WaPo: SpaceX Dragon Rockets Toward Space Station, Opens New Era Of Spaceflight (Update: Successful Splashdown)

[mjah]

Quick update: Dragon is slated to dock with the space station today assuming they get a green light.

The SpaceX website will stream a webcast of the attempt, which may begin at any time as their schedule has been in apparent flux.

Space X - Updates

[Bang]

Space. The topic of the thread.

Thse are the voyages of the website Extremeskins... it's ten year mission,, to seek out strange new worlds, and find out what they think about gay marriage and whether or not we should offer vet minimum and incentives for someone.

To find new and strange life, and to nickname it "Jumbo"

To boldly go.. nowhere until I'm finished arguing with Kilmer...

~Bang

[mjah]

Update: The Dragon spacecraft has been successfully captured by the space station's robotic arm. Docking tonight.

Click link above for the live webcast.

[mjah]

Dragon is returning to Earth this afternoon, after delivering over 1,000 lb of supplies to the ISS and then undocking yesterday.

The capsule will bring nearly 1,500 lb of stuff home with it for a Pacific splashdown, and will then be reused for future launches.

Dragon capsules eventually will be equipped to land on the ground, which is a pretty interesting design decision IMO for a few reasons.

Dragon To Return To Earth

[MattFancy]

Here's a link to watch the video:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[mjah]

Successful splashdown; Dragon is now waiting to get picked up by a SpaceX barge and brought back to dry land.

[Koolblue13]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/31/andromeda_collision_milkyway/

[MattFancy]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/31/andromeda_collision_milkyway/

Its hard enough to predict whats going to happen tomorrow, let alone 4 billion years from now

[Koolblue13]

Its hard enough to predict whats going to happen tomorrow, let alone 4 billion years from now

I'm an optimist and tha article says we're going to eventually be a real galaxy so I'll take it. No more of this junior league crap.

[Corcaigh]

Its hard enough to predict whats going to happen tomorrow, let alone 4 billion years from now

Predicting is easy. Getting it right is hard.

Although you won't be around to get grief if your calculations are a little off.

[Larry]

Bump.

Yahoo: SpaceX Dragon capsule launched to space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A commercial cargo ship rocketed into orbit Sunday in pursuit of the International Space Station, the first of a dozen supply runs under a mega-contract with NASA.

It was the second launch of a Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab by the California-based SpaceX company. The first was last spring.

This time was no test flight, however, and the spacecraft carried 1,000 pounds of key science experiments and other precious gear. There was also a personal touch: chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream tucked in a freezer for the three station residents.

The company's unmanned Falcon rocket roared into the night sky right on time, putting SpaceX on track to reach the space station Wednesday. The complex was soaring southwest of Tasmania when the Falcon took flight.

Officials declared the launch a success.

Especially exciting for NASA is the fact that the Dragon will return twice as much cargo as it took up, including a stockpile of astronauts' blood and urine samples. The samples — nearly 500 of them — have been stashed in freezers since Atlantis made the last shuttle flight in July 2011.

. . .

None of the Russian, European or Japanese cargo ships can bring anything back; they're destroyed during re-entry. The Russian Soyuz crew capsules have limited room for anything besides people.

[mjah]

Just to follow up on what I said about SpaceX employees last May...

...Let it never be said that they don't go the extra mile in pursuit of their vision.