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ISS Captures SpaceX Dragon Capsule
Today at 9:56AM EDT (13:56 GMT) the robotic arm on the International Space Station successfully captured SpaceX's Dragon capsule. It's the first time a commercial craft has connected with the ISS, and the first time a spacecraft made in the U.S. has gone to the station since the retirement of the shuttle. The approach was delayed temporarily as engineers worked out bad sensor readings due to light reflected off the ISS's Kibo laboratory. "To work around the problem, SpaceX narrowed the field of view for the laser sensor so that it wouldn't pick up light from the offending reflector. Dragon then returned to the 30-meter checkpoint and moved in for the final approach." If all goes well today, the capsule will most likely be opened tomorrow. Video of the operation is being broadcast live on NASA TV.
That's it. Just hooray.
Fucking awesome.
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
Profit has always been a motive. Unfortunately, the big aerospace contractors made a profit whether or not they actually did what they were contracted to do. Now companies like SpaceX will profit for actually getting things done, which, as you say, should move things along in the right direction.
If the money that's paying for it is coming from taxes, its not commercial.
NASA hardware has always been built primarily by private companies like Lockheed Martin.
In Washington jargon, when you give money to contractors instead of federal employees, its "commercial" or "free enterprise", so they can pretend to be in favor of freedom and against government. But one of the main reasons for it is its a way of evading controls on executive salaries. There's a revolving door where government program managers funnel lucrative contracts to private companies with ridiculously high overhead rates, then afterwards go to work at those companies. Its common to already have a hiring agreement with the company before awarding the contract.
I'm not suggesting what the situation is with SpaceX, I'm just commenting on "commercial" space development in general. Its commercial if its commercial activity, such as space tourism or putting up satellites that private companies pay for. Otherwise its double-speak.
In any case, congrats on the engineering achievement, I don't mean to detract from that.
The strive for profit will necessarily lead to advancements in space tech, as they have in all other industries where long-term profitability is the primary incentive (Silicon Valley being the prime modern example).
SpaceX, Virgin Galactic et. al. aren't going into space because they are private sector.
SpaceX, Virgin Galactic et. al. are going into space because they are run by individuals who have made shedloads of money in other ventures and, instead of being good capitalists and starting work on their next shedload, have decided instead to try and realise their childhood ambition of being an astronaut, if only vicariously (has Elon Musk been sighted since the launch? :-) )
Kudos to them of course - and they may even end up making money - but without that sort of motivation the private sector would, at most, look at ways of making a risk-free buck by launching comms satellites rather than trying to put people into space.
As others have pointed out, the real test will - unfortunately - come the first time someone gets killed. I'm not sure the private sector could afford a Challenger inquiry.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Private sector space exploration is a mixed blessing without regulatory oversight
People that think like you are exactly the reason government contracts are so expensive. The "oversight" you speech of is having more managers and people with MBAs. The "oversight" that don't really know much of anything and add 20-50% cost overhead to any project. The "oversight" adds no real value what so ever because they are NOT QUALIFIED to provide oversight. Remember the "oversight" was exactly the reason for the Columbia disaster , the manager types/overhead overruled the engineers.
The FAA does wonders for ensuring consistent manufacturing and engineering policies, as do the various ISO industrial process certification programs for industrial centers.
ISO certifications ,remember the whole Office Open XML ISO debacle.
SpaceX removed the overhead , made hard requirements that don't change and the cost is down. Big example of removing overhead the CEO is also the Chief Designer , unlike other aerospace companies where they have advance degrees in management.
Most of the large aerospace companies were originally started by engineer types but the suits took over and the companies just got more expensive along with less innovation.
Agreed, but NASA is well justified in their paranoia, until a less partial regulatory body steps in.
If there is one thing abundantly clear about this century's history, you simply can't trust industry to be self-regulating.