ISS Robotic Arm Captures Dragon Capsule

puddingebola writes "From the aricle, 'The SpaceX Dragon capsule has been successfully grabbed by the International Space Station, marking the first time a private American space flight has run a supply mission to the orbiting platform. The crew of the ISS snatched Dragon out of orbit ahead of schedule, using the space station's robotic arm to guide the capsule in after its careful approach.' NASA has also posted video of the docking."

Comments

Video of the capture

[2phar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wcknJwgzh4

Re:Video of the capture

[stjobe]

That video... sure isn't action-packed.

At first I thought I was watching a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Like 2001, this video is interesting but slow :)

Re:Video of the capture

[Teancum]

There is a reason it looks like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

That movie was based upon reality due to the fact that the director, Stanley Kubrick, wanted to portray something realistic considering that there were real spacecraft going to real places (like the Moon) at the time he was making and released the film. Most other "science fiction" movies gloss over this reality in a horrible way. The only time you get something action packed is when something goes horribly wrong... and perhaps at launch when huge amounts of energy are being released.

Then again do you enjoy watching videos of your father parking his car in the driveway?

Re:Video of the capture

[quacking duck]

The slowest space scene in Apollo 13 was when the command+service module separated from the 3rd stage, then flipped 180 degrees to dock with and extract the lunar module. The whole scene took a minute or so, with tense music accompaniment.

In reality it would've taken much longer; on Apollo 17 it took 15 minutes just to dock, and some more time to check everything before extraction. On Apollo 14 it took six attempts and over two hours, before they finally docked successfully. Apollo 13 is one of my favourite movies, but it's still Hollywood entertainment, with pacing and embellishments to match, and not a documentary or realistic depiction of events.

The video capture of Dragon is far more like 2001, for example the two scenes where space pods are deployed. In both cases you can say the model shots lasted way too long, but that's Teancum's point: it's reality, or pretty close to it in the case of 2001, so naturally they are both "slow".

Re:Second?

[Tx]

I seem to be wrong, according to wikipedia, there was demo flight in May, my memory ain't what it used to be. I guess since that is classed as a test rather than a supply mission, hence the "first" in TFA.

just a thought...

[PopeRatzo]

I don't have time to read all the details, but I don't think we should be messing with any dragons.

I've read enough books to know it usually doesn't end well.

Ahead of schedule capture

[jfholcomb]

Anyone else think that the reason they got it done so fast was the little freezer full of ice cream on board?

Second docking but first contracted supply mission

[Geoffrey.landis]

Right, in May they demonstrated docking to the Space Station, but it wasn't a supply mission, it was a launch and docking demonstration flight. That first flight did carry some miscellaneous stuff and some student experiments, but it wasn't carrying supplies critical to station operation.

As the summary says, this was the first actual contracted supply mission.

Re:We need space exploration by any method possibl

[Nutria]

But plenty sci-fi author is able to think up societies where this is possible

You seem to be confusing fiction with reality. (That's usually described as a mental illness.)

Re:We need space exploration by any method possibl

[Geoffrey.landis]

You do realise the dragon capsule is owned by private company? Nothing to do with government or military

You do realize that the development cost of the Dragon-9 launch vehicle and the cargo transport capsule was paid for by NASA? This is hardly "nothing to do with government."

(The small rocket (Falcon 1) was privately financed.)

Re:We need space exploration by any method possibl

[beltsbear]

A single lightning strike has about 5 billion joules of energy or enough to run an entire household for a month not just one bulb.

Re:Second?

[Speare]

Yes, this follows a long trend of marketing hyperbole and rationalization. For example, a car is voted "best in its class," say the ads. The ads don't explain that the "class" is carefully gerrymandered to only include two models, one of which has been out of production for a decade. I've taught my daughter that every adjective is making the marketing claim less impressive, not more impressive. It may very well be the best four-wheel cross-over sport utility soft-topped off-road casual zero-emission vehicle built in North America, but that's not saying much.

Re:Yes but...

[Talderas]

http://xkcd.com/605/

Describes you. I think.

Re:Second?

[Beorytis]

I seem to be wrong

Congratulations! That's the first time I've seen that phrase in a slashdot comment!

Re:Second docking but first contracted supply miss

[MightyYar]

It is not hard for me to see how SpaceX could make a good profit and still be cheaper than NASA. I suspect they don't have pensions on their budget. I suspect people work more than 40 hours a week, and without an expectation of overtime. I suspect they don't have 50-year-old facilities scattered throughout states in a way that only makes sense once you consider congressional districts. And finally, if they fail they go out of business. When NASA fails, the schedule slips. I have a feeling that given this incentive, they will manage risk differently...

Re:Second docking but first contracted supply miss

[TWX]

You make the false assumption that NASA is just a whole bunch of government employees. In reality there are thousands of contractors or employees of contractors working for NASA's goals, and they are likely paid the same in terms of salaried, overtime exempt employment contracts as any other high tech engineering employee.

If SpaceX did anything, it removed the, "must build something for the Shuttle in each state" mantra, so that things are built where they make sense to build them. There apparently had been a company that could have built solid rocket boosters for the shuttle as one-piece structures and barged them to Florida instead of multiple 14' segments with those demonized o-rings, but Utah's Thiokol built 'em instead and had to segment them to bring them by rail.

Simply ending the need to split things up stupidly is alone going to help the costs.

Re:Second?

[camperdave]

Berthing and Docking are essentially the same thing. The difference is that with docking, the spacecraft is active and the station is passive. The spacecraft lines itself up with the station and connects to it. With berthing, the station is active and the spacecraft is passive. The spacecraft hovers near the station and the station reaches over and grabs it with one of the Canadarms. In both cases, the spacecraft will wind up attached to one of the station's airlocks, so that personnel and cargo can be transferred.