SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musk’s company. With test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken poised to take over manual control if necessary, the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, no assistance needed. The linkup occurred 262 miles (422 kilometers) above the China-Mongolia border. ”Congratulations on a phenomenal accomplishment and welcome to the International Space Station,” SpaceX Mission Control radioed from Hawthorne, California. It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. NASA considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the moon and Mars. “Bravo on a magnificent moment in spaceflight history,” NASA’s Mission Control piped in from Houston. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy greeted the incoming crew by ringing the ship’s bell aboard the space station. The docking occurred a little early, barely 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the nation’s first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, thousands jammed surrounding beaches, bridges and towns to watch as SpaceX became the world’s first private company to send astronauts into orbit, and ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA. The achievement, years in the making, is expected to drive down launch costs so more people might be able to afford a ticket to space in the coming years. A few hours before docking, the Dragon riders reported that their capsule, newly named Endeavour after the retired shuttle, was performing beautifully. Just in case, they slipped back into their pressurized launch suits and helmets for the rendezvous. Gleaming white in the sunlight, the Dragon was easily visible from a few miles out, its nose cone open and exposing its docking hook as well as a blinking light. The capsule loomed ever larger on live NASA TV as it closed the gap. Hurley and Behnken took over the controls — using high-tech touchscreens — and did a little piloting less than a couple hundred yards (meters) out as part of the test flight, before putting it back into automatic for the final approach. Hurley said the capsule handled “really well, very crisp.” The astronauts thanked everyone once the capsule was latched securely to the space station. The only snag appeared to involve Dragon’s communication lines: The astronauts could barely understand the calls coming from Houston’s Mission Control following the linkup. “It’s been a real honor to be just a small part of this nine-year endeavor since the last time a United States spaceship has docked with the International Space Station,” Hurley said. He was the pilot of that last spaceship, shuttle Atlantis in July 2011. NASA turned to private industry to pick up the slack following the shuttle fleet’s retirement, hiring SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 for space station taxi services. Boeing’s first astronaut flight isn’t expected until next year. Given the continuing high-risk drama, SpaceX and NASA officials had held off on any celebrations until after Sunday morning’s docking — and possibly not until the two astronauts are back on Earth sometime this […]

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