CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
(AP) — The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule approached the
International Space Station for a historic docking Friday after sailing
through a practice rendezvous the day before.
The unmanned SpaceX Dragon was right on track to deliver a half-ton of supplies and become the first commercial vessel to visit the space station.
"It's a great view," Dutch space station astronaut Andre Kuipers said as the Dragon drew to within 900 feet, its strobe light flashing. "The solar panels are nicely lit."
On Thursday, the capsule came within 1½ miles of the space station
in a practice fly-by. It returned to the neighborhood early Friday so
Kuipers and U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit could capture it with a robot
arm. First, the capsule had to go through a series of stop-and-go
demonstrations to prove it was under good operating control.
A collision at orbital speed — 17,500 mph — could prove disastrous for the space station.
This
is the first time a private company has launched a vessel to the space
station, an achievement previously reserved for a small, elite group of
government agencies.
President Barack Obama is pushing commercial ventures in orbit so NASA
can concentrate on grander destinations like asteroids and Mars. Once
companies master supply runs, they hope to tackle astronaut ferry runs.
The California-based SpaceX — officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
— is one of several companies vying for the chance to launch Americans
from their homeland. That ability ended with NASA's final shuttle flight
last summer. To get to the space station, NASA astronauts must go
through Russia, an expensive and embarrassing situation for the U.S.
after a half-century of orbital self-sufficiency.
SpaceX's
billionaire maestro, Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal, said he can
have astronauts riding his Dragon capsules to orbit in three or four
years. His Falcon 9 rockets lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Musk monitored Friday's operation from the company's Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif.
The
space station has been relying on Russian, Japanese and European cargo
ships ever since the shuttles retired. None of those, however, can bring
anything of value back; they're simply loaded with trash and burn up in
the atmosphere.
By contrast,
the Dragon is designed to safely re-enter the atmosphere, parachuting
into the ocean like the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules did back in
the 1960s. Assuming all goes well Friday, the space station's six-man
crew will release the Dragon next Thursday after filling it with science
experiments and equipment
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