FALCON 9 LAUNCHES, THE DRAGON IS ON ITS WAY TO THE ISS - AND BACK

BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY! STAR TREK’S JAMES DOOHAN IS FINALLY HAVING HIS ASHES SENT TO SPACE
by Jill Pantozzi | 4:24 pm, May 21st

A new generation of space travel is happening as we speak. You could, perhaps, call it the next generation of space travel. Private space flights are going to start happening more and more often and we’ll get closer to the future science fiction stories have told us to much about. But before all that, one Star Trek alum will experience space a very different way. Actor James Doohan’s ashes will make their way into outer space when a privately owned rocket is sent up this week.

Doohan, Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, from the original Star Trek series, passed away in 2005. If this particular story sounds familiar, it’s because some of the actor’s ashes were already sent to space in 2008, as per his will. The problem was, they never made it. “When SpaceX launched the remains on its Falcon1 rocket, the rocket never made it to space. When the rocket failed to get to orbit, neither did the cremated remains, or, for that matter, some small satellites sent by NASA and the Department of Defense,” writes ABC News.

Celestis Inc. will give it another shot as they launch a private rocket on a trial run to the International Space Station tomorrow. The company made their first private launch back in 1982 and specializes in memorial space flights.

“The rocket’s prime cargo is a 14.5-foot-tall (4.4-meter-tall) capsule called Dragon that is filled with food, clothes and supplies for the six astronauts and cosmonauts living aboard the space station, a $100 billion project of 15 countries that flies about 240 miles above Earth,” writes Reuters. “Falcon 9 carries a secondary payload as well — a container holding lipstick-tube-sized canisters filled with cremated remains. The deceased include Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper, who died in 2004, and actor James Doohan, who portrayed chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on the original Star Trek television series. Doohan died in 2005.”

They continue, “If all goes as planned, nine minutes and 49 seconds after liftoff, Dragon’s second stage will separate. It should spend the next year or so circling Earth as an orbital space memorial before it is pulled back into the atmosphere and incinerated.”

The rest of Doohan’s ashes were scattered over Puget Sound in Washington but Celestis has a guarantee that they’ll get you to space, so they held onto their portion after the first flight. And for $3,000, I would hope so. Ashes from 308 individuals will be on board this trip and most, like Doohan’s, are from the failed 2008 launch.

lily wrote:Well they did say "to fearlessly go where no man had gone before" in the opening sequence?

Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st
By MARCIA DUNN | Associated Press – 1 hr 44 mins ago

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station for a historic docking Friday, captured by astronauts wielding a giant robot arm.
It succeeded in making the first commercial delivery into the cosmos.
U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit used the space station's 58-foot robot arm to snare the gleaming white Dragon after a few hours of extra checks and maneuvers. The two vessels came together while sailing above Australia.
"Looks like we've got us a dragon by the tail," Pettit announced from 250 miles up once he locked onto Dragon's docking mechanism.
"You've made a lot of folks happy down here over in Hawthorne and right here in Houston," radioed NASA's Mission Control. "Great job guys."
NASA controllers clapped as their counterparts at SpaceX's control center in Hawthorne, Calif. — including SpaceX's billionaire maestro, Elon Musk, of PayPal fame — lifted their arms in triumph and jumped out of their seats to exchange high fives.
This is the first time a private company has attempted to send a vessel to the space station, an achievement previously reserved for a small, elite group of government agencies. And it's the first U.S. craft to visit the station since the final shuttle flight last July.
The astronauts wasted no time getting the Dragon capsule into position for actual docking to the space station. The unmanned capsule is carrying 1,000 pounds of supplies on this unprecedented test flight.
On Thursday, the capsule came within 1½ miles of the space station in a practice fly-by. It returned to the neighborhood early Friday so Pettit, along with Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers could capture it with a robot arm. First, the capsule went through a series of stop-and-go demonstrations to prove it was under good operating control.
NASA ordered extra checks of the Dragon's imaging systems as the capsule drew ever closer to the space station, putting the entire operation slightly behind schedule. At one point, SpaceX controllers ordered a retreat because of a problem with on-board tracking sensors.
Given that the Dragon is a brand new type of vehicle and this is a test flight, the space agency insisted on proceeding cautiously.
A collision at orbital speed — 17,500 mph — could prove disastrous for the space station.
SpaceX — officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — is one of several companies vying for the chance to launch Americans from U.S. soil. That ability ended with NASA's final shuttle flight last summer. To get to the space station, NASA astronauts must go through Russia, an expensive and embarrassing situation for the U.S. after a half-century of orbital self-sufficiency.
President Barack Obama is pushing commercial ventures in orbit so NASA can concentrate on grander destinations like asteroids and Mars. Once companies master supply runs, they hope to tackle astronaut ferry runs.
Musk, who founded SpaceX a decade ago and helped create PayPal, said he can have astronauts riding his Dragon capsules to orbit in three or four years. His Falcon 9 rockets lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The space station has been relying on Russian, Japanese and European cargo ships for supplies ever since the shuttles retired. None of those, however, can bring anything of value back; they're simply loaded with trash and burn up in the atmosphere.
By contrast, the Dragon is designed to safely re-enter the atmosphere, parachuting into the ocean like the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules did back in the 1960s. Assuming all goes well Friday, the space station's six-man crew will release the Dragon next Thursday after filling it with science experiments and equipment.

SpaceX Dragon capsule detaches safely, set to return home to Earth
May 31, 2012 3:51 pm
Washington - The first commercial spacecraft to dock to the International Space Station (ISS) detached safely from the orbiting laboratory Thursday to make its way back to Earth.

US space agency NASA said the ISS crew unberthed the Dragon capsule at 0822 GMT, after it had spent five days, 16 hours and five minutes berthed to the station.

Astronauts inside the ISS used its robotic arm to detach the capsule from the station and move it into position. NASA said the capsule would be released into space in a little over one-and-a-half hours.

SpaceX, the California-based company that made and operates the craft, will guide it back to Earth, where it is to splash down into the Pacific Ocean later Thursday.

Astronauts have spent the days since Dragon docked at the ISS last week unloading some 521 kilograms of cargo.//DPA

Dragon is to return with a new load of cargo that includes equipment to be refurbished by NASA and science experiments. If all goes as planned, it will be the only operating spacecraft capable ofreturning large loads back to Earth.//DPA