Private Spacecraft to Dock with ISS May 25, 2012 – VOA News
The privately-built and owned Space X Dragon spacecraft is heading
to the International Space Station for Friday's historic docking
with the orbital outpost.
Ground controllers fired the engines on the unmanned cargo ship early Friday
morning to place it on a course towards the ISS. Once it is in
position, two of the ISS crew members will use the station's robotic arm to
capture the Dragon and attach it to a docking port.
The Dragon will remain linked with the ISS for a week so
the station's crew can unload more than 500 kilograms of supplies and reload
it with used equipment to be sent back to Earth.
Ground controllers with the U.S. space agency NASA and the Space X company
successfully tested the Dragon's on-board flight systems as it flew
within 2.5 kilometers of the ISS.
This is the first time a private company has launched a cargo ship to the
space station, beginning a new phase in the U.S. space program. NASA is
turning to Space X and other companies to ferry supplies, and eventually
astronauts, to the space station, taking over for the now-retired space
shuttle fleet.
Russia, Japan, and Europe have the capability to resupply the ISS,
but Russia's Soyuz spacecraft is the only vehicle currently able to transport
astronauts to the outpost.
