5月25日13:56 GMT,国际空间站上的机械臂成功抓住了SpaceX Dragon太空飞船,这是商业太空公司首次向空间站运送补给,也是自航天飞机退役后美国太空飞船首次到访空间站。美国宇航员Don Petit操作机械臂Canadarm2抓获了Dragon,2小时后Dragon被放置到空间站Harmony连接节点,16:02 GMT密封完成。宇航员将在周六进入太空船卸载货物。Dragon与空间站的对接标志着人类太空飞行历史上的一个重要里程碑。SpaceX从NASA获得了16亿美元合同,向空间站完成12次补给任务。NASA TV对全程进行了直播。
发射视频: 对接视频: SPACEX MAKES HISTORY Hawthorne, CA – Today, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) made history when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle in history to successfully attach to the International Space Station. Previously only four governments – the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency – had achieved this challenging technical feat. The vehicle was grappled by station’s robotic arm at 9:56 a.m. Eastern. It was pulled in Dragon’s passive common berthing mechanism successfully attached to the orbiting laboratory at 12:02 PM Eastern. Broadcast quality videos, including video inside of the SpaceX factory, may be downloaded at /spacexlaunch and high-resolution photos are posted at spacexlaunch.. SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk will join NASA Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini, NASA COTS Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer and NASA Flight Director Holly Ridings for a press conference to discuss the remarkable achievement at 1:00 PM Eastern. When asked for his initial thoughts on Dragon’s capture and move into the history books, Elon Musk stated, “just awesome”. This is SpaceX's second demonstration flight under a 2006 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with NASA to develop the capability to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station. Demonstration launches are conducted to determine potential issues so that they might be addressed; by their very nature, they carry a significant risk. If any aspect of the mission is not successful, SpaceX will learn from the experience and try again. Mission Highlights:
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DRAGON OVERVIEW
DragonLab DataSheet (875 kb) Dragon is a free-flying, reusable spacecraft being developed by SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Initiated internally by SpaceX in 2005, the Dragon spacecraft is made up of a pressurized capsule and unpressurized trunk used for Earth to LEO transport of pressurized cargo, unpressurized cargo, and/or crew members. The Dragon spacecraft is comprised of 3 main elements: the Nosecone, which protects the vessel and the docking adaptor during ascent; the Spacecraft, which houses the crew and/or pressurized cargo as well as the service section containing avionics, the RCS system, parachutes, and other support infrastructure; and the Trunk, which provides for the stowage of unpressurized cargo and will support Dragon’s solar arrays and thermal radiators. In December 2008, NASA announced the selection of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) when the Space Shuttle retires. The $1.6 billion contract represents a minimum of 12 flights, with an option to order additional missions for a cumulative total contract value of up to $3.1 billion. Though designed to address cargo and crew requirements for the ISS, as a free-flying spacecraft Dragon also provides an excellent platform for in-space technology demonstrations and scientific instrument testing. SpaceX is currently manifesting fully commercial, non-ISS Dragon flights under the name “DragonLab”. DragonLab represents an emergent capability for in-space experimentation. Dragon Spacecraft with Solar Panels deployed
To ensure a rapid transition from cargo to crew capability, the cargo and crew configurations of Dragon are almost identical, with the exception of the crew escape system, the life support system and onboard controls that allow the crew to take over control from the flight computer when needed. This focus on commonality minimizes the design effort and simplifies the human rating process, allowing systems critical to Dragon crew safety and ISS safety to be fully tested on uncrewed demonstration flights. For cargo launches the inside of the spacecraft is outfitted with a modular cargo rack system designed to accommodate pressurized cargo in standard sizes and form factors. For crewed launches, the interior is outfitted with crew couches, controls with manual override capability and upgraded life-support. In fulfillment of the COTS phase I contract, Dragon will perform three cargo demonstration missions:
This simulation, developed by Odyssey Space Research, shows Dragon approaching and berthing with the ISS. |
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