The SpaceX mission to the International Space Station has overwhelmingly succeeded, with only a few steps - difficult, but not the most difficult - remaining before total success can be declared. Meanwhile, the world has been treated to beautiful imagery all the more inspiring for its context - a spacecraft (Dragon) built on a serious commitment to the hopes and dreams of mankind, in flight against the cloudtops and the black of space.
For the following video, I should note that in some parts, the Dragon appears to be moving oddly against a background of stars - this is an optical illusion: You could not actually see the stars against the brightness of the spacecraft, so it's a reflection of the stars either in the Space Station window or, more likely, in the camera lens, accounting for the bizarre motions shown as the astronaut filming moves the camera around. I recommend going full screen for the full effect of this awesome imagery:
Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers has uploaded some beautiful photographs to Flickr:
Over Namibia:
The Rocky Mountains:
On approach 10 meters away from ISS:
The station's grappling arm grabbing Dragon:
The arm extending in preparation to move the Dragon toward berthing:
Almost there:
Contact light - the Dragon has landed:
I'm not entirely clear on how the hatch(es) is/are configured, but there are two photographs of different hatches both attributed to Dragon - maybe there is an inner and an outer hatch:
Inside the Dragon's belly:
I should note that the interior above is what the cargo configuration of Dragon looks like - the crew version would look very different.
A. What's left to do for this mission?
1. Once the cargo has been unloaded, material intended to be safely returned to Earth (called "down-mass" in space operations parlance) will be loaded up. No problems anticipated here. :)
2. The Dragon will be sealed up once again. Easy peasy, but there's always a slight chance of a hatch problem with a spacecraft.
3. I don't know if the Dragon will be de-berthed using the grappling arm to take it away from the station before allowing it to fly free or just be allowed to leave by itself, but it would make sense. Problems with the arm or the grappling fixture on Dragon are possible but unlikely, and of course any problems with thrusters or GNC (guidance, navigation, and control) at this point would be an issue.
4. Dragon will execute a de-orbit burn bending its path into the atmosphere. The thrusters will have to do their job to make it happen properly, or else Dragon stays in orbit or burns up.
5. Once in the atmosphere, its advanced PICA-X heat shield will bear the brunt of the heat and force to radically slow down the craft. If something goes wrong with the heat shield or the orientation of the craft on reentry, it burns up.
6. After the Dragon has slowed down enough, parachutes will deploy. Chutes are always tricky things, because they're very difficult to model and notoriously finicky. If they don't deploy and inflate, the spacecraft hits the Pacific Ocean at hundreds of miles per hour and turns into a pile of rubble on the seafloor.
7. Then SpaceX has to find and recover it from the ocean. If this occurs, the mission will have been 100% successful, as it will have delivered its down-mass payloads intact.
B. What's next for Dragon?
1. This flight was a demonstration mission, but routinized cargo deliveries to and from ISS are slated to begin later this year.
2. These flights may include commercial payloads from university research programs, smaller governments without independent space programs, corporations, and private individuals.
3. As far as I know, there are no entirely private-sector Dragon flights scheduled, but they are eventually likely - and nothing says the spacecraft has to go to the ISS. It can also just go to orbit for a few weeks and come back.
4. SpaceX will be pursuing reusability of Dragon, meaning they will use spacecraft that have already flown into space to fly again. Only the United States has ever done this (with the Space Shuttle) - neither Russia nor China have ever reused a spacecraft. They can't do this for ISS flights because NASA arbitrarily required in the contract that totally new Dragons be used each time - which is dumb, but it is what it is. However, reusability for other commercial flights would allow them to lower costs further and reduce risks.
5. They will be working on development of the SuperDraco thruster that will radically increase the propulsion capabilities of Dragon, building into it the ability to (a) independently escape the Falcon 9 rocket on the pad or in flight during an emergency, (b) land back on Earth on land with powered descent rather than splashing down, and (c) potentially land on other places like the Moon or Mars. This would satisfy a key requirement of pursuing a commercial contract for transporting NASA astronauts to the ISS, also opening the Dragon to private manned flight customers, and also make Dragon a potential platform for commercial interplanetary exploration (albeit unmanned at first).
These are near future plans of SpaceX, that they plan to complete in the next three or so years.
C. What's next for SpaceX?
1. They're close to finishing construction of a prototype reusable flyback first stage for the Falcon 9 rocket called Grasshopper - i.e., it will launch, then land back on the pad under power. According to Elon Musk's Twitter feed, they will be commencing flight tests "soon." Here it is under construction on May 11 and nearing completion May 24, respectively - SpaceX works damn fast for a space company:
Even if they're only able to make the 1st stage reusable and not the upper stage, it would result in radical cost reductions. Meanwhile they're also pursuing a new version of the Merlin engine, the Merlin 2, that would be much more powerful than the current Merlin 1C or the subsequent iteration 1D that is (if I understand correctly) right now in the supply chain scheduled for later launches. They are also pursuing a heavy-lift variant of Falcon 9 called Falcon Heavy that would directly compete with the ULA rockets Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy. Further ahead, they intend to pursue super-heavy-lift rockets more powerful than Saturn V.
This company is pursuing so many things at once, and apparently making real progress on all of them, that I would not be shocked (though certainly gratified) if they were to start unleashing a steady (if not accelerating) stream of achievements in space, all while making money hand over fist serving commercial launch markets poorly served by the status quo. Of course, problems are inevitable too, but my Hope Meter is jacked through the roof thanks to this company.
Oh, and on a tangential topic, Elon Musk's other company, Tesla Motors, announced they'll begin delivering the Model S electric sedan on June 22 - months ahead of schedule. :D