http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/28/us-space-business-idUSTRE76R7RY20110728

Start of a new era?

I hope it all goes smoothly and they get this up and running quickly (and safely, of course).

I understand that the shuttle wasn't always the most cost-effective way to get people and supplies into and out of orbit, but it just seems like they should have kept them going until something was in place to replace them.

Do they work with NASA at all or other government agencies? Who does their work for knowing how to get into orbits and reandevouz and such?

They're being contracted by NASA, so more than likely they're getting the info they need from them.

Orbital mechanics and rendezvous techniques* are not a secret black art that NASA has some sort of patent on or keys to the secret realm, but that being said the SpaceX people aren't new wet behind the ears college graduates either, most have worked for Boeing, LockMart, ULA, NASA etc.


*Dr. Rendezvous, AKA Buzz Aldrin, earned a Doctorate of Science in Astronautics at MIT and wrote his thesis on Manned Orbital Rendezvous before such a thing really existed, in some ways he taught NASA how it was done.

I thought Coot was asking more about the information specific to the ISS, on how to get to it and dock, etc., not orbital mechanics in general.

I'm sure someone could observe the station and figure that out, but it would probably be safer if they just got that data from NASA.

Getting to the ISS is all about orbital mechanics and rendezvous & docking techniques. And the ISS's orbit isn't top secret, you can get very detailed info on it's orbit at any given moment on the internet. But of course since SpaceX is being hired by NASA to make this flight they won't have to resort to Googling the ISS orbital info.

In any case, if Coot was asking how SpaceX would know how to find ISS then the answer is NASA will give them all the data needed.

If he was asking how SpaceX figured out this "getting into orbit and rendezvous/docking stuff", the answer is it isn't top secret NASA only knowledge.

I was thinking about both things really but mainly the sharing of aquired knowledge thus far. But I was also interested in who's behind the scenes.

The short answer is NASA. They're still paying, they're just not paying the majority of the bill yet.

After all, it's their station and they say who can and can't dock there.



The Jedi Master

I’m not quite sure what you mean; NASA is paying the entire bill for the up coming SpaceX flight. It’s just much cheaper than anything they’ve every launched themselves because SpaceX is a lean profit making business, not a government agency. But the price SpaceX is charging NASA for this Nov. 30 flight covers all their flight related costs plus a nice profit.




Along with Russia. And Russia has made some noises about not allowing Dragon to dock. Which isn’t a big surprise as SpaceX success will cut into Russia’s monopoly on access to ISS.