The SpaceX crew dragon capsule successfully moored with ISS, without using a robotic arm

One day after launching it at the top of a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully crashed into the International Space Station, CNN Sunday announced.

The fact that the stowage procedure went off without error is not only a sigh of relief for the NASA Commercial Team Program – the project to replace the Space Shuttle in retirement with years of delay – but an excellent new for the three astronauts currently residing on the station. It was possible that the Crew Dragon, whose Russian space operators had warned that it did not have a back-up system, failed to connect to the station. As CNN noted, there was also a risk of damaging the ISS:

Even though NASA and SpaceX were confident that everything would be fine, it was a reminder that "there was still a human life in danger," said Patrick Forrester, head of NASA's astronaut office at Johnson Space Center last week. .

… The Russian space agency Roscosmos approved only the NASA and SpaceX mooring plans on Wednesday, two days before the launch of Crew Dragon.

"They wanted us to take action to protect the space station, close one or two hatches and prepare the crew to board the Soyuz," said Joel Montalbano, NASA's Deputy Director for the ISS, Evoking the crew capsule Soyuz allow cosmonauts to make an emergency exit if things went wrong.

CNN noted that this successful docking procedure was a first for SpaceX, which has already performed missions cargo capsule Dragon 1 to the ISS, but which previously relied on the robotic arm of the station to grab this gear and drag it manually to the docking port. According to NPR, astronauts aboard the ISS were able to board the crew's Dragon at about 7:07 pm in Houston, where NASA personnel watched the event and then returned without masks to oxygen to properly inspect the gear.

"It was really exciting to see him," BBC coach Bob Behnken, one of two astronauts who was to participate in Crew Dragon's first crew trials later this year (likely in July), told BBC. "I know you have heard the applause and all the applause that has accompanied today 's accomplishment, so it' s only another milestone that is preparing us. for our flight coming here. "

After five days at the ISS, the crew dragon will return to Earth on March 8 for an aquatic landing in the Atlantic Ocean. This is the part of the unprepared test series that most concerns SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, writes the BBC.

"It should be fine, but it will be one thing to make sure it works when it's back," Musk said, according to the BBC. "Everything we know so far looks positive. Unless something is wrong, I think we are going to fly (people) this year; this summer, hopefully.

Boeing, who is working on his own CST-100 Starliner vessel for the commercial crew program, has not yet launched a manufacturing test, but will not do it until April.

"Today's successful launch marks a new chapter in American excellence, bringing us closer to US astronauts who will be flying American rockets on American soil," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. written in a statement. "I proudly congratulate the SpaceX and NASA teams for this major event in our country's space history."

[CNN]