SpaceX's Dragon Carrying NASA Cargo Resupplies Space Station

Oct. 10, 2012

Trent J. Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov

Josh Byerly
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
josh.byerly@nasa.gov


RELEASE: 12-357

SPACEX'S DRAGON CARRYING NASA CARGO RESUPPLIES SPACE STATION

HOUSTON -- The Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Dragon
spacecraft was berthed to the International Space Station at 8:03
a.m. CDT Wednesday, a key milestone in a new era of commercial
spaceflight. The delivery flight is the first contracted resupply
mission by the company under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services
contract.

"I want to congratulate SpaceX and the NASA team that worked alongside
them to make this happen, and salute the astronauts aboard the space
station who successfully captured the Dragon capsule," NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden said. "This marks the start of a new era
of exploration for the United States, one where we will reduce the
cost of missions to low-Earth orbit so we can focus our resources on
deep space human missions back around the moon, to an asteroid and
eventually to Mars."

Space station Expedition 33 crew members Aki Hoshide of the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency and Sunita Williams of NASA used the
station's robotic arm to successfully capture Dragon at 5:56 a.m. The
capture came 2 days, 10 hours, 21 minutes and after the mission's
launch. The station was 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean, just west
of Baja California.

Following its capture, the spacecraft was attached to the Earth-facing
port of the Harmony node. The station crew could open the hatch to
Dragon as early as Wednesday afternoon to begin unloading its cargo.
The capsule is scheduled to spend 18 days attached to the station
before returning for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the
Southern California coast.

Dragon delivered 882 pounds of supplies to the orbiting laboratory,
including 260 pounds of crew supplies, 390 pounds of scientific
research, 225 pounds of hardware and several pounds of other
supplies. Dragon will return a total of 1,673 pounds, including 163
pounds of crew supplies, 866 pounds of scientific research, and 518
pounds of vehicle hardware and other hardware.

Dragon's capability to return cargo from the station is critical for
supporting scientific research in the orbiting laboratory's unique
microgravity environment, which enables important benefits for
humanity and increases understanding of how humans can safely work,
live and thrive in space for long periods. The ability to return
frozen samples is a first for this flight and will be very helpful 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 spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
in Florida at 8:35 p.m. EDT Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The mission was the first of at least 12 Space X cargo resupply
missions to the space station through 2016. The resupply contract
with NASA is worth $1.6 billion.

"Under President Obama's leadership, the nation is embarking on an
ambitious space program that is bringing critical launches back to
the United States, in-sourcing American jobs, and keeping the nation
on the cutting edge of technology development and innovation, all the
while, maintaining America's world leadership and dominance in space
exploration," Bolden said.

SpaceX is one of two companies that built and tested new cargo
spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
(COTS) program. SpaceX completed its final demonstration test in May
when it launched a Dragon capsule to the station and performed a
series of checkout maneuvers, before Dragon was grappled by the
station crew and installed on the orbiting laboratory.

Orbital Sciences is the other company participating in COTS. Orbital's
Antares launch vehicle is on the launch pad at Wallops Flight
Facility in Virginia. The rocket and pad will undergo a series of
fueling tests that will take about three weeks. After the tests are
completed, a hot fire test of the Antares first-stage engines will be
conducted. A flight test of the Antares with a simulated Cygnus
spacecraft will be flown in late 2012. A demonstration flight of
Cygnus to the space 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.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station


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