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The craft made aerospace history Friday by becoming the firstcommercially built and operated spacecraft to rendezvous and dockwith another spacecraft on orbit. I spent quite a bit of time poking around in here this morninglooking at the engineering and the layout, and I'm very pleased, observes Don Petitt, a space station flight engineer and the crewmember who guided the station's robotic arm as it grappled thecraft for docking Friday morning. RECOMMENDED: Beyond SpaceX: Five companies seeking to change spacetravel SpaceX developed the Dragon to carry cargo and eventually crew, andbased on his initial inspection of the craft's interior, riding ina human-rated Dragon is not going to be an issue, he said. The mission began with a flawless launch May 22 from a pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida . The crew opened the hatch to the cargo craft at 5:53 EasternDaylight Time Saturday. This mission, which is slated to end with Dragon's return to EarthMay 31, is a demonstration flight. It consists of a final set oftests the craft and its controllers must pass in order to begindelivering on a $1.6 billion contract SpaceX has with NASA to carry cargo to and from the station between now and 2015. Speaking from within what would be the Dragon's relatively spaciouscabin as a capsule for humans, Dr. Petitt acknowledged that in themidst of the grab-and-dock process Friday, he and his colleagues,Andre Kuipers, a European Space Agency crew member, and NASA's Joe Acaba didn't have much time tocontemplate the mission's place in history. With an additional 24 hours to think about it, however, Petittlikened the event to the Golden Spike that symbolized the finallink joining eastbound and westbound segments of the firsttranscontinental railroad line. The spike was driven into that lastwooden rail tie on May 10, 1869. This is kind of the equivalent of the Golden Spike, he said Nobody remembers who pounded that spike in, he added, injectingsome humility into the docking event. The important thing is thatthe railroad was completed, providing the initial infrastructurefor widespread settlement of the American West. On Sunday, the crew is scheduled to begin unpacking Dragon, whicharrived with just over 1,000 pounds of clothing, food, and otheritems the crew needs. In addition, it's said to carry a surprisecare package something crew members look forward to with eacharriving resupply flight. After his informal inspection of Dragon's interior Saturday, Petittnoted that it carried about as much cargo as his pick-up truck. Thecraft consists of two segments the pressurized capsule and anunpressurized trunk that doubles as the segment mating thecapsule to the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket at launch.SpaceX has designed an extended trunk for the craft. Dragon is designed to loft up to 6 metric tons of cargo somewhatless than Europe 's automated transfer vehicle and about the same as Japan 's cargo craft. Unlike these, however, which burn up on reentry,Dragon can return with up to 3 metric tons of hardware, experimentsamples, and space-station components NASA might want to analyze orrefurbish. That capacity could increase if NASA needed it, said SpaceX founderand chief designer Elon Musk during a post-docking press briefing late Friday morning. SpaceXwould just build a longer trunk, he said. Indeed, returning cargo is one of the features Dragon isdemonstrating on this mission. It is slated to return to Earth splashing down in the Pacific May 31 with about 1,400 pounds of down mass, including some space station components NASA wantsto spruce up and return to the orbiting outpost. It's an importantcapability, NASA officials have noted. While a returning RussianSoyuz craft can carry small amounts of cargo from the station,until now, no other craft serving the station has the ability tobring hefty payloads back. That was the space shuttle's role. Cargo craft built by Japan and Europe are flying only a combinedseven missions between now and 2015, when the final Japanesemission launches. SpaceX and a second company, Orbital ScienceCorporation, are slated to fly 20 resupply missions through 2015,turning them into the main lifelines between Earth and the station,NASA officials say. RECOMMENDED: Beyond SpaceX: Five companies seeking to change spacetravel. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as 3mm Wool Felt Manufacturer , Industrial Wool Felt for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits White Wool Felt.
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