Spacecraft assembled for first private shot to ISS

Maggie McKee, space news editor

(Image: SpaceX)

A private spaceship is one step closer to launching to the International Space Station. SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule and Falcon 9 rocket have been assembled in Florida, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday.

The two will probably launch in late April on an uncrewed mission to test the Dragon capsule's ability to rendezvous and dock with the station. According to Jeff Foust in The Space Review:

The Dragon will carry some nonessential "demonstration cargo" that will be transferred to the ISS. It will also be loaded with station cargo for return to Earth.

Observers will be watching the launch with bated breath. In the wake of last year's retirement of the US space shuttles, the main means of ferrying supplies to the orbital outpost is Russian Progress cargo ships. Unfortunately, a Progress launch failed last year, temporarily grounding all missions to the station. Dragon would be the first commercial craft to attempt to visit the outpost (take an interactive tour of the Dragon capsule).

Earlier this month, NASA's space station programme manager Mike Suffredini said the Dragon launch would occur no earlier than 20 March. "There are no big problems being worked out but a lot of little things to wrap up," he said. Now software checks have pushed the launch back, probably to late April, Foust reports.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1d02d8ec/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A20Cspacecraft0Eassembled0Efor0Efirst0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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