This image of Dragon docked to the International Space Station was captured by Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner.
Ivan Vagner/Twitter
During its approach on Sunday morning, Dragon first appeared as a white BB-8 to the space station. (Bonus thruster firing!)
NASA TV
But then America’s newest spacecraft started to take on a more well-defined appearance.
NASA TV
It approached the station with its nose cone open, ready for docking.
NASA TV
Before docking, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken spent some time manually flying the vehicle.
NASA TV
This sequence of images shows Dragon coming in for its final approach.
NASA TV
Docking occurred about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
NASA TV
After the space shuttle and Russian Soyuz, Dragon is the third type of crewed vehicle to dock at the space station.
NASA TV
With luck it will be joined by Boeing’s Starliner in about a year.
NASA TV
NASA TV offered some great high-resolution views on Sunday morning. Here, Dragon is “soft captured.”
NASA TV
Dragon had this view of the space station before its final approach.
NASA TV
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft made history for the second time on Sunday.
On May 25, 2012, a Cargo Dragon was grabbed by the ISS. It became the first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station. On Sunday, when Dragonship Endeavour docked with the station 15 minutes ahead of schedule, above the border of China and Mongolia, it became the first private spacecraft to fly crew there (or anywhere in orbit, for that matter).
After the docking, the spacecraft’s commander, NASA Astronaut Doug Hurley, was complimentary after he and Bob Behnken spent some time flying Dragon manually. “It flew just about like the sim, so my congratulations to the folks at Hawthorne,” he said, referring to SpaceX’s headquarters in California, where the astronauts spent many weeks practicing in a flight simulator. “It flew really well, very crisp. We couldn’t be happier about the performance of the vehicle.”
This bodes well for NASA, which is counting on the Crew Dragon vehicle to begin ferrying four-person crews to the International Space Station as soon as the end of August. Endeavour will now remain attached to the station for several weeks at least, depending on the performance of its solar panels in orbit. NASA would like the crew to remain on orbit for as much as three months, to conduct several spacewalks for space station maintenance.
Dragon’s flight will be declared a success only when Hurley and Behnken strap back into Endeavour, return through Earth’s atmosphere, and splash down safely in the ocean. This will complete the first crewed flight of a new orbital vehicle to launch from the United States since 1981. But it is very likely not the last. As many as four more vehicles may follow in the future.
Here’s a look at the status of each, with an estimate of when the vehicle will fly with humans for the first time.
Starliner (1-2 years)
As part of the commercial crew program, NASA paid SpaceX (Crew Dragon) and Boeing (Starliner) to develop spacecraft to carry humans to the space station and back. Boeing completed an aborted, uncrewed test flight of its Starliner vehicle in December, but the spacecraft was nearly lost on two occasions due to software issues.
Boeing has agreed to make a second test flight of Starliner, without astronauts, to ensure the safety of the spacecraft and demonstrate its capability of docking with the space station. This flight could occur by the end of 2020, and with about six months of data review, it’s possible a crewed mission could take place a year from now. But that would require nearly flawless execution—and as long as Dragon is flying safely NASA has no reason to rush a back-up provider along.
Orion (3-4 years)
NASA’s large deep space capsule has been under development since 2006 and made an uncrewed test flight in 2014 to demonstrate its ability to return at high velocity. Since then development has continued, but the capsule has largely been waiting for Boeing to complete the core stage of the Space Launch System rocket. When that rocket is ready, it is due to launch another uncrewed Orion on the Artemis I mission in late 2021 or 2022.
Only after this flight will NASA fully outfit Orion with life support for the Artemis II mission, which will carry a crew of astronauts around the Moon. Sometime in 2023 is probably the earliest reasonable expectation for this mission to take place.
Starship (4-8 years)
SpaceX is making progress on development and testing of its Starship vehicle (Friday’s fiery explosion, not withstanding). Eventually, this large vehicle will come in two basic forms, a cargo variant for payloads, and a crew vehicle that can take humans to the Moon, Mars, or elsewhere.
Starship timelines are always aspirational, but SpaceX does move fast, and it has built a factory in South Texas that should allow for accelerated production. Although the company has learned a lot about human spaceflight from its Crew Dragon experience, developing a complex vehicle like Starship will still take time. Our estimate of four to eight years is a blend between optimistic SpaceX schedules and the magnitude of the challenge the company faces.
Dream Chaser (5-10 years)
Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser was originally part of the pool of candidates NASA considered in the commercial crew program before the space agency opted for Dragon and Starliner. However, NASA is still funding a cargo variant of the vehicle to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. The vehicle could make its first launch on a Vulcan rocket by the end of 2021 or in 2022.
Meanwhile, the company says it remains committed to developing a crew version of Dream Chaser. It is not clear whether NASA will fund this, as the space agency has its low-Earth needs accounted for with Dragon and Starliner. There is a lot of public desire to see a winged vehicle like Dream Chaser, which evokes memories of the space shuttle, enter service. But it is not clear there is a commercial or government customer to support it at this time.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
