Sunday, October 7, 2012

Enough Showing Off

Now it's time to get some work done...


Just a few short hours from now on Sunday 7 October 2012 a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo capsule will lift off on the first scheduled commercial resupply mission to the ISS.  A detailed press pack for CRS-1 is available, but the details are relatively straightforward, as they should be.  Commercial space flight ought to be safe, reliable, and mundane.  

It's still pretty cool though...

Go, Dragon! 

UPDATE: The Dragon CRS-1 capsule is on orbit after an uneventful launch...just like it's supposed to be.   Okay, it was pretty uneventful but one of its nine engines conked out during the ascent so it was carried into orbit by its eight remaining engines on a slightly different flight path calculated literally on the fly.

REUPDATE: The CRS-1 Dragon capsule arrived at the ISS and was captured by its robotic arm at 5:56 am Central time Wednesday 10 October 2012.  Easy peasy...

And Splashdown: CRS-1 Dragon landed in the Pacific without incident Sunday morning 28 October 2012.