See the approach and soft capture of the SpaceX CRS-29 cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. The capsule arrived at the orbital outpost.
Credit: NASA
Credit: NASA
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 >> Josh, question for you.
00:02 For the rules, we are go with center line camera only.
00:07 Is the crew okay with that?
00:10 >> Yeah, I affirm.
00:15 >> Copy.
00:23 [ Silence ]
00:51 >> You can see a view of the Dragon spacecraft as it closes
00:55 in on the space station, and it's just about 22 meters away,
00:59 so it's really close to reaching that waypoint 2 spot.
01:02 >> Houston, at waypoint 2, Dragon will hold
01:04 for a few minutes, and we'll let you know
01:07 when we're ready to resume approach.
01:09 >> Okay, station copies, and we see it coming up on 20 meters now.
01:16 [ Silence ]
01:23 >> Vehicle has reached waypoint 2, and it's going to pause here
01:27 for a few moments before it closes
01:29 in for contact and capture.
01:30 This is just to make sure everything is still good
01:33 on the Dragon side and the space station side before we close
01:37 in and complete the docking operations.
01:39 [ Silence ]
01:56 >> Just before docking, you'll hear the call chop,
01:59 which is crew hands off point, and this basically tells the crew
02:02 not to send any commands at that point.
02:08 >> And station, we see hold.
02:10 >> Copy that.
02:13 >> You just heard confirmation
02:18 that the vehicle is currently holding
02:20 at that waypoint 2 position, and this is the final stop,
02:24 just 20 meters in front of the space station.
02:26 [ Silence ]
02:51 >> Dragon is on final approach and is go for docking.
02:56 Monitor for steps 5 and 6 in 1.102.
03:00 >> Copy, go for docking and docks 5 and 6.
03:10 >> Good copy, and for Satoshi,
03:13 he can abort his monitoring activity.
03:16 MLM looks good.
03:17 >> Satoshi copies.
03:23 >> You just heard that we have a go to finish docking.
03:31 It'll begin its final approach.
03:34 During the capture and contact, the capture ring
03:41 on Dragon will interact with the international docking adapter
03:44 on the node 2 forward point port of station
03:47 to get the initial capture.
03:48 Dragon's two sets of 12 hooks, or 12 total hooks,
03:52 will then engage for a hard capture.
03:54 Once we have that hard capture, there will be a vacuum-tight
03:57 seal between Dragon and the station,
03:58 which is called the vestibule.
04:00 This will then be pressurized to match the same pressure
04:04 as station, and then once pressurized,
04:06 the crew will be able to open the hatches
04:08 and begin operations later today to unload the cargo.
04:10 There will also be a couple of umbilicals deployed to get power
04:13 and data from station to Dragon, which will move Dragon
04:16 into what's known as the acquiescent mode,
04:18 essentially becoming an integrated piece
04:20 of station once it's docked.
04:21 Dragon is now within 16 meters of station and closing in.
04:28 Houston, from station, range is 15 meters.
04:41 Attitude looks good, and it's in the corridor.
04:44 Houston copies.
04:47 [ Silence ]
04:54 [ Silence ]
05:00 [ Silence ]
05:06 [ Silence ]
05:12 [ Silence ]
05:39 Dragon is now about 10 meters away from the space station.
05:42 Station, 10 meters.
05:44 Corridor looks good.
05:45 Attitude looks good.
05:46 Houston copies.
05:48 [ Silence ]
05:55 [ Silence ]
06:01 [ Silence ]
06:07 [ Silence ]
06:34 The vehicle is now about five meters away
06:37 from the space station, and shortly,
06:39 you will hear the call chop.
06:41 Five meters.
06:42 Same report.
06:43 Just crew hands off point.
06:45 [ Silence ]
06:55 [ Silence ]
07:19 Two meters.
07:20 Chop.
07:20 Copy.
07:23 [ Silence ]
07:33 [ Silence ]
07:55 Dragon contact and soft capture complete.
07:57 [ Silence ]
08:00 Copy.
08:01 Just heard confirmation of soft capture
08:05 at 4 o 7 a.m. Central time, 5 o 7 a.m. Eastern time
08:09 over Central Brazil.
08:10 During the soft capture phase, the capture ring
08:17 on Dragon is interacting
08:18 with the international docking adapter on the Node 2 forward
08:21 port of station to get that initial capture.
08:23 Dragon's 12 hooks will then engage for a hard capture.
08:29 Ring retraction in progress.
08:32 Copy.
08:36 [ Silence ]