Friday, May 25, 2012

Dragon Has Made It!!

     They did it! The Dragon capsule was captured by the robotic arm of the ISS and has now for the most part been berthed. The crew wil lbe performing tests on bolts, a pressurization test, etc...but for the msot part, the mission was successful. Tomorrow the crew will open up the capsule. NASA TV will be showing it live starting at 5:30 AM EST. They covered the berthing today as well (for anyone who missed it, they probably have it recorded for a person to watch). This marks a very historic day, as it proves the viability of private commercial spacecraft and is the only private company to have launched and docked a spacecraft at the ISS, something that beforehand was only accomplished by NASA, the European Space Agency, the Japanese Space Agency, and the Russian Space Agency. If all goes according to plan, we will be able to start launching astronauts to the space station on this spacecraft in a few years. And then there's NASA's future spacecraft for deep space missions, SpaceX's planned Falcon Heavy rocket, and quite a few other private space companies working on their own spacecraft. Provided they are successful, we will have entered into a new era of private spaceflight.

Huge congrats to both SpaceX and of course its founder, Elon Musk. One HELL of an accomplishment to make in only a decade!

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