Tag Archives: SpaceX

Dragon attached to ISS, a milestone for spaceflight

Lancering Dragon kijken Last Friday was a special day on my mission. Don and I docked the SpaceX’s cargoship Dragon to the Space Station. Dragon brings new equipment for the crew. On the 31st of May it will return to Earth with supplies from the others and myself. The Dragon mission is the operational highlight of my mission. But it is also a milestone for international spaceflight. This is the first time that a commercial spacecraft has flown to the ISS and docked with the Station. You could say a new era of spaceflight has begun. Soon private companies will take people to and from space. (more...)

A thorough safety check of ISS

  Robotics training Don and I trained intensively for the arrival of the SpaceX's commercial space ferry Dragon. This will be the first time that Dragon docks with the Space Station. This is a new and exciting occasion for SpaceX, NASA and the crew. We practice grabbing the ferry: Don flies the ISS robot arm while I send commands to Dragon to keep it from moving (free drift). At other times we practice the second part of the procedure: docking. I move Dragon to the ISS with the robotic arm and Don operates the docking mechanism. We practiced many of these so-called ' grapples', the moment when the robot arm grasps the cargo ship. To complete our training we practiced emergency scenarios such as grabbing the ferry incorrectly or we pretend the robotic arm control system malfunctions and we need to quickly get to the back-up panel in the laboratory. Nine times out of ten something goes wrong during training. In reality everything almost always goes well.  (more...)