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I spent the night with the SpaceX team at the LA headquarters as their Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle in history to successfully attach to the International Space Station. Previously only four governments — the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency — had achieved this challenging technical feat.

Many of them, like former ISS astronaut Garrett Reisman here, worked through the night.

You can hear their excitement on the video I put together, with bits of film from 4 to 7am.

And this is a nice coincidence: in the video from the other side of the room during the grapple success, you can see me filming in the upper right corner.

More photos in the comments below.

28 responses to “SpaceX Mission Control — Grabbing a Dragon by the Tail”

  1. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    And here is the next door mission control room:
    IMG_3767

    Getting closer…
    IMG_3784

    First contact with the Dragon…. the major milestone that everyone was waiting for…
    IMG_3788
    eliciting a round of cheers, as you can hear at the end of my video. And at the same time, over at the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, flight directors Courtenay McMillan (left) and Holly Ridings (center); along with NASA astronaut Megan McArthur as spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) also burst into applause:

    And celebration with Elon Musk, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and NASA COTS Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer
    Screen Shot 2012-05-25 at 10.17.22 AM

    And here is a longer compilation video put together by NASA of many of the scenes that stretched through the night.

    Reply
  2. scleroplex Avatar
    scleroplex

    something to remember! 🙂

    Reply
  3. rass999 denis laframboise Avatar
    rass999 denis laframboise

    When are YOU going into space Steve ?????
    I have this feeling you will one day.

    denis

    Reply
  4. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    In a few years. i think the toilets will be better by then for a nice orbital experience.

    While we were in SpaceX HQ, Don Petit was taking pictures of Dragon from the ISS cupola:

    Screen Shot 2012-05-25 at 5.47.52 PM

    Reply
  5. Astrocatou Avatar
    Astrocatou

    I still think nothing will beat the 70’s look of cathode ray TV screens,narrow ties and ashtrays..

    Reply
  6. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    Fantastic! Great name as well:)

    Reply
  7. Pieces of Eye Avatar
    Pieces of Eye

    It was fantastic! Watched all night on NASA TV. There was a nicely timed fly over of Seattle at 4am just before dawn as Dragon was still 250m away from ISS. It was a 4min pass from SW to NE and if I didn’t know what I was looking at I would have naively guessed it was a passenger jet. It was bright enough to capture with my iPhone as video.

    I swear I saw two dots! 😉

    Reply
  8. PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE Avatar
    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    That was… Historic and LEGENDARY !!! Thanks for sharing Steve =)

    Reply
  9. Kevin Baird Avatar
    Kevin Baird

    I’m having difficulty believing that the delays/scrubs weren’t intentional, to have this occur on both a Star Wars anniversary and Super Towel Day (5+25+12=42).

    Reply
  10. drona Avatar
    drona

    Awesome Steve! Congrats!

    Reply
  11. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    I see virtually no logos, bling, endorsements, ads, or anything else in these photos, on the capsule, etc.etc. Jeeez, I can understand why NASA can’t do it even if they always had guys like Walter Cronkite plugging in "there goes the Rockwell engineer team!" and they certainly tried to do that in every way possible. Tang and so forth. You could just as well slap Apple or Google Mr. Droid logos on this stuff and people would believe it. What, the Space O team does not drink caseloads of RedBull Xtra Dragon shots, Starbuk Big Blasts or whatever Space O guys and gals need to stay up for days on end? For some reason I don’t see them drinking Celestial Sleepy Time unless they explain how they need to come down from all the excitement. days after it is over with, which is probably true.
    For that Cronkite voice….
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYR9k8hFZHY

    Reply
  12. zenera Avatar
    zenera

    fantastic*

    Reply
  13. Chucil Avatar
    Chucil

    Fabulous!

    Reply
  14. !MimosaMicheMichelle! Avatar
    !MimosaMicheMichelle!

    Exciting! This is quite an accomplishment! Congratulations to all involved!

    Reply
  15. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    Well it is Indy 500 weekend and if you have never been to one it is worth going to once or twice. I don’t understand why this capsule and rocket are not done up like an Indy machine or stock car? Does NASA or the gov COTS deal prohibit this? This is a US commercial venture isn’t it? Notice how those savvy Canadians have a big CANADA and red maple leaf on their robo arm. Put a big red A on it too while you’re at it for sponsorship from the RDF. If religious groups want to take part let them ante up and do their own spaceship sponsor logo.
    Uhh, oh Go CANADA!

    Reply
  16. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    =)

    And they opened the hatch to the capsule this morning. ISS astronaut Petit said it had "that new car smell."

    Looking Inside Dragon

    Reply
  17. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    ISS Rockwell technicians are unloading the capsule now….

    Reply
  18. Gwen 's Avatar
    Gwen ‘s

    Great Work…inspirational. Thanks!

    Reply
  19. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    http://www.qwiki.com/q/SpaceX

    Looks like a sneaky French technician made it into the cargo area. One way to tell it is an authentic logo is that it launches to the left.

    Reply
  20. scleroplex Avatar
    scleroplex

    that’s funny :-))

    Reply
  21. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/scleroplex] Hey, if US companies do not insist on their unalienable rights to promote ad bling in outer space then at least they should make attempts at bold design and color statements with all aspects spacecraft as objet d’art and science. That was of course exactly what happened by accident as a natural pop cultural process in the 60s and 70s after all. Space age everything. This time around could be more fun with the right mindset. This is not difficult stuff either. E.g. the next capsule should have some led panels to flash logos, videos, messages from Obama, Google doodles and QR, that kind of thing. Oh, but that would be debasing the sanctity of outer space and space missions? Nope, that would just be powerful evidence to silence any critics that NASA is spending too much, showing how private enterprise provides the guidance for solvency and independence. There are only so many people who want to get burial in outer space after all. And for them the capsule should be flashing or linking to heart warming memorial videos along with the burials as add on items. I would love to see the capsule playing the best of Scotty from Star Trek as a good example that everyone would really love in memorial. Think how many times he risked his life for all of us.

    Reply
  22. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/72819205@N06
    Something about that Nikon image quality that really does it….

    nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayDir.cfm?Internal_ID=N_PD_8610…
    ELVs may carry one or more of a variety of markings, or remain unmarked, depending on the discretion of those funding the launches. The markings may include national colors, logotypes, trademarks, or similar symbols, and may be no larger than the diameter of the launch vehicle in both height and width.
    Payload markings may be designed as their owners judge appropriate, provided that they do not appear as ADVERTISING rather than identification. No markings will be approved if they contain any ADVERTISING other than the name of the owner or sponsor, interfere in any way with the mission, or may be considered to be unprofessional or inappropriate.

    Right. They are going to keep up appropriate, professional content rules in space now. They forgot QR codes and a few other things like the advanced hazard light warning panel system features which can optionally display Prince or Katy Perry giving directional visual and audio guidance rather than a generic white mylar NASA man.

    Reply
  23. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    Looks like NPD 8610.6G neglected to cover some big categories like subliminal messaging……

    Reply
  24. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    In three hours, Dragon will detach from the ISS and become the first cargo vessel to return to Earth (which is of great interest to those wanting to bring microgravity science experiments back from the iSS). NASA TV coverage will begin at 12:44 am PST to cover:

    TIME
    01:05 Dragon uninstalled using station’s robotic arm
    03:10 Dragon released by the robotic arm
    03:11 Dragon’s Draco thrusters fire departure burns
    04:07 Unlatch/close/latch GNC door holding sensors
    07:51 Dragon’s Draco thrusters fire deorbit burn
    08:09 Dragon’s trunk is jettisoned
    08:35 Dragon’s drogue parachutes are deployed
    08:36 Dragon’s main parachutes are deployed
    08:44 Dragon lands in the Pacific

    Meanwhile, jgury’s photo above comes from André Kuipers, the Dutch astronaut in the ISS that helped grapple Dragon. Here are some more

    And WIRED also has a cool photo collection

    And here is a first demonstration of the Romulan cloaking technology…

    P.S. Check out entrepreneur type 6

    Reply
  25. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    T-25min for splashdown

    Reply
  26. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    Splashdown:)

    Reply
  27. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    That micro gravity is really photogenic fun time. Like this Marangoni pacifier

    These super sized seed and macromolecular crystals should be high commercial value as well as great eye candy:

    Reply
  28. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    Hey, did you know the ISS is: "a delightful symbol of international collaboration that has so far cost $100 billion and produced almost nothing of scientific value. " ?
    Hard to believe how stupid some news group opinion posts can be:
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-31/spacex-s-achievement-sh...

    Reply

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