Editorial: 鈥�Can SpaceX build the pick-up trucks of space?鈥�
IT IS the moment spaceflight officially became a business. At 16.02 GMT on 25 May, the world鈥檚 first commercially built space freighter docked with the International Space Station.
Plucked from space by ISS astronauts using the station鈥檚 multi-jointed robot arm, the uncrewed Dragon cargo capsule, made by SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, had already passed its pre-docking manoeuvring tests to show it can safely approach the ISS. SpaceX founder Elon Musk described the faultless launch, orbital rendezvous and capture of the NASA-funded cargo mission as 鈥渏ust awesome鈥�. But it is the words of ISS astronaut Don Pettit as the robot arm grabbed its quarry that are most likely to be remembered: 鈥淟ooks like we caught a Dragon by the tail.鈥�
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Although officially a test flight, Dragon is packed with supplies for the ISS crew, including food, a laptop and clothes. It is also carrying experiments that will study microbial growth and water purification in microgravity.
If Dragon successfully returns to Earth via a Pacific Ocean splashdown this week, SpaceX should be able to begin a series of 13 commercial cargo flights for NASA in September. A safe return trip will also buoy SpaceX鈥檚 ongoing efforts to convert Dragon for use by a seven-person crew. 鈥淭here鈥檚 plenty of room in here for the envisioned crew,鈥� Pettit says
