SpaceX's Dragon Departs ISS

ORIGINAL: SpaceX

Dragon is a free-flying, reusable spacecraft developed by SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Initiated internally by SpaceX in 2005, the Dragon spacecraft is made up of a pressurized capsule and unpressurized trunk used for Earth to LEO transport of pressurized cargo, unpressurized cargo, and/or crew members.

In May 2012, SpaceX made history when its 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.

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on the barge after being retrieved from the Pacific Ocean after splashdown, May 31, 2012. Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX Dragon departed the International Space Station on October 28, 2012 at 6:29AM PT. 

The only craft capable of bringing a significant amount of cargo to and from the station, Dragon departed with 1,673 pounds of return cargo. This is the return flight of the CRS-1 mission, the first of at least 12 official cargo resupply missions SpaceX will conduct for NASA. (Video sped up 15x.)

Space X/Dragon Heads to ISS

ORIGINAL: NASA

The historic launch of the first commercial cargo ship to the International Space Station marks the return of America's capability to independently resupply the orbiting laboratory.

Solar panel spat threatens trade war between China and Europe

ORIGINAL: The Guardian

Ian Traynor in Brussels

6 September 2012

Solar panels in Germany. A trade war between the EU and China looms.
Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

European commission investigates industry complaints that China is 'dumping' solar panels worth €20bn into the EU – threatening to damage relations between Germany and Beijing

The European commission upped the ante in a potential trade war with China on Thursday, announcing an investigation into allegedly unfair exports of solar panels worth more than €20bn (£15.85bn) a year.

Leading European solar panel manufacturers complained in July that China was demolishing competition by exporting the panels at a loss.

"In terms of import value affected, this is the most significant anti-dumping complaint the European commission has received so far," the commission said.

Last year China, which accounts for two thirds of global production, exported solar panels worth €21bn to the EU, some 80% of exported panels. The market is huge. In the span of a few years, China has become the world's biggest solar panels producer, while the EU is by far the biggest market for the Chinese products.

The probe threatens to be extremely contentious and highly sensitive politically. The German government, enjoying a trade and exports-based "special relationship" with China, is wary of incurring Beijing's wrath, although the complaint has been spearheaded by German firms.

On a recent visit to Beijing, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, sought to defuse the escalating dispute, arguing that dialogue and not an EC investigation was the best way to deal with the issue.

Beijing's official English-language newspaper, China Daily, warned on Wednesday that Beijing would retaliate with trade curbs on the EU if Brussels went ahead with the investigation. Beijing has also been lobbying hard in Brussels behind the scenes against the probe.

"EU Pro Sun, an industry association, claimed in its complaint lodged on 25 July 2012 that solar panels and their key components imported from China enter the European market at prices below market value," the commission said. "The commission is legally obliged to open an anti-dumping investigation if it receives a valid complaint from a Union industry which provides evidence that exporting producers from one or more countries are dumping a particular product into the EU and causing injury to the Union industry."

The US authorities have already slapped tariffs on Chinese solar panel exports.

The complaint lodged with Brussels came from a consortium of some 20 European producers responsible for a quarter of EU manufacture of panels.

The commission said it would deliver a provisional verdict on the dispute by June next year and could then impose temporary tariffs on the Chinese. EU governments would then need to decide how to proceed by the end of next year.

China's commerce ministry website responded promptly to the commission move, stating:

"Restricting China's solar panel products will not only hurt the interests of both Chinese and European industry, it will also wreck the healthy development of the global solar and clean energy sector." The statement voiced "deep regret" at Brussels' action and said the EU should "seriously consider China's position and proposals, and resolve friction over solar panel trade through consultations and cooperation."

Dragon's Back on This Week @NASA

ORIGINAL: NASA

The first commercial spacecraft to journey to the International Space Station returns safely to Earth. Also, new milestones for other commercial crew/cargo spacecraft; John Glenn awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom at White House; and more!

ISS Welcomes SpaceX Dragon — First Private Spacecraft at Station

ORIGINAL: Wired

By Jason Paur

May 25, 2012 | 12:59 pm | 

Photo: NASA

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully berthed with the International Space Station this morning after a long overnight approach including several unplanned maneuvers. The crew at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, concluded a long night of flight demonstrations and troubleshooting by watching astronaut Don Pettit control the station’s robotic arm and grapple the Dragon at 6:56 a.m. PDT.

“Looks like we’ve got a Dragon by the tail,” Pettit said from the station’s Cupola module once the capture was made.

Pettit’s successful capture of the Dragon was greeted by cheers at both SpaceX’s Hawthorne headquarters and NASA’s mission control in Houston. For both SpaceX and NASA the capture moment marks the beginning of a shift in how cargo will be delivered to and from the space station, with the eventual goal of changing how manned flight itself is done to low Earth orbit.

But Dragon’s overnight approach was not without hiccups, demonstrating the true test-flight nature of the mission. A problem with the devices used to guide the Dragon as it approached the station forced an initial retreat. In the end there were a handful of changes made to the initial flight plan, but at 6:49 a.m. PDT, the Dragon sat just 10 meters (32 feet) from the ISS when NASA flight director Holly Ridings gave the command SpaceX had been waiting years to hear: “go for capture.”

Early Friday morning the SpaceX team in Hawthorne completed the approach initiation burn of the Dragon’s Draco thrusters to move the spacecraft roughly 1,000 meters to a point where it could change its alignment relative to the station before performing the first series of demonstration maneuvers close to the ISS. The Dragon spacecraft could be seen on Earth by its flashing strobe light against the night sky.

Once in place at 350 meters, Dragon completed a 180-degree yaw rotation to align itself, and then another short burn was performed to move to the 250-meter point where the demonstrations would begin.

At 2:29 a.m. PDT, the SpaceX team confirmed Dragon was holding at 250 meters (820 feet), but Andre Kuipers, the Dutch astronaut on board the station, noticed the spacecraft was slightly forward of where it was expected to be. NASA engineers in Houston said the position was acceptable.

Sketch of the demonstration maneuvers planned for Dragon near the ISS. Image: NASA 

As the ISS and Dragon passed in and out of sunlight orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, the teams in Houston and Hawthorne prepared for what has long been considered the most challenging and critical part of the mission, demonstrating Dragon can make several different maneuvers in close range to the ISS, with commands being sent from both the ground and from the astronauts on the station.

Just before 3:00 a.m. PDT, with a short burst of the thrusters, Dragon again began approaching the ISS. Minutes later, with the Dragon 220 meters from the station, astronaut Kuipers sent a command via the UHF communications link and Dragon aborted its approach as expected and returned to the 250 meter hold position. Test one was complete.

Kuipers planned to send a command for Dragon to hold at 235 meters, but problems with Dragon’s on-board thermal camera used for the rendezvous with the ISS kept it at the 250 meter point. After a few minutes the test resumed and Kuipers issued Dragon a hold command at 235 meters, but it happened a bit earlier than planned.

Over the next half hour or so, the teams in Hawthorne and Houston were busy evaluating the data from the on-board sensors to make sure both the station and Dragon agreed on their relative positions before moving any closer, particularly inside the simply named “Keep Out Sphere” that surrounds the ISS at 200 meters.

As time progressed, some questions were raised from the data being analyzed from Dragon’s thermal image sensors and the on-board LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors. The two different devices are used to independently measure the distance between the two spacecraft. This information is then used by Dragon’s guidance system as it approaches the ISS. The data provided by the thermal cameras was causing the engineers to further evaluate the sensor.

Dragon was sent to an unplanned hold position at 200 meters in hopes of giving the thermal sensors a chance to obtain better data on the position of Dragon relative to the ISS.

Dragon at 30 meters from the station. Photo: NASA

By 4:20 a.m. PDT Dragon was once again on the move, this time to a position 150 meters from the station. After checking the sensors again, Dragon was cleared to fly to the next hold point at 30 meters. But less than 20 minutes later Dragon was held at 78 meters as SpaceX made some changes to the spacecraft’s LIDAR equipment. At 5:21 a.m. PDT the approach was resumed but just four minutes later SpaceX issued a retreat command, moving Dragon away from the ISS.

Dragon returned to 78 meters while a problem with the LIDAR was analyzed. It turns out the laser used by the LIDAR was receiving stray reflections from the Japanese Kibo laboratory on the station. Over the course of the next half hour, SpaceX engineers analyzed how to resolve the problem with the stray LIDAR signals, eventually deciding to narrow the view of the LIDAR. Essentially they put blinders on the sensors so they could only see straight ahead, where the Dragon was set to be berthed with the station.

Eventually Dragon was given the go-ahead to proceed to the 30-meter point, and then to the 10-meter location where it would be captured by the station’s robotic arm. After rescheduling the planed grapple a few times during the morning, the go-ahead was given for a capture at 7:02 a.m., which would take place in the dark as the two spacecraft passed over Australia. Dragon took roughly 20 minutes to fly the final 20 meters to its final hold position.

The station's robotic Canada arm approaches Dragon. Photo: NASA

With Dragon in place at 10 meters, NASA’s Holly Ridings sat at her flight director desk in Houston with a purple stuffed dragon toy on the console above her. She anxiously twirled her pen in her hand as she told astronaut Pettit that Dragon was operating on a single LIDAR and should that one fail, the spacecraft would abort.

But in the final minutes, everything went well as Pettit maneuvered the arm towards Dragon. As the end of the arm inched towards the capsule, lights from the ISS bathed Dragon in an orange glow. A few minutes ahead of schedule at 6:56 a.m. PDT, capture was confirmed by NASA, marking the first time a private spacecraft was attached to the International Space Station.

The capture occurred 3 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 23 seconds after the Falcon 9 had lifted off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Tuesday morning. After another hour and a few reconfigurations of Dragon the robotic arm slowly pulled the capsule towards the station and at 8:52 a.m. PDT NASA confirmed Dragon was firmly attached to the station itself and the robotic arm was no longer holding it in place. After tightening the 16 bolts attaching Dragon to the station’s Harmony module, the ISS officially had its first private spacecraft visitor.

Dragon berthed to the Harmony module on the ISS. Photo: NASA

There are several more steps before the hatch between the ISS and Dragon will be opened early Saturday. Once opened, the crew on board the station will spend several days unpacking the 1,014 pounds (460 kilograms) of cargo on board Dragon. Once empty, the crew will load up Dragon with 1,367 (620 kilograms) of cargo before the spacecraft is released from the station and returns to earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on May 31.