SpaceX manned ship was attached to the ISS

On March 2, launched by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, the Crew Dragon spacecraft by the American company SpaceX successfully attached to the International Space Station (ISS). The broadcast of the docking process was carried out on the NASA website .

The final (hard) docking of the ship with the ISS occurred at 14 hours 2 minutes Moscow time, after several hours of preliminary maneuvering. The ISS crew also successfully experienced the remote control of Crew Dragon, transferring the command to include navigation lights, writes N+1 . Instead of people on board the Crew Dragon launched for the first time, there is a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit with sensors that record what is happening inside the capsule. This mannequin received the name of Ripley in honor of Ellen Ripley, the heroine of the series of films "Alien" (her role was played by the American actress Sigurney Weaver). Also on board there are over 180 kilograms of cargo and equipment for the ISS crew.

However, some users jokingly suggested that, under the guise of Ripley, the founder of SpaceX, Ilon Musk, went to the ISS, who at the end of last year estimated the likelihood of his flight to Mars at 70%.

Astronauts on the ISS are kept by force, so as not to let Ilon a mask that breaks on the opposite side of Pic.twitter.com/brcjxekvnl

- Ruslan Leviev (@ruslanleviev) March 3, 2019

Meanwhile, a microblog reader Mask from Russia congratulated him on the docking of Crew Dragon, doubting that he would congratulate him with this success Roskosmos and the head of the state corporation Dmitry Rogozin. Musk thanked it in Russian.

Thanks for the kind words!

- Elon Musk (@lonmusk) March 3, 2019

Note that in Roscosmos nevertheless congratulated NASA on a successful docking of Crew Dragon with the ISS. As for Dmitry Rogozin, he limited readers to his microblog on Twitter some time ago.

Mix crew members began unloading supplies with Crew Dragon

At 16 hours 7 minutes, the hatches between the SpaceX and the ISS ship were open, and the ISS crew members got into the Space X ship. They soon began to unload the goods delivered to the station.

Hatch is Open! Crew Dragon Will now Spend 5 Days at the @space_Station pic.twitter.com/ha9iswobve

- SpaceX (@spacex) March 3, 2019

About 19 hours, the ISS crew held a small ceremony on the occasion of a successful docking.

Astronauts on the @Space_Station WelComed the @spacex Crew Dragon Spacecraft in a Ceremony Aboard The Station. NASA Astronaut @astroannimal from Inside Crew Dragon Said, "Welcome to a New Era in Human Spaceflight." pic.twitter.com/bicms6yjco

- NASA Commercial Crew (@commercial_crew) March 3, 2019

The Crew Dragon, developed by the SpaceX based on the Dragon cargo ship, by order of NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Development program, is the first American piloted spacecraft launched to the ISS after completing the Space Shuttle program in 2011. It is assumed that the Crew Dragon, as well as the Boeing of the Boeing ship of the CTS-100 Starliner, which is scheduled for April, will compete with Russian "Soyuz", which monopolines for almost eight years for almost eight years. One of the advantages of new American ships is that they are designed for seven people, not three.

The first flight plan Crew Dragon provides for the docking with the ISS and the return of the ship to the ground five days later: on March 8, it must gently lead to the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida using parachutes. Earlier, SpaceX developed a landing system using the engines of the ship, but abandoned this scheme due to complex certification for manned flights.

In connection with the trial nature of the launch of Roscosmos and NASA, on March 1, the security protocol was approved during the docking of Crew Dragon with the ISS. The ship was approaching the ISS along the trajectory, which reduces the probability of a collision in case of loss of control. In addition, during the docking, four off -segmented hatches were closed in the American segment of the station.

The fact is that now, when connecting cargo ships with the American ISS segment, the Canadarm2 robotic manipulator is used, with which the ships are brought to the gateway. But Crew Dragon is different from the cargo version of the SpaceX ship with complete automation of all stages of joints. Such a scheme caused concern in NASA and Roscosmos, so they agreed on additional security measures, and also drew up a plan for the evacuation of the crew of the American segment of the station to the Russian segment and the soldered Ship "Soyuz MS-11" in the event of an abnormal situation.

If the first flight of Crew Dragon ends without failures and will be recognized as successful, then SpaceX will be able to launch a ship with a crew. So far, the second launch of Crew Dragon with two astronauts on board is scheduled for July this year. A similar launch of the CTS-100 Starliner can take place in August.