Dragon has been flying near the space station and has performed all tasks perfectly so far. One of the astronauts on ISS took this video of the SpaceX Dragon flying a couple kilometres away.
The berthing is due tomorrow. Apparently there are sensitivities about using the word’s docking versus berthing to the ISS docking collar. Berthing means they use the robot arm to pull it in the last few feet; docking is intended to mean the approaching craft flies into contact itself.
A distinction without a difference to normal humans. Still, it’s a nice step forward in the tortuously slow privatization of space. Congrats to SpaceX and all involved.
I wish good fortune to the enterprise of getting the cargo to the space station.
Berthing is gentle. Docking is violent, at least Russian-style. There is a new US system, (formerly known as) the Low Impact Docking System (LIDS), in the works. The acronym has apparently changed.
The SpaceX venture has been remarkably successful. I’ve wondered where they got the engineers with the experience to make it go.
Want to thank Dale for keeping me up to speed on this. I was even moved to press release a congratulations.
Hobbyists are still seeing S band data from Dragon here in the UK. This ..
http://pjm.dyndns.org/twtr/spacex3.jpg
Shows the doppler from the craft as it passes overhead but also the fading is a result of it slowly spinning.