Photo: SpacX Prepares For Launch. Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden offered his
congratulations to the International Space Station Expedition 31 crew
and mission flight control teams at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston and SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., following
Friday's successful first-time berthing of a commercial company
spacecraft, SpaceX's Dragon, to the space station.
Bolden talked with NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Joe Acaba, and
European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers during a call to the
space station Friday afternoon live on NASA Television. Bolden told
the crew, "You made history today and have firmly locked into place
the future direction of America's space program."
To view the call between Bolden and the Expedition 31 astronauts,
visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Smw7rz1FU
At 9:56 a.m. EDT Friday, Pettit used the station's robotic arm to
grapple Dragon. Kuipers then used the arm to attach the capsule to
the station's Harmony node at 11:52 a.m. Acaba completed berthing
operations by remotely bolting the Dragon to Harmony at 12:02 p.m.
The crew members spent the rest of their day preparing to open the
hatches between the two spacecraft on Saturday morning.
The SpaceX demonstration mission to the space station is the second
under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program,
which provides investments intended to lead to regular resupply
missions to the station and stimulate the commercial space industry
in the United States.
