SpaceX Dragon Returns from Space Station with NASA Cargo
HOUSTON
-- A Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft splashed down in
the Pacific Ocean at 2:22 p.m. CDT Sunday a few hundred miles west of Baja
California, Mexico. The splashdown successfully ended the first contracted
cargo delivery flight contracted by NASA to resupply the International Space
Station.
"With
a big splash in the Pacific Ocean today, we are reminded American ingenuity is
alive and well and keeping our great nation at the cutting edge of innovation
and technology development," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.
"Just a little over one year after we retired the Space Shuttle, we have
completed the first cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.
Not with a government owned and operated system, but rather with one built by a
private firm -- an American company that is creating jobs and helping keep the
U.S. the world leader in space as we transition to the next exciting chapter in
exploration. Congratulations to SpaceX and the NASA team that supported them
and made this historic mission possible."
The
Dragon capsule will be taken by boat to a port near Los Angeles, where it will
be prepared for a return journey to SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas,
for processing. Some cargo will be removed at the port in California and returned
to NASA within 48 hours. This includes a GLACIER freezer packed with research
samples collected in the orbiting laboratory's unique microgravity environment.
These samples will help advance multiple scientific disciplines on Earth and
provide critical data on the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human
body. The remainder of the cargo will be returned to Texas with the capsule.
The
ability to return frozen samples is a first for this flight and will be
tremendously beneficial to the station's research community. Not since the
space shuttle have NASA and its international partners been able to return
considerable amounts of research and samples for analysis.
The
Dragon launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station in Florida, on Oct. 7. It carried 882 pounds of cargo to the complex,
including 260 pounds of crew supplies, 390 pounds of scientific research, 225
pounds of hardware and several pounds of other supplies. This included critical
materials to support 166 scientific investigations, of which 63 were new.
Returning with the Dragon capsule was 1,673 pounds of cargo, including 163
pounds of crew supplies, 866 pounds of scientific research, and 518 pounds of
hardware.
The
mission was the first of at least 12 cargo resupply missions to the space
station planned by SpaceX through 2016 under NASA's Commercial Resupply
Services contract. SpaceX is one of two companies that built and tested new
cargo spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)
program. Orbital Sciences is the other company participating in COTS. A
demonstration flight of Orbital's Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft to the
station is planned in early 2013.
NASA
initiatives like COTS and the agency's Commercial Crew Program are helping
develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation industry with the goal of
achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the
space station and low-Earth orbit. In addition to cargo flights, NASA's
commercial space partners are making progress toward a launch of astronauts
from U.S. soil in the next 5 years.
While
NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop and advance these commercial
spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft
and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to
provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be
flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion
will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of
exploration in the solar system.
For further information
visit: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/oct/HQ_12-381_SpaceX_CRS-1_Splashdown.html
No comments:
Post a Comment