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.

Comments

Re:Hooray.

[Infernal Device]

I will be mourning the death of publicly-funded space travel. Now, we hand it over to the pirates, slave-traders and privateers of our own era.

Re:need some space Chinamen to build a space railr

[k6mfw]

It's happened before. much of the laborers on the transcontinental railroad were Chinese immigrants. They were better workers because they heat their water to make tea which also killed bacteria unlike the white guys that drank their water straight from the source (and back then water supply was not as clean like nowadays). I can see it now, white guys spend all their time doing finance stuff, Chinese spend their time doing technical stuff. Going to space is very technical.