It's a go for the launch in July of the first manned Crew Dragon spacecraft with the successful first docking of the unmanned version of the SpaceX Crew Dragon at the International Space Station (ISS) on March 3.
The historic event saw the three astronauts of Expedition 58 aboard the ISS "welcome" Ripley, the smart dummy packed with sensors that were the only occupant aboard Crew Dragon. The three astronauts of Expedition 58 -- cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, American astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques - also entered Crew Dragon, which can carry up to seven astronauts.
The astronauts also transferred the more than 400 pounds of cargo aboard Crew Dragon to the ISS. They also will also perform a series of tests on Crew Dragon in the days ahead.
The goal of the tests will be to see how the spacecraft is coping with the space environment, and if its design is safe and holding-up as expected. On March 8, Crew Dragon will detach from the ISS to splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
Space experts said the docking of Crew Dragon at the ISS is a major accomplishment for both SpaceX and NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Crew Dragon is one of two private U.S. spacecraft being developed to transport NASA astronauts to and from the ISS.
NASA said Crew Dragon began orbiting the ISS since 3:00 a.m. ET on March 2. It said that as Crew Dragon approached the ISS on March 3, it used a series of lasers, sensors, and software to automatically dock at a port on the outside of the ISS.
As a safety measure, SpaceX sent Crew Dragon to various waypoints outside of the ISS to test the spacecraft's docking capability. Using its onboard thrusters, Crew Dragon periodically approached the ISS and then held its position over the course of two and a half hours.
OnceCrew Dragon was about 20 meters away, the final command was sent to dock with the ISS. This feat was accomplished at 5:51 a.m. ET. A series of hooks were deployed around the outside of the port to secure the capsule in place.
The version of Crew Dragon now docked at the ISS is a variant of SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo capsule that's been flying resupply missions to the ISS since 2012. This version called Crew Dragon 2 is one of two sub-types belonging to the Dragon-class spacecraft. The other vehicle is Cargo Dragon 2, which will only be used to deliver cargo to the ISS.
Both Crew Dragon2 and Cargo Dragon 2 are designed for launches as payloads of Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket. SpaceX has been developing Crew Dragon 2 since 2014 under a $2.6 billion contract with NASA. NASA's goal in awarding this contract to SpaceX is to bring crewed orbital launch back to U.S. soil.
The United States gave-up this capability NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011. NASA currently depends entirely on Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft to transport its astronauts to and from the ISS. It costs NASA $80 million per seat to fly its astronauts to the ISS aboard Soyuz.
