I'm working from home this morning, which gives me the benefit of having the television on in the background. Of the large number of otherwise useless channels I get on the satellite dish, one of them happens to be NASA TV. Ten minutes of this channel was enough to send my brand new 9-year old back to his room to play. It may be dull, but there is something mesmerizing in watching the capsule approach ISS with the earth turning steadily below. When I first tuned in, the capsule was at 70 meters and holding, and while I made my first cup of coffee, it moved to 30 meters. According to the mission guide, the Dragon is to close at 10 meters at which point ISS engineers will operate the station's grappling arm to pull Dragon in for docking.
NASA and SpaceX both have gone out of their way to characterize this exercise as a test flight only, but there are various supplies aboard the capsule for the station crew.
As I have said before, I believe the future of manned space flight is going to require a partnership or consortium of government and commercial interests. From what I have read, there are more private venture startups lining up behind SpaceX, which I think is a good thing (not the least reason as providing employment opportunities for NASA employees and contractors as NASA ultimately downsizes due to budget pressures, and the minimization of the loss of institutional knowledge).
There was a fascinating discussion between the station and Houston as Dragon approached the 10 meter point, as the pair was passing into twilight. But not surprisingly, the space station crew has no fear of the dark, so the go to capture in the dark was given. Slowly and steadily, the grappling arm reached out toward the capture (at which point my young son came back in the room, of course). Closer, closer …
And … Capture is confirmed! Historic stuff, and way cool!
Next up, docking. And now back to work for me.
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