Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Destination: Alpha Centauri => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on September 23, 2014, 05:34:44 pm

Title: SpaceX cargo ship arrives at International Space Station
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 23, 2014, 05:34:44 pm

SpaceX cargo ship arrives at International Space Station
AFP
By Kerry Sheridan  2 hours ago


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This March 3, 2013 NASA video image shows the SpaceX capsule Dragon attached to the Canada Arm at the International Space Station (ISS) (AFP Photo/Chris Hadfield)



Washington (AFP) - SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday with a cargo of supplies, including freeze-dried meals, 20 live lab mice and a 3D printer.

Astronauts at the orbiting lab reached out with the space station's robotic arm to grasp the Dragon at 6:52 am (1052 GMT), NASA said.

Germany's Alexander Gerst, an astronaut from the European Space Agency, operated the 57.7-foot (17.6-meter) robotic arm to capture the Dragon, and was assisted by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman.

The berthing operation was completed at 9:21 am (1321 GMT) when the vessel latched fully onto the research outpost.

The Dragon capsule is carrying more than 5,000 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of food, clothing, spare parts, exercise equipment, science experiments, a small satellite and a tool to measure wind speed at the ocean's surface.

The spacecraft launched early Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is SpaceX's fourth contracted mission with NASA for supply trips to the ISS and back.


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SpaceX's Falcon 9 lifts off early on September 21, 2014, from the US launch complex at Cape Canaveral, carrying the Dragon CRS4 to the International Space Station (ISS) (AFP Photo/Bruce Weaver)


The crew is scheduled to begin unloading the capsule on Wednesday.

The lab mice are the first live mammals to hitch a ride aboard a commercial cargo ship, and they are enclosed in a NASA-made research cage for studying the effects of weightlessness on their bodies.

The 3D printer is the first of its kind to demonstrate how the technology can be used in space, even without gravity to assist the process.

The spacecraft will stay at the ISS for about a month as astronauts unload its cargo and repack it with 3,200 pounds (1,450 kilograms) of material to return to Earth.

In 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft to the ISS.

The company is run by Internet mogul Elon Musk, who accumulated his fortune by co-founding PayPal. He also runs Tesla Motors.

Orbital Sciences Corporation has also contracted with NASA to send its Cygnus cargo ship to the space station, but unlike the Dragon, which can return to Earth intact, the Cygnus burns up on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.

Last week, SpaceX was awarded a $2 billion contract from NASA to continue developing its Dragon V2 vehicle with the goal of sending people to the space station as early as 2017.

Boeing won a larger NASA contract, for more than $4 billion, for the development of its CST-100 crew vehicle.

NASA lost its ability to reach the space station when the shuttle program ended in 2011 after 30 years.

The US space agency has helped fund private companies in the race to restore US access to the ISS.

In the meantime, the world's astronauts must rely on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to get to the ISS and back, at a cost of $70 million per seat.


http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-cargo-capsule-nears-international-space-station-055830149.html (http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-cargo-capsule-nears-international-space-station-055830149.html)

Title: Dragon arrives at space station with 3-D printer
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 23, 2014, 05:58:51 pm

Dragon arrives at space station with 3-D printer
Associated Press
By MARCIA DUNN  2 hours ago


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In this photo provided by NASA, the SpaceX Dragon private space freighter approaches the International Space Station, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014. Two days after blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Dragon arrived at the space station containing the first 3-D printer ever launched into orbit. (AP Photo/NASA)



CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The International Space Station accepted another SpaceX shipment Tuesday, this one containing the first 3-D printer ever launched into orbit.

Two days after blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the SpaceX cargo ship, Dragon, arrived at the space station. German astronaut Alexander Gerst used the robot arm to grab the capsule.

"Well done capturing that Dragon," Mission Control radioed. Two hours later, the capsule was bolted into place.

The Dragon is delivering more than 5,000 pounds of supplies. The 3-D printer — an experimental model — is the headliner payload. Also on board: mice and flies for biological research, fresh spacesuit batteries so NASA can resume routine spacewalks, and a $30 million instrument to measure ocean wind, along with the usual assortment of food and clothes.

NASA is paying SpaceX to stock the space station. Last week, the California-based company won the right to transport astronauts, too. That's still a few years off.

The Dragon will remain at the orbiting outpost for about a month. It will be filled with science experiments for return to Earth. The Dragon is the only unmanned cargo capsule capable of returning items.


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In this photo provided by NASA, astronauts Alexander Gerst and Reid Wiseman watch the approach of the SpaceX Dragon from the International Space Station, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014. Two days after blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Dragon arrived at the space station containing the first 3-D printer ever launched into orbit. (AP Photo/NASA)


This was the fifth Dragon to visit the space station.

"We're happy to have a new vehicle on board," Gerst said.

Another spacecraft is due to arrive in a couple days. Russia is poised to launch a Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan on Thursday with a three-person crew. That will bring the number of astronauts at the space station to the usual six.

___

Online:

SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/ (http://www.spacex.com/)

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov (http://www.nasa.gov)


http://news.yahoo.com/dragon-arrives-space-station-3-d-printer-105854169.html (http://news.yahoo.com/dragon-arrives-space-station-3-d-printer-105854169.html)

Title: SpaceX Dragon capsule reaches space station
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 23, 2014, 09:12:01 pm

SpaceX Dragon capsule reaches space station
Reuters
By Irene Klotz  7 hours ago



CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept 23 - A Space Exploration Technologies cargo ship carrying an experimental 3-D printer and a habitat with 20 mice arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday, ending a two-day journey.

Working from inside the station's windowed cupola module, flight engineer Alexander Gerst, a European Space Agency astronaut, used the station's 58-foot-long (18m) robotic arm to pluck the Dragon capsule from orbit at 6:52 a.m. EDT (1052 GMT) as the ships sailed 262 miles (422 km) over the Pacific Ocean.

"This was, indeed, a great flight of Dragon," Gerst radioed to NASA Mission Control in Houston. "We're happy to have a new vehicle on board."

The capsule blasted off on Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, which is built and flown by privately owned SpaceX, as the company is known. Including a 2012 test flight, Dragon cargo ships have now flown to the station five times.

The capsule is loaded with more than 5,000 pounds (2,268 kgs) of food, supplies and science gear, including an experimental 3-D printer designed to work in the zero-gravity environment of space and 20 mice that will be subjects in medical experiments to assess bone and muscle loss during long-duration spaceflights.

Dragon's unpressurized trunk compartment holds a $26 million instrument called RapidScat that will be robotically attached to the outside of the station to measure wind speeds over the oceans.

California-based SpaceX, which is owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, is one of two companies NASA hired to fly cargo to the station after the space shuttles were retired in 2011. SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract for the work, which covers 12 flights.

Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp runs a second U.S. supply line to the station under a $1.9 billon contract. Its next flight is scheduled for Oct. 21.

SpaceX last week won a second, $2.6 billion NASA contract to upgrade the Dragon capsules to fly astronauts. A test flight is targeted for 2016.

The U.S. space agency also awarded a $4.2 billion contract to Boeing to develop a second space taxi that launches aboard pricy United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets. United Launch Alliance is a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

(Editing by Bill Trott)


http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-dragon-capsule-reaches-space-123355431.html (http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-dragon-capsule-reaches-space-123355431.html)