipment at the heart of the ISS is aging fast.
Russians are an incredibly self reliant and capable people who often make up for the poor quality of their industry with excellent education and creativity. But they are falling behind as the new space companies put increasingly sophisticated spacecraft in orbit.
Not much to admire there, unfortunately.
I don’t believe NASA specified a need for full automation in flight and docking (maybe they did, but I’d have to check that), but I think you can see why it makes sense for Commercial Crew flights in a way that was not true for Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury, even setting aside enormous advances in computer hardware and software. ISS is just a big research lab; crew transport to and from it are just milk runs — they are not “exploring” anything, nor do they need to prove out basic spaceflight technology. This allows the personnel focus to shift to scientists from test pilots.
Also, the idea is that these vehicles can also be used for private spaceflights. That’s much easier to sell and do if Dragon and Starliner can do everything fully automated.
I tend to agree with Richard M’s explanation above, but I share Bob’s sense of irony in how the USA has appeared to swap approaches with the former USSR.
Curious why four people were needed on-board. That seems too much risk by half. ‘Routine’ is still risky in a completely inhospitable environment. And anyone worthy of their wings would want to fly that thing.
I imagine it’s so that if something went wrong and they were unable to dock, they’d be able to abort to surface while leaving enough seats on the remaining capsules to fit everybody that was still inside the station. You never want to have more crew than lifeboat seats, especially given the age and issues of the ISS.
I wouldn’t read too much into the different approaches. On an unrelated note: I was thinking about Starship landing legs…imagine I get a circle/hoop of metal…and cut it into four parts. These are the skirt filling legs-with a cable running through holes in the bottom of the legs to lash them together and the legs helix down and in-rotating in sockets. This could be left behind on the Moon. Conventional legs for Earth-only use are behind doors like those used by shuttle landing gear. Another choice: imagine a child’s swingset-but the crossbar curving around Starship and a windlass. It teeter-totters over on its nose…and the back winched down so Starship lies flat on the Moon as a super-rover-base Landmaster. The A-frame legs now are moved over and above lava tube skylights.