SpaceX Dragon’s docking delivers historic encore
SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for Nasa yesterday, following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musk’s company.
With test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken poised to take over manual control if necessary, the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically. The hatches swung open a few hours later, and the two Dragon riders floated into the orbiting lab and embraced the three station residents.
Unlike the SpaceX and Nasa flight control rooms, where everyone was spaced well apart, there was no social distancing or masks needed in orbit since the new arrivals had been in quarantine for many weeks.
“The whole world saw this mission, and we are so, so proud of everything you have done for our country and, in fact, to inspire the world,” Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a call from Mission Control, Houston.
Hurley credited SpaceX and added,
It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the space station in its more than 20 years of existence. Nasa considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the moon and Mars.
“Nasa is not going to purchase, own and operate rockets and capsules the way we used to,” Bridenstine said. “We’re going to partner with commercial industry.”
Nasa turned to private industry after the shuttle fleet’s retirement, hiring SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 for space station taxi services. Boeing’s first astronaut flight isn’t expected until next year. Until now, SpaceX had launched only space station supplies or satellites.
Hurley and Behnken will spend somewhere between one and four months at the space station. While they’re there, they’ll join Nasa’s Chris Cassidy and two Russian station residents in performing experiments and possibly spacewalks.