Space X update

 
NASA TV:
·         1 am Central FRIDAY (2 EDT) –Dragon ISS Rndv, Grapple & Berthing coverage
·         ~7:06 am Central FRIDAY (8:06 EDT) – Station arm grapples Dragon
·         ~10:20 am Central FRIDAY (11:20 EDT) – Dragon berthed to Harmony nadir port
·         Noon Central FRIDAY (1 pm EDT) – Mission Status Briefing
 
Human Spaceflight News
Thursday Afternoon, May 24, 2012
 
HEADLINES AND LEADS
 
SpaceX capsule breezes through station tests; Berthing on tap Friday
 
William Harwood - CBS News
 
After a picture-perfect launch Tuesday, a commercial cargo ship built by SpaceX made a close flyby of the International Space Station early Thursday, approaching from behind and below for a successful series of tests to make sure the capsule's navigation, flight control and communications systems will work as required when the spacecraft moves in for berthing Friday. There were no technical problems of any significance during the Dragon cargo ship's "fly under" Thursday and if all goes well, flight controllers in Houston and at SpaceX's Hawthorne, Calif., control center are expected to maneuver the cargo ship to within just 30 feet of the station early Friday, carrying out a final series of tests along the way. At that point, flight engineer Donald Pettit, operating the lab's robot arm, plans to lock on and pull the Dragon capsule in for berthing around 11:30 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).
 
SpaceX Capsule Reaches Milestone With Space Maneuvers
 
Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
 
A private unmanned spacecraft appeared to complete a series of maneuvers around the international space station flawlessly on Thursday, clearing the last major hurdle before a historic docking attempt planned for Friday. The tests demonstrated that sensors, navigation equipment, communications links and computer-controlled propulsion systems aboard the Dragon capsule were working properly. The so-called fly-under maneuver required the cone-shaped capsule—built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—to catch up to and then pass the space station. The highlight of the test, which occurred before 7:30 a.m. Eastern time, had the spacecraft float by about 1.5 miles below the station.
 
Private ship's space station flyby called success
 
Marcia Dunn - Associated Press
 
The world's first private supply ship flew tantalizingly close to the International Space Station on Thursday, passing a critical test in advance of Friday's actual docking. The unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule performed a practice lap around the orbiting lab and checked out its communication and navigation systems. Officials at the U.S. space agency, NASA, and the SpaceX company declared the rendezvous a success. It is the first U.S. vessel to visit the space station since NASA's shuttles retired last summer — and the first private spacecraft to ever attempt a delivery. The Dragon is carrying 1,000 pounds (453 kilograms) of provisions. Thursday's accomplishment "is a big confidence boost. Everyone's very excited," said SpaceX mission director John Couluris.
 
SpaceX capsule zips through practice drive by space station
 
Irene Klotz - Reuters
 
Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon spaceship flew smoothly through a practice drive by the International Space Station on Thursday, clearing the way for it to become the first private vessel to reach the orbital outpost. If Dragon continues to operate as planned, it will fly to within about 30 feet (9 metres) of the $100 billion station on Friday and shut down its maneuvering thrusters so the station crew can snare it with a robotic crane and hook it onto a docking port. Dragon took a test drive by the station early on Thursday, coming as close as about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) as the two vessels soared around the planet at 17,500 miles per hour (28,164 kph).
 
Dragon ISS Rendezvous Rehearsal A Success
 
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
 
The SpaceX Dragon, working flawlessly, sailed 1.5 mi. below the International Space Station (ISS) early May 24, clearing the way for the first U.S. commercial delivery of cargo to the orbiting laboratory. Following a pair of crucial, close-range navigation and communications checks during the “fly under,” the unpiloted Dragon began to move out in front, above and behind the six-person station in a racetrack pattern. The trajectory will swing the freighter back to the orbital outpost overnight and, if all goes well, to a Canadarm2 capture tomorrow morning. The linkup marks a significant step in the relationship between NASA and the U.S. commercial space industry that started six years ago when the space agency established its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services initiative to transfer orbital cargo and crew transport responsibilities from the space shuttle to the private sector.
 
Dragon cleared to dock with Space Station
 
Scott Powers - Orlando Sentinel
 
After its Dragon capsule passed maneuvering tests early Thursday morning, SpaceX has tentative permission from NASA to dock its spacecraft with the International Space Station Friday morning, marking the world's first private cargo delivery in space. Dragon, the first non-government spacecraft to reach the space station, will come within 30 feet of the $100-billion structure, which is orbiting about 200 miles above Earth. Then the station's robotic arm will grab the capsule, mate it with the station's dock and enable astronauts inside to unload a half-ton of supplies. In a series of critical though simple tests that played out during the wee hours of Thursday morning, Dragon established communications links with the station, approached within 1.5 miles and made a series of minute maneuvers to demonstrate it could be precisely controlled by ground controllers and station astronauts.
 
SpaceX Dragon capsule has close encounter with space station
 
James Dean - Florida Today
 
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule flew close below the International Space Station this morning, completing tests it needed to pass before attempting to berth at the outpost Friday morning. A communications link was lost as the commercial cargo craft passed less than two miles below around 7:30 a.m., but cameras caught the first approach to the station by a commercial vehicle. The Dragon appeared first as a small dot against a cloudy Earth. As it flew to within 1.5 miles, its solar array wings could clearly be seen.
 
SpaceX's Dragon craft is a star performer, so far
 
Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor
 
With the relentless flash of a strobe light and some on-board number crunching, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft cleared two more significant milestones Thursday in the company's effort to become the first commercial launch service to carry cargo to the International Space Station. Appearing like a gnat silhouetted against the brilliance of Earth's cloud tops, Dragon passed within 1.5 miles of the station's underside in a test of its ability to receive data from the space station on the station's position – determined by Global Positioning System satellites – and accurately determine the distance and relative positions between the two craft.
 
SpaceX Ship Passes Close By International Space Station
 
Nell Greenfieldboyce - NPR's The Two-Way
 
Astronauts on board the international space station got a chance earlier today to see the private unmanned Dragon spaceship that was launched on Tuesday by SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif. NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who is living on the station, was talking to Houston's Mission Control when he suddenly reported that he had spotted Dragon. "I'm looking at Dragon right now," he said. "We copy. Tally-ho on Dragon! That's great," replied Mission Control. Images taken by the station's cameras showed the capsule looking like a small dot as it flew along a path that took it about 1.5 miles under the outpost. NASA put video of the flyby online.
 
SpaceX commercial spacecraft makes history with 1st Space Station flyby
 
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
 
A private spaceship on its first trip to the International Space Station made a flyby of the orbiting laboratory early Thursday, zipping just below the outpost in an unprecedented space first. The unmanned vehicle, called Dragon, is built by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), and is the first commercial spacecraft ever launched toward the space station. During the rendezvous, the spacecraft approached within 1.6 miles (2.5 km) of the outpost. Dragon launched to orbit  from Cape Canaveral, Fla., early Tuesday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and is due to arrive at the station on Friday. Today was a final testing day for the capsule before it can be cleared to attempt its first docking. The capsule performed a near flyby of the space station just as designed, without any mishap. "Today is a really great day," NASA flight director Holly Ridings said during a briefing after the flyby. "It's been very, very successful up to this point."
 
SpaceX completes space station 'fly-under'
 
Agence France Presse
 
A first of its kind demonstration flight by SpaceX's Dragon capsule on Thursday successfully completed a key milestone in its mission -- a fly-under of the International Space Station, NASA said. The privately owned spacecraft "passed directly below the ISS at a distance of 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles), fulfilling all demonstration objectives for the day," the US space agency announced on the microblogging site Twitter.
 
Space shuttle replica headed for Houston
 
Harvey Rice - Houston Chronicle
 
A 123-foot space shuttle is headed for Houston on Thursday from a dock at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a journey expected to take eight days. The detailed replica, known as the Explorer, is expected to arrive in Galveston Bay on June 1, said Jeff Carr, a spokesman for Griffin Communications Group, which is organizing events surrounding the arrival of the replica for the Space Center Houston. The Seabrook-Kemah Bridge will be closed for about 30 minutes beginning about noon until the barge and the 54-foot high replica pass into the Clear Lake Channel, Carr said.
 
Shuttle replica on way to Houston from Kennedy Space Center
 
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
 
The shuttle orbiter replica Explorer is on its way to Houston this morning after departing Kennedy Space Center today atop a barge. Welded down on the vessel, the full-scale, high-fidelity replica departed the turn basin near the Vehicle Assembly Building around 6:40 a.m. and is expected to float through the locks at Port Canaveral at about 9 a.m. The barge then will make its way out into the Atlantic Ocean, round the southern tip of the Florida peninsula, and then cross the Gulf of Mexico to Texas. The trip to Space Center Houston, the visitor complex at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, is expected to take about 10 days.
 
Space shuttle replica sets sail for Houston
 
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
 
A full-size replica of the space shuttle departed NASA's Florida spaceport for the agency's Texas space center on Thursday morning (May 24), riding on an open air barge. The high-fidelity space shuttle mockup, which was known as "Explorer" for the 18 years it was displayed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, will sail into Houston's Clear Lake on Friday, June 1. A three-day public "Shuttlebration" is planned to mark the replica's arrival, which will build up to the shuttle's delivery to Space Center Houston, the visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center. Once there, the mockup will be on display outdoors, where it will offer guests the opportunity to tour the shuttle, both inside and out.
 
Neil Armstrong breaks his silence to give accountants Moon Exclusive
 
Alok Jha - The Guardian (UK)
 
As the first person to walk on the moon, he is a man whose name will be remembered for generations to come. But one of the other well-known things about Neil Armstrong is that he hardly ever gives interviews. It was therefore something of a coup for Alex Malley, chief executive of Certified Practicing Accountants of Australia, to secure almost an hour of Armstrong’s time to discuss the astronaut’s trip to the moon.
__________
 
COMPLETE STORIES
 
SpaceX capsule breezes through station tests; Berthing on tap Friday
 
William Harwood - CBS News
 
After a picture-perfect launch Tuesday, a commercial cargo ship built by SpaceX made a close flyby of the International Space Station early Thursday, approaching from behind and below for a successful series of tests to make sure the capsule's navigation, flight control and communications systems will work as required when the spacecraft moves in for berthing Friday.
 
There were no technical problems of any significance during the Dragon cargo ship's "fly under" Thursday and if all goes well, flight controllers in Houston and at SpaceX's Hawthorne, Calif., control center are expected to maneuver the cargo ship to within just 30 feet of the station early Friday, carrying out a final series of tests along the way.
 
At that point, flight engineer Donald Pettit, operating the lab's robot arm, plans to lock on and pull the Dragon capsule in for berthing around 11:30 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).
 
"Today went really very close to how we had trained it," said NASA Flight Director Holly Ridings. "There were no major deviations from our pre-flight plan and really nothing that we saw that we had not discussed prior to the mission."
 
SpaceX Mission Director John Couluris was equally pleased, saying "we fly by the mantra of 'train like you fly, and then fly like you train.' And so far, the mission has been proceeding just like a regular simulation, so we're very pleased about that."
 
Asked how he felt about the prospects for maneuvering the spacecraft to within a stone's throw of the space station Friday to clear the way for berthing, he said "I don't want to jinx myself and say what I expect and then see something different. But right now, the mission is looking just like our simulations and I'm not expecting anything we haven't seen in a simulation."
 
The terminal phase of Thursday's close approach began at a point 6.2 miles below and well behind the space station. Incorporating data from navigation satellites and the space station to precisely compute its position in space, Dragon's flight computers guided the spacecraft to a point just 1.6 miles below the complex.
 
"The way the two vehicles navigate together is relative, where you get pieces of information from both vehicles and you do the calculation and then they know exactly where they are in space relative to each other," Ridings said before launch "And so we're gathering information to make sure that navigation system works."
 
The fly under "is very important to us because it's the first time the Dragon and the space station will communicate with each other, an absolute requirement for proximity operations," she said. "It's the first time the crew on board the ISS will send commands to Dragon and get a response."
 
The command in question was a simply instruction to turn on a strobe light. As expected, the light came on aboard the Dragon and engineers confirmed the health of the communications link.
 
"This is just a test command ... but it's leading towards the crew potentially being able to send more invasive commands, such as hold or retreat or even an abort later, and command the Dragon when it's at the capture point."
 
The Dragon spacecraft passed directly below the space station around 7:30 a.m. After the close-approach fly-under tests were complete, the Dragon dropped back down to a point 6.2 miles below the station. From there, the capsule pulled out in front of the lab on a looping flight path designed to carry it up and over the station and eventually back to a standby position behind and below the laboratory.
 
Early Friday, the Dragon spacecraft will move in for berthing, flying a stepwise automated approach to hold points 1.5 miles and .9 miles directly below the station. After additional tests to make sure the craft can be precisely controlled during final approach, the capsule will be maneuvered to a point just 30 feet below the lab.
 
Pettit then will use the lab's robot arm to latch onto a grapple fixture and move the Dragon to a docking port on the Earth-facing side of the forward Harmony module. Once precisely aligned, motorized bolts will drive home to seal the cargo ship to the docking port.
 
"It is definitely a more intense day tomorrow," Couluris said. "The flyby today allowed us to check out a lot of systems and retire a lot of risk for tomorrow's flight. We were also able to get some additional objectives. We powered up the LIDARs (laser rangefinders) and the thermal imagers, which we use for very close-range navigation to space station. And those checked out good.
 
"So again, we retired a lot of risk for tomorrow. But ... there is more fine maneuvering. Dragon has a lot of automatic systems on board to protect station and Dragon itself if we see a malfunction. We haven't seen anything that would require those right now, but it is the first time we're using them. It is a test flight and we are being cautiously optimistic."
 
Assuming a successful berthing Friday, the crew plans to open hatches and float into the capsule Saturday to begin unloading supplies and equipment. For the test flight, only about 1,100 pounds of low-priority cargo were on board.
 
SpaceX hopes to begin regularly scheduled cargo deliveries later this year under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA that calls for at least 12 cargo missions. A second company, Orbital Sciences, holds a $1.9 billion contract for eight missions to deliver the same amount of cargo, about 44,000 pounds.
 
NASA's goal is to replace the cargo delivery capability that was lost with the space shuttle's retirement. To save money, the agency implemented a more commercial approach to contracting, giving the companies more say in engineering decisions and flight control. As a result, this week's mission is being billed as the first commercial space flight to the station.
 
NASA and SpaceX initially planned three test flights under a separate contract valued at up to $396 million, but the company successfully lobbied to combine the objectives of flights two and three into a single mission.
 
The test objectives for today's close approach -- navigation, abort and commanding tests -- will meet most of the goals originally laid out for the second test flight. The planned Friday berthing, along with close-in tests during final approach to the station, should accomplish the original goals of the third mission.
 
So far, the flight has proceeded without a hitch. After a spectacular pre-dawn climb to space, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket released the Dragon capsule into an orbit with an average altitude of 201 miles, about 1.6 miles lower than expected. That was easily adjusted in a subsequent rendezvous rocket firing.
 
The capsule's solar panels, being tested in space for the first time, deployed normally to provide power and recharge the capsule's batteries and a protective cover over critical navigation sensors was opened as planned.
 
The Dragon started the chase trailing the International Space Station by about 3,700 miles. After four rendezvous burns, the spacecraft was 2,200 miles behind the lab and about 19 miles below.
 
While the rendezvous sequence proceeded, flight controllers carried out a series of abort demonstration tests and another to collect so-called "free drift" data when the thrusters were disabled as they will be at the end of the rendezvous.
 
There were no technical problems of any significance, engineers said. One thruster briefly "failed off," but it later was deemed a momentary glitch and restored to normal operation. Another issue with an inertial measurement unit was cleared up with a navigation update.
 
SpaceX capsule reaches milestone with space maneuvers
 
Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
 
A private unmanned spacecraft appeared to complete a series of maneuvers around the international space station flawlessly on Thursday, clearing the last major hurdle before a historic docking attempt planned for Friday.
 
The tests demonstrated that sensors, navigation equipment, communications links and computer-controlled propulsion systems aboard the Dragon capsule were working properly.
 
The so-called fly-under maneuver required the cone-shaped capsule—built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—to catch up to and then pass the space station. The highlight of the test, which occurred before 7:30 a.m. Eastern time, had the spacecraft float by about 1.5 miles below the station.
 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said preliminary indications were that Dragon's thrusters, laser-assisted sensors and thermal imaging instruments seemed to pass the preliminary rendezvous tests with flying colors, but analysis of the data was expected to continue through the day.
 
The tests demonstrated that sensors, navigation equipment, communications links and computer-controlled propulsion systems aboard the Dragon capsule were working properly.
 
The so-called fly-under maneuver required the cone-shaped capsule—built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—to catch up to and then pass the space station. The highlight of the test, which occurred before 7:30 a.m. Eastern time, had the spacecraft float by about 1.5 miles below the station.
 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said preliminary indications were that Dragon's thrusters, laser-assisted sensors and thermal imaging instruments seemed to pass the preliminary rendezvous tests with flying colors, but analysis of the data was expected to continue through the day.
 
Reaching Thursday's milestone means that the capsule looks poised to conduct the first linkup ever attempted between a private spacecraft and the 16-nation space station, a $100 billion orbiting laboratory.
 
The mission led by SpaceX, as the closely held Southern California company is called, is at the heart of President Barack Obama's drive to outsource the job of transporting cargo and astronauts to the space station to private industry by the second half of this decade. Dragon's expected visit would make it the first U.S. vehicle to arrive at the station in about a year, following the retirement of NASA's space shuttles.
 
SpaceX said Thursday that the spacecraft "has been performing well" and "has steadily completed one task after another" since going into orbit. But in the statement, a spokeswoman stressed that "the most difficult aspects of the mission are still ahead."
 
After the flyby, Holly Ridings, NASA's flight director, told reporters that "it was a great day in space" and the mission has been "very successful up to this point." She also said that regarding preparations on the station, "everything is set up and ready to go" for Friday.
 
John Couluris, her counterpart at the company, said during the same briefing that "all Dragon systems checked out" and "we're looking good across the board." He said the capsule's fuel reserves are greater than projected, which could allow Dragon to make a second pass at the space station on Friday if the first docking attempt is aborted.
 
Dragon's rendezvous systems had never been tested before in the harsh conditions of space, with the station and the capsule racing around the Earth in tandem at about 17,000 miles an hour.
 
The toughest test of the SpaceX ship is set to occur Friday when the cargo capsule is expected to steadily move closer to the station in a weightless ballet with the larger craft. If all goes well, astronauts Donald Pettit and a partner, observing and filming the capsule from inside the station, are supposed to manipulate a roughly 50-foot robotic arm to grab and pull the capsule into a docking port.
 
The station's crew, as well as engineers at SpaceX's mission-control center at its Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters, will be able to abort the sequence if they notice a problem. After the capsule hooks up with the station 240 miles above the earth, astronauts plan to retrieve about 1,000 pounds of provisions, including food and clothes.
 
At 5:58 a.m. EDT Thursday, following more than an hour spent fussing with balky monitors and calibration difficulties with video cameras aboard the space station, Mr. Pettit uttered the words NASA controllers were itching to hear: He could see Dragon from inside the station.
 
For the rest of Thursday, ground controllers plan to send Dragon on a wide loop around the space station, maintaining a separation of several miles as the spacecraft zips above and then falls behind the station. Some additional maneuvers and engine shut-off checks are expected before the final docking sequence.
 
Dragon is scheduled to leave the space station around the end of the month and splash down off the California coast.
 
Challenges of physically connecting Dragon with the space station are the toughest elements of the mission. The capsule, for instance, under some scenarios, will only have enough fuel for one docking attempt. The slightest speed or heading deviations from a detailed, preplanned approach path would be enough to immediately halt any docking attempt.
 
"There could be some wrinkles or hiccups that could complicate a berthing attempt," according to industry consultant Charles Miller, who helped devise part of NASA's commercial-space policies before leaving.
 
"This is not easy," Mr. Miller said in an interview, noting that resolving last-minute reasons for a wave-off on Friday could turn out to be expensive and time consuming.
 
Before Tuesday's picture-perfect launch, Elon Musk, Spacex's founder and chief executive, tried to damp expectations. Referring to operation of the rendezvous sensors and controls, he told CNN: "We need to prove that we have done it correctly."
 
But on Thursday, after initial analysis of data from the maneuvers, company officials indicated that everything still appeared on track for the docking attempt.
 
Rep. Chaka Fattah, a Pennsylvania Democrat who sits on a NASA appropriations subcommittee, said the mission isn't "just a single venture into space, but a change in the trajectory of how we think of space exploration."
 
Friday's activities will be captured on video and the images will be available on NASA's website, the same way visits by Russian, American and European supply ships have been shown in the past.
 
President Obama called SpaceX's chief executive Wednesday, the day after the successful launch. "The President just called to say congrats." Mr. Musk said via Twitter early Thursday, according to the Associated Press. "Caller ID was blocked, so at first I thought it was a telemarketer," his message joked.
 
Private ship's space station flyby called success
 
Marcia Dunn - Associated Press
 
The world's first private supply ship flew tantalizingly close to the International Space Station on Thursday, passing a critical test in advance of Friday's actual docking.
 
The unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule performed a practice lap around the orbiting lab and checked out its communication and navigation systems. Officials at the U.S. space agency, NASA, and the SpaceX company declared the rendezvous a success.
 
It is the first U.S. vessel to visit the space station since NASA's shuttles retired last summer — and the first private spacecraft to ever attempt a delivery. The Dragon is carrying 1,000 pounds (453 kilograms) of provisions.
 
Thursday's accomplishment "is a big confidence boost. Everyone's very excited," said SpaceX mission director John Couluris. After working all night, he urged his team to go home and rest up for Friday. "It's exciting to be an American and part of putting American spacecraft into orbit, and we're very proud right now."
 
NASA flight director Holly Ridings said the mood was upbeat on her side as well, but noted "there's still a lot of really new things that the teams need to perform and the vehicles, frankly, need to perform" on Friday.
 
The space station astronauts struggled with bad computer monitors and camera trouble as the Dragon zoomed toward them, but the problem did not hold up the operation.
 
The astronauts successfully turned on Dragon's strobe light by remote control, but could not see it because of the sun glare and distance. The Dragon finally popped into camera view about 10 minutes later, appearing as a bright speck of light against the blackness of space, near the Earth's blue horizon. The two solar wings were clearly visible as the Dragon drew closer.
 
"Can nicely see the vehicle," Dutch spaceman Andre Kuipers said.
 
On Friday morning, Kuipers and fellow astronaut Donald Pettit will use the space station's robot arm to grab the Dragon and attach it to the complex. The crew will have just under a week to unload the contents before releasing the spacecraft for re-entry next Thursday. It is the only supply ship designed to return to Earth with experiments and equipment; the others burn up in the atmosphere.
 
SpaceX's objective is to help stockpile the space station, joining Russia, Europe and Japan in resupply duties. In three or four more years, however, the company run by the billionaire who co-founded PayPal, Elon Musk, hopes to be launching station astronauts.
 
It is the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's strategy for NASA: turning over orbital flights to private business so the space agency can concentrate on destinations farther afield, like asteroids and Mars. Several U.S. companies are competing for the opportunity.
 
Obama called Musk on Wednesday, a day after Dragon's flawless launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard the company's Falcon 9 rocket.
 
"The President just called to say congrats. Caller ID was blocked, so at first I thought it was a telemarketer," Musk said via Twitter early Thursday.
 
Couluris said two more supply trips are planned by year's end.
 
SpaceX capsule zips through practice drive by space station
 
Irene Klotz - Reuters
 
Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon spaceship flew smoothly through a practice drive by the International Space Station on Thursday, clearing the way for it to become the first private vessel to reach the orbital outpost.
 
If Dragon continues to operate as planned, it will fly to within about 30 feet (9 metres) of the $100 billion station on Friday and shut down its maneuvering thrusters so the station crew can snare it with a robotic crane and hook it onto a docking port.
 
Dragon took a test drive by the station early on Thursday, coming as close as about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) as the two vessels soared around the planet at 17,500 miles per hour (28,164 kph).
 
Astronauts aboard the station showed they could command Dragon by ordering the unmanned capsule to turn on and off its strobe light.
 
"“It went very, very smoothly," NASA flight director Holly Ridings told reporters after the test.
 
“"We've been training and practicing for many years, but doing it for the first time with two dynamic spacecraft flying very close together you always want to make sure that you're going to be able to work as you trained," she said.
 
"“It's a big confidence boost," added mission director John Couluris, with California-based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX.
 
"“It's exciting to be an American and part of putting an American spacecraft into orbit. We're very proud right now," he said.
 
With the retirement of the space shuttles last year, the United States is dependent on station partners Europe, Japan and especially Russia to reach the orbiting laboratory, which flies about 240 miles (390 km) above Earth.
 
Rather than building a government-owned and operated replacement for the shuttle, the Obama administration is supporting private industry efforts to develop cargo ships and space taxis so NASA can buy flight services instead, a far cheaper alternative.
 
If SpaceX's Dragon continues to operate as planned, the company will be cleared to begin working off its 12-flight, $1.6 billion NASA contract to fly cargo to and from the station. A second freighter owned by Orbital Sciences Corp is expected to debut later this year.
 
NASA is incubating similar partnerships to develop passenger spaceships, which would break the U.S. reliance on Russia for crew flight services that cost about $400 million a year.
 
Dragon blasted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday.
 
If all goes as planned, station flight engineers Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers will use the station's 58-foot (17.7-metre) robot arm to pluck Dragon from orbit at about 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT) on Friday and attach it to a berthing port on the station's Harmony connecting node.
 
“"It is a test flight so I don't want to jinx myself and say what I can expect (on Friday) and then see something different," Couluris said. "“We fly by the mantra of 'Train like you fly and then fly like you train,' and so far the mission has been proceeding just like a regular simulation."
 
Dragon is carrying about 1,200 pounds (544 kg) of food, water, clothing and supplies for the station crew.
 
The capsule will be repacked with equipment to come back to Earth, leaving the space station on May 31 and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California later that day.
 
Dragon ISS Rendezvous Rehearsal A Success
 
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
 
The SpaceX Dragon, working flawlessly, sailed 1.5 mi. below the International Space Station (ISS) early May 24, clearing the way for the first U.S. commercial delivery of cargo to the orbiting laboratory.
 
Following a pair of crucial, close-range navigation and communications checks during the “fly under,” the unpiloted Dragon began to move out in front, above and behind the six-person station in a racetrack pattern. The trajectory will swing the freighter back to the orbital outpost overnight and, if all goes well, to a Canadarm2 capture tomorrow morning.
 
The linkup marks a significant step in the relationship between NASA and the U.S. commercial space industry that started six years ago when the space agency established its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services initiative to transfer orbital cargo and crew transport responsibilities from the space shuttle to the private sector.
 
Struggling to survive in Congress, the crew transport portion of the NASA initiative is scheduled for 2017, if the agency acquires adequate funding and a commitment from its commercial partners. If successful, the strategy will free NASA to pursue a decades-long goal of sending human explorers on deep space missions, first to an asteroid, and then Mars.
 
Dragon’s mission also marks the first visit of a U.S. spacecraft to the space station since the final shuttle mission in July 2011.
 
The significance of Dragon’s fight was underscored late May 23, when President Barack Obama called SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk to offer his congratulations on the successful launch of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon early the previous day and the subsequent series of power, navigation and communications checkouts of the capsule.
 
Demonstrations on the eve of the May 25 “track and capture” of Dragon using the space station’s 58-ft.-long Canadarm2 established a successful exchange of relative GPS navigation data between the ISS and the capsule as well as a UHF communications link that permitted station astronauts Don Pettit, Andre Kuipers and Joe Acaba to command the freighter to turn on a strobe light.
 
The demonstrations confirmed that Dragon can move precisely in relation to the station and that the astronauts can command the capsule to pause its advance and even move away if there was a collision threat. But NASA and SpaceX officials still sounded a cautious note.
 
“Although today was successful, this is still a demonstration mission,” Holly Ridings, NASA’s lead flight director for the exercise, told a Johnson Space Center news briefing. “To get through the first piece obviously makes you feel positive. But in terms of the activities tomorrow, there’s still a lot of really new things the teams and the vehicles need to perform.”
 
“We retired a lot of risk,” added John Couluris, SpaceX mission manager at company headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. “But there is more fine maneuvering and Dragon has a lot of automatic systems on board to protect station and Dragon itself if we see a malfunction. We have not seen anything like that, but it is the first time we are using them. We are being cautiously optimistic.”
 
The May 24 operations began to unfold shortly before 4 a.m. EDT, as Dragon fired thrusters to start an approach from about 60 mi. behind and 6 mi. below the station. A second maneuver sent Dragon 1.5 mi. directly underneath the station at 7:28 a.m. and into the racetrack pattern.
 
The timeline was disrupted temporarily when one of three monitors in the station’s Cupola observation deck faltered. The monitors are used by Pettit and his colleagues to follow Dragon’s status with external cameras and operate the robot arm. The system responded to a reboot, and there is a backup Canadarm2 control post in the station’s U.S. lab.
 
As Dragon returns to the station on May 25, the capsule will approach to a point 820 ft. below the outpost. Ground control teams as well as the station crew will share a series of commands, directing Dragon to advance, hold, retreat and finally advance to a point within 35 ft. of the station. Each step will receive “go/no-go” scrutiny from NASA’s Mission Control.
 
Posted in the Cupola observation deck, Pettit and Kuipers will reach with the station’s 58-ft.-long robot arm to grapple Dragon shortly after 8 a.m. They are scheduled to conclude the berthing operation by hoisting Dragon to a port on the station’s U.S. segment Harmony module shortly after 11 a.m.
 
The ISS crew plans to open Dragon early May 26. The capsule is carrying just more than 1,000 lb. of food, computer gear and a Nanoracks student experiments package.
 
The freighter will be released on May 31. Following re-entry, the spacecraft will descend under parachute into the Pacific Ocean off the southern California coast, splashing down just before noon.
 
SpaceX teams will be prepared to recover the reusable spacecraft and nearly 1,400 lb. in return cargo consisting of research samples and equipment, station hardware and spacesuit gear.
 
Dragon cleared to dock with Space Station
 
Scott Powers - Orlando Sentinel
 
After its Dragon capsule passed maneuvering tests early Thursday morning, SpaceX has tentative permission from NASA to dock its spacecraft with the International Space Station Friday morning, marking the world's first private cargo delivery in space.
 
Dragon, the first non-government spacecraft to reach the space station, will come within 30 feet of the $100-billion structure, which is orbiting about 200 miles above Earth. Then the station's robotic arm will grab the capsule, mate it with the station's dock and enable astronauts inside to unload a half-ton of supplies.
 
In a series of critical though simple tests that played out during the wee hours of Thursday morning, Dragon established communications links with the station, approached within 1.5 miles and made a series of minute maneuvers to demonstrate it could be precisely controlled by ground controllers and station astronauts.
 
The tests including synchronizing the GPS systems onboard Dragon and the station, followed by an astronaut switching on a Dragon beacon light by remote control. Astronauts spotted the capsule approaching at 5:58 a.m., and at 7:30 a.m. it reached its closest point, matching the station's orbit at 17,000 mph. Soon after that, Dragon took off, to circle back for Friday's activities.
 
"It's been very, very successful up to this point," NASA Flight Director Holly Ridings said. "We got through it. We got the data we needed. And everything is set for tomorrow."
 
Dragon is loaded with more than 1,100 pounds of food, clothing and other supplies. That cargo will be replaced by station trash that Dragon will carry back to a scheduled May 31 splashdown in the Pacific.
 
Ridings cautioned that a final decision for the berthing procedure will not be made until station astronauts are given permission to grab Dragon with the grappling arm, around 8 a.m. Friday. Dragon would not be unloaded until Saturday.
 
At that point, SpaceX becomes NASA's first private space delivery contractor. The company has a five-year, $1.5 billion contract to make 12 more deliveries. Another company, Orbital Sciences, expects to make its first test flight later this year.
 
They'll be replacing the cargo services provided by Russian, Japanese and European government space agencies, which took over all shipping after NASA retired its space shuttles last summer.
 
The private contractor program eventually is to expand to ferrying astronauts as well, though that is three to five years away. In the meantime, the Russians will continue to ferry members of the six-astronaut crews to and from the station.
 
NASA says that private companies will provide lower-cost and more efficient cargo delivery services, and quicker turnarounds. "So we're looking at proving regular services," said SpaceX Dragon Mission Director John Couluris, "kind of at a faster rate than the other vehicles."
 
SpaceX Dragon capsule has close encounter with space station
 
James Dean - Florida Today
 
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule flew close below the International Space Station this morning, completing tests it needed to pass before attempting to berth at the outpost Friday morning.
 
A communications link was lost as the commercial cargo craft passed less than two miles below around 7:30 a.m., but cameras caught the first approach to the station by a commercial vehicle.
 
The Dragon appeared first as a small dot against a cloudy Earth. As it flew to within 1.5 miles, its solar array wings could clearly be seen.
 
Earlier, station crew members successfully tested their ability to send commands to the unmanned Dragon during the berthing operation.
 
Just before 7 a.m., European astronaut Andre Kuipers commanded the Dragon to turn on its strobe light as it closed with a few miles of the station. He later turned it off.
 
After the “fly-under,” the Dragon will fire thrusters to begin a long loop out in front, above and then behind the station, putting it in position for another rendezvous early Friday.
 
The demonstration mission has already received high-level congratulations on its progress so far.
 
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported receiving a call from President Obama on Wednesday night.
 
“The President just called to say congrats,” Musk said on Twitter. “Caller ID was blocked, so at first I thought it was a telemarketer :)”
 
The demonstration mission hopes to prove SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule can safely start commercial cargo deliveries to the station under a $1.6 billion NASA contract.
 
SpaceX's Dragon craft is a star performer, so far
 
Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor
 
With the relentless flash of a strobe light and some on-board number crunching, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft cleared two more significant milestones Thursday in the company's effort to become the first commercial launch service to carry cargo to the International Space Station.
 
Appearing like a gnat silhouetted against the brilliance of Earth's cloud tops, Dragon passed within 1.5 miles of the station's underside in a test of its ability to receive data from the space station on the station's position – determined by Global Positioning System satellites – and accurately determine the distance and relative positions between the two craft.
 
In addition, space-station flight engineer André Kuipers activated a strobe light on Dragon, showing that the station crewmembers could command the cargo craft from their enviable perch in the multiwindowed cupola on the station – in essence the station's control tower for overseeing the arrival and departure of spacecraft from station partners.
 
SpaceX already is under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for 12 cargo missions through 2015. But the company has its sights set on more than rations and experiment samples. A successful cargo service also paves the way for sending humans into space.
 
The company currently is one of four firms in which NASA is investing almost $270 million to develop human-spaceflight capabilities in the second phase of its commercial-crew development project. NASA is relying on commercial providers to ferry crews and cargo to and from the space station so that the agency can focus its human-spaceflight efforts on exploring space beyond low-Earth orbit, the space station's domain.
 
SpaceX's entry into that competition is a human-rated version of the Falcon 9 rocket, which lofted Dragon, and the Dragon craft. SpaceX designed Dragon from the outset to ferry people as well as petri dishes.
 
Thursday's activities would have wrapped up this mission in a sequence of three demonstration flights NASA originally envisioned for SpaceX. Efforts to dock with the station would have been the third mission. But the company was able to show that the two missions could be combined.
 
The intense preparations appear to have paid off so far. NASA and SpaceX have worked together on this mission for five years and began joint simulations nearly three years ago, notes John Couluris, SpaceX's mission director for this flight. The pace picked up during the past 18 months, with NASA and SpaceX conducting nearly 20 joint simulations and the company conducting more than 40 internally.
 
SpaceX has exclusive control of its craft after launch. But when Dragon reaches the space station's vicinity, controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, as well as station crew members, have authority to halt docking attempts. The space station's lead flight director, Holly Ridings, noted that the activities Thursday were as much a test for how well the agency, the space-station crew, and the company could work together during a mission as they were for hardware performance.
 
“This was the first joint operation,” she noted, pronouncing it “very successful.”
 
“So far, our mission has been proceeding just like our regular simulations, so we're very pleased with that,” Mr. Couluris added during a press briefing Thursday morning.
 
Indeed, some hardware is working better than expected. For instance, the SpaceX team initially estimated that Dragon would have to close to within 14 to 17 miles of the station before it could establish a reliable communications link between the two craft. It's the link that station crew members use to send commands to Dragon and the link that Dragon uses to receive data the station sends on its position. The two craft established a communications link while Dragon was more than 56 miles away.
 
“That was a great thing for us,” Couluris said. The longer-lasting communications link may allow the company to streamline some of its predocking procedures, he added.
 
At the time of this writing, engineers in Houston and Hawthorne, Calif., were reviewing the GPS data to ensure that Dragon's navigation system succeeded in tracking the two crafts' positions in relation to each other.
 
Another bonus: Dragon has more fuel left on board than planners anticipated for this point in the mission – important if the rendezvous effort on Friday should require more than one attempt.
 
Dragon will spend the rest of Thursday performing an enormous loop-the-loop around the space station to reposition itself for a final approach, rendezvous, and docking on Friday. The docking process has several holding points along the way, as Dragon closes in on the station. At each, NASA and SpaceX will determine if conditions on Dragon and the space station allow Dragon to move to the next holding point.
 
If all goes well, Dragon's final maneuver will bring it to within about 33 feet of its docking port. Ms. Ridings says she anticipates a go, no-go decision for docking at about 8 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time Friday. Assuming the decision is “go,” station flight engineer Don Petitt will used the station's robotic arm to grasp Dragon and gently dock it.
 
While Thursday's successes on this test flight for SpaceX have given the comanyu's mission controllers additional confidence in their craft, they are keenly aware that docking is no slam-dunk. “It will be a more intensive day tomorrow,” Couluris observes.
 
SpaceX Ship Passes Close By International Space Station
 
Nell Greenfieldboyce - NPR's The Two-Way
 
Astronauts on board the international space station got a chance earlier today to see the private unmanned Dragon spaceship that was launched on Tuesday by SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif.
 
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who is living on the station, was talking to Houston's Mission Control when he suddenly reported that he had spotted Dragon. "I'm looking at Dragon right now," he said.
 
"We copy. Tally-ho on Dragon! That's great," replied Mission Control.
 
Images taken by the station's cameras showed the capsule looking like a small dot as it flew along a path that took it about 1.5 miles under the outpost. NASA put video of the flyby online.
 
The close flyby gave controllers a chance to check out critical systems on Dragon, to make sure all is working well as NASA decides whether to proceed with a rendezvous Friday morning that could end in docking.
 
If that happens, it would be a historic first for commercial spacecraft, as the space station has previously only received visiting spaceships flown by government agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, and the European Union.
 
During the flyby, station astronauts successfully sent a command to Dragon, telling the capsule to turn on a strobe light. That was a key milestone, because the crew will need to be able to communicate with Dragon during tomorrow's maneuvers.
 
And controllers checked out the GPS systems that the spacecraft uses to determine its location relative to the station. NASA said via Twitter that the initial data was looking good.
 
If all continues to go well, NASA will give the go-ahead for Dragon to creep closer and closer to the station on Friday morning. It will halt 32 feet from the outpost and Pettit will use a robotic arm to grab the capsule and attach it to the station.
 
After that, astronauts will open the hatch and unload the capsule's cargo, which includes food and clothing. The crew will then load the vehicle with stuff to send home, and Dragon is scheduled to depart from the station on May 31, splashing down in the Pacific.
 
SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, who made his fortune building up the internet service PayPal, and the company has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to deliver cargo to the space station now that the agency has retired its space shuttles.
 
So far, the company's first attempt to reach the station has been trouble-free. And the mission has gotten a lot of attention. In a Twitter update, Musk said: "The President just called to say congrats. Caller ID was blocked, so at first I thought it was a telemarketer :)"
 
SpaceX commercial spacecraft makes history with 1st Space Station flyby
 
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
 
A private spaceship on its first trip to the International Space Station made a flyby of the orbiting laboratory early Thursday, zipping just below the outpost in an unprecedented space first.
 
The unmanned vehicle, called Dragon, is built by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), and is the first commercial spacecraft ever launched toward the space station. During the rendezvous, the spacecraft approached within 1.6 miles (2.5 km) of the outpost. Dragon launched to orbit  from Cape Canaveral, Fla., early Tuesday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and is due to arrive at the station on Friday.
 
Today was a final testing day for the capsule before it can be cleared to attempt its first docking. The capsule performed a near flyby of the space station just as designed, without any mishap.
 
"Today is a really great day," NASA flight director Holly Ridings said during a briefing after the flyby. "It's been very, very successful up to this point."
 
Crewmembers inside the orbiting lab have been monitoring the vehicle's activities.
 
"We all look forward to it," space station Expedition 31 flight engineer Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency said this morning. "We will dedicate today to Dragon."
 
The capsule successfully made its first burn to approach the space station at 3:58 a.m. EDT (0758 GMT), and followed with another engine firing at 4:43 a.m. EDT (0843 GMT) that took Dragon to a position 1.6 miles (2.5 km) below and 25 miles (40 km) behind the International Space Station, officially beginning its flyby. At around 7:25 a.m. EDT (1125 GMT), Dragon made its closest approach, passing through the imaginary line called the R-bar connecting the station and Earth.
 
From this spot, cameras on the outpost searched for sightings of the approaching capsule.
 
"Dragon may or may not be visible," NASA commentator Josh Byerly said. "Dragon should be a small dot on the horizon."
 
Shortly before 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT), station astronauts sent instructions to Dragon to turn on a strobe light as a test to make sure the craft can respond to commands sent by the astronauts. Though the light was invisible to the crew, the spacecraft's systems indicated that the command was received and responded to.
 
"It's too far out and brightly illuminated to see the strobe light," Kuipers said.
 
The space station is a $100 billion orbiting research lab built by a coalition of five international space agencies, including NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency.
 
During today's flyby, Dragon tested its navigation and communications instruments, including a system called Relative GPS that uses the distance between the station and the capsule to determine Dragon's position in space. The vehicle will also tried out its "COTS Ultra-high frequency Communication Unit" to send signals to the space station.
 
As Dragon approached the station, the spacecraft was visible as a small bright dot in the distance.
 
"Whatever views we get today will definitely pale in comparison to how things are going to look tomorrow," Byerly said.
 
At 7:57 a.m. EDT (1157 GMT), Dragon fired its thrusters to depart the vicinity of the International Space Station, wrapping up its work for the day.
 
The tests performed during this day were orignally meant to be carried out on a dedicated mission called COTS 2, or C2, but SpaceX petitioned NASA to combine that mission with Dragon's first docking flight, and the request was granted.
 
"Achieving the original C2 mission objectives today was a big confidence boost," Dragon Mission Director John Couluris said from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthore, Calif. "It's exciting to be an American and part of putting an American spacecraft into orbit and we're very proud."
 
Based on the outcome of today's tests, NASA has given the go-ahead to allow the capsule to berth at the space station tomorrow. To do this, Dragon will approach near enough so that NASA astronaut Don Pettit, assisted by Kuipers, can grab onto the vehicle with the space station's robotic arm and maneuver it to attach to the station's Harmony node.
 
This mission is a test flight under NASA's COTS program (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services), which has helped fund the development of private vehicles to deliver cargo to low-Earth orbit in the wake of the space shuttles' retirement. SpaceX is one of two companies (the other is Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va.) with contracts to fly delivery missions to the space station once their test flights are complete.
 
This flight is the second-ever flight for Dragon, and a defining moment for the burgeoning field of commercial spaceflight. SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., was founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also co-founded the online payment service PayPal.
 
Musk, who has been posting Dragon mission updates on Twitter, said he got an unexpected call of support on Wednesday.
 
"The President just called to say congrats. Caller ID was blocked, so at first I thought it was a telemarketer :)" Musk wrote.
 
Dragon, at 14.4 feet tall (4.4 meters) and 12 feet wide (3.7 m), is packed full of food and clothing for the station crew, as well as supplies such as batteries and a laptop, and student-designed science experiments.
 
"Even though this is a test flight, Dragon is carrying up quite a bit of supplies; these are basically non-essential supplies just because it is a test flight," Byerly said.
 
Dragon is due to spend just under a week berthed at the space station. On Thursday (May 31), the vehicle will be packed with completed science experiments and equipment ready to send back to Earth. The capsule is equipped with a heat shield to withstand its fiery re-entry through Earth's atmosphere, and is due to be recovered by a team of ships in the Pacific Ocean.
 
SpaceX completes space station 'fly-under'
 
Agence France Presse
 
A first of its kind demonstration flight by SpaceX's Dragon capsule on Thursday successfully completed a key milestone in its mission -- a fly-under of the International Space Station, NASA said.
 
The privately owned spacecraft "passed directly below the ISS at a distance of 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles), fulfilling all demonstration objectives for the day," the US space agency announced on the microblogging site Twitter.
 
"The SpaceX Dragon capsule fly-under of the ISS has been successfully completed," it added. More details are expected during a 10 am (1400 GMT) news conference.
 
The next step is for the spacecraft to berth with the orbiting lab, in order to unload the half ton of supplies it has brought to space and then get restocked with gear to return to Earth.
 
NASA said it would meet at 9 pm (0100 GMT Friday) to decide whether to give the go-ahead for the spacecraft to attempt its approach to the $100 billion research outpost.
 
Astronauts aboard the ISS are planning to help the operation by reaching out with the station's robotic arm, built by the Canadian space agency, to grab the spacecraft so it can latch on to the Harmony module of the station.
 
If NASA gives the go ahead, the robotic arm grab attempt would begin at 8:06 am (1206 GMT) with the docking itself scheduled for 11:05 am (1505 GMT), a NASA spokesman said.
 
Carrying cargo but no humans yet, SpaceX's Dragon capsule launched on Tuesday atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket, marking the first time a commercial enterprise has sent its own craft to the orbiting lab.
 
Currently, only the space agencies of Europe, Russia and Japan can send supply ships to the ISS. The United States lost that ability when it retired the space shuttle fleet last year.
 
California-based SpaceX, owned by Internet entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk, hopes that its gumdrop-shaped Dragon capsule will be able to carry astronauts to the ISS in about three years' time.
 
SpaceX and a handful of other companies are being helped in their endeavors with seed money from NASA to build cargo and crew capability.
 
SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to supply the ISS with cargo in the coming years. Orbital Sciences has a $1.9 billion contract and is scheduled for its first launch attempt later this year.
 
Space shuttle replica headed for Houston
 
Harvey Rice - Houston Chronicle
 
A 123-foot space shuttle is headed for Houston on Thursday from a dock at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a journey expected to take eight days.
 
The detailed replica, known as the Explorer, is expected to arrive in Galveston Bay on June 1, said Jeff Carr, a spokesman for Griffin Communications Group, which is organizing events surrounding the arrival of the replica for the Space Center Houston.
 
The Seabrook-Kemah Bridge will be closed for about 30 minutes beginning about noon until the barge and the 54-foot high replica pass into the Clear Lake Channel, Carr said.
 
The barge will slowly make its way to the Space Center barge dock near the intersection of NASA Parkway and Space Center Boulevard, he said. "The barge dock was used in the 60s and 70s to move big pieces of spacecraft and hardware used in the training and development of the Gemini and Apollo programs," Carr said.
 
The last time the dock was used was to move the Saturn V rocket now on display at the Space Center, he said. The 36-story rocket put Apollo 8 astronauts in orbit around the moon in 1968.
 
Carr said it would to take a full day to lift the replica off the barge with special equipment and weld it on to a transporter. The transporter will take about three hours to move about a mile to the Space Center during a Sunday parade.
 
The Explorer was on display at the National Space and Aeronautic Administration's spaceport in Florida for 18 years. The replica was built using schematics, blueprints and archived documents lent by NASA and shuttle contractors.
 
Shuttle replica on way to Houston from Kennedy Space Center
 
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
 
The shuttle orbiter replica Explorer is on its way to Houston this morning after departing Kennedy Space Center today atop a barge.
 
Welded down on the vessel, the full-scale, high-fidelity replica departed the turn basin near the Vehicle Assembly Building around 6:40 a.m. and is expected to float through the locks at Port Canaveral at about 9 a.m.
 
The barge then will make its way out into the Atlantic Ocean, round the southern tip of the Florida peninsula, and then cross the Gulf of Mexico to Texas. The trip to Space Center Houston, the visitor complex at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, is expected to take about 10 days.
 
Built by Guard Lee in Apopka, Explorer was installed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in 1993 and displayed next to a gantry-like tower. Visitors could view a mock-up payload in its cargo bay as well as the replica’s cockpit and a mannequin wearing an early version of a bright orange launch-and-entry suit.
 
The model is 122.7 feet long, 54 feet tall and has a wingspan of 78 feet. It was moved to a parking lot at the Launch Complex 39 Press Site late last year to make room for the $100 million building that will house the orbiter Atlantis in retirement.
 
That building is under construction now. Atlantis will be moved there late this year and the building will open to visitors in mid-2013.
 
Space shuttle replica sets sail for Houston
 
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
 
A full-size replica of the space shuttle departed NASA's Florida spaceport for the agency's Texas space center on Thursday morning (May 24), riding on an open air barge.
 
The high-fidelity space shuttle mockup, which was known as "Explorer" for the 18 years it was displayed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, will sail into Houston's Clear Lake on Friday, June 1.
 
A three-day public "Shuttlebration" is planned to mark the replica's arrival, which will build up to the shuttle's delivery to Space Center Houston, the visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center. Once there, the mockup will be on display outdoors, where it will offer guests the opportunity to tour the shuttle, both inside and out.
 
The replica will eventually become the star attraction of a new educational exhibition themed around the now-retired space shuttle program. In Florida, its departure cleared the way for the arrival of the real space shuttle Atlantis, which will open for display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in the summer of 2013.
 
The mockup, which was built by Florida-based aerospace replica manufacturer Guard-Lee, Inc., is considered to be the highest fidelity model of the shuttle ever created. Built using schematics, blueprints and archived documents lent by NASA and its shuttle contractors, some of the replica's core parts, including the tires used on its landing gear, are authentic to the shuttle program.
 
Spaceship at sea
 
The shuttle replica, which stands 122.7 feet (37.4 meters) long by 54 feet (16.5 meters) tall, was moved in December 2011 from the Florida spaceport's visitor center to the turn basin next to NASA's 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building where the real space shuttles were prepared for launch.
 
A wheeled transporter that was used to move the mockup to the basin returned to roll the replica onto the barge. The full-size model, atop support stands, was welded down to the flat-deck barge for its ocean journey around the Florida peninsula and through the Gulf of Mexico.
 
The shuttle replica's eight-day trip by sea will end with an afternoon arrival in Clear Lake on June 1. Greeted by a flotilla and a public street party, it will be the largest item to use the NASA Road 1 (or NASA Parkway) ramp since the stages of a Saturn V moon rocket arrived in 1977.
 
It will take a day to offload the orbiter mockup from the barge onto a transporter in Houston before it is moved the one mile (1.6 kilometers) to Space Center Houston during an early morning parade on Sunday (June 3).
 
Two by sea
 
The replica, which the space center is planning a contest to name, is the first of two shuttles to take to the water for its museum delivery.
 
Soon after the high-fidelity model arrives at Space Center Houston, the space shuttle Enterprise will be loaded onto a barge in New York for its own two-day trip to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
 
NASA's original prototype orbiter, Enterprise never flew in space but was used for a series of approach and landing tests in the late 1970s. It arrived in New York in late April after the space shuttle Discovery replaced it on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
 
Enterprise will first be transported up the Hudson River to Bayonne, NJ, where it will be transferred over to a crane- equipped barge to complete its trip to the Intrepid, a World War II aircraft carrier-turned-museum docked at Pier 86 in Manhattan. Once at the museum, it will be hoisted onto the flight deck and covered by a steel and fabric housing.
 
The Intrepid plans to open its Enterprise display pavilion to the public on July 19.
 
Neil Armstrong breaks his silence to give accountants Moon Exclusive
 
Alok Jha - The Guardian (UK)
 
As the first person to walk on the moon, he is a man whose name will be remembered for generations to come. But one of the other well-known things about Neil Armstrong is that he hardly ever gives interviews.
 
It was therefore something of a coup for Alex Malley, chief executive of Certified Practicing Accountants of Australia, to secure almost an hour of Armstrong’s time to discuss the astronaut’s trip to the moon.
 
In the illuminating conversation posted online on the CPA Australia website, Armstrong revealed how he thought his mission, Apollo 11, only had a 50% chance of landing safely on the moon’s surface and said it was “sad” that the current US government’s ambitions for Nasa were so reduced compared with the achievements of the 1960s.
 
“Nasa has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve,” said Armstrong. “It’s sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.”
 
As a child, Armstrong said he had “become fascinated with the world of flight, as an elementary school student, and determined that, somehow, I wanted to be involved in that.”
 
He served as a fighter pilot in the Korean war and was working as a test pilot when President John F Kennedy issued his challenge to the country’s scientists to land on the moon. “We choose to go the moon and these other things,” said Kennedy to an audience at Rice University in 1962, “not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win.”
 
At the time, the US had only managed to send Alan Sheppard 100 miles above the surface of the Earth for 20 minutes. “Now the president was challenging us to go to the moon,” said Armstrong. “The gap between a 20 minutes up and down flight and going to the moon was something almost beyond belief, technically.”
 
Over the course of the following decade, each Apollo mission was used to test different parts of the propulsion, navigation and communication technology required on a journey to the moon.
 
“A month before the launch of Apollo 11, we decided we were confident enough we could try and attempt on a descent to the surface,” said Armstrong. “I thought we had a 90% chance of getting back safely to Earth on that flight but only a 50-50 chance of making a landing on that first attempt. There are so many unknowns on that descent from lunar orbit down to the surface that had not been demonstrated yet by testing and there was a big chance that there was something in there we didn’t understand properly and we had to abort and come back to Earth without landing.”
 
When Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their descent aboard the Eagle to the moon’s surface, the on-board computer had intended to put them down on the side of a large crater with steep slopes littered with huge boulders. “Not a good place to land at all,” said Armstrong. “I took it over manually and flew it like a helicopter out to the west direction, took it to a smoother area without so many rocks and found a level area and was able to get it down there before we ran out of fuel. There was something like 20 seconds of fuel left.”
 
Once the astronauts had reached the surface and he had muttered his immortal line, “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”, Armstrong said there was too much work to do to spend too long meditating or reflecting on where he was.
 
In the years since his legendary mission, Armstrong has watched Nasa’s position and ambitions erode. “I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency, which are directed by the administration,” he said. “We have a situation in the states where the White House and the Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be and they’re playing a game and Nasa is the shuttlecock they’re hitting back and forth as both sides try to get Nasa on the proper path.”
 
So how did Malley, who was clearly in awe of Armstrong during the interview, manage to land his exclusive? “I know something not a lot of people know about Neil Armstrong - his dad was an auditor,” he said. “For people who are leaders or aspire to be leaders, listening to Neil Armstrong is far better than doing any educational MBA programme that exists in the world today.”
 
END
 
 


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