Capsule set for historic space station arrival

Cape Canaveral: The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule approached the International Space Station for a historic docking today after sailing through a practice rendezvous the day before.

The unmanned SpaceX Dragon was on track to deliver a half-ton of supplies and become the first commercial vessel to visit the space station. The achievement previously was reserved for a small, elite group of government agencies.

"It's a great view," the Dutch space station astronaut Andre Kuipers said as the Dragon drew to within 275 metres, its strobe light flashing. "The solar panels are nicely lit."

On Thursday, the capsule made a practice fly-by. It returned early on Friday so Kuipers and US astronaut Donald Pettit could capture it with a robot arm. First, the capsule had to go through a series of stop-and-go demonstrations to prove it was under good operating control.

NASA ordered extra checks of the Dragon's imagers as the capsule drew closer to the space station, putting the operation slightly behind schedule. Given that the Dragon is a new type of vehicle and this is a test flight, the space agency said it wanted to proceed cautiously.

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A collision at orbital speed 28,160 kilometre per hour could prove disastrous for the space station.

President Barack Obama is pushing commercial ventures in orbit so the US space agency, NASA, can concentrate on grander destinations like asteroids and Mars.

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Once companies master supply runs, they hope to tackle astronaut ferry runs. The California-based SpaceX officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp is one of several companies vying for the chance to launch Americans from their homeland after NASA's final shuttle flight last summer.

To get to the space station, NASA astronauts now must go through Russia, an expensive and embarrassing situation for the US after a half-century of orbital self-sufficiency.

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SpaceX's billionaire maestro, Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal, said he can have astronauts riding his Dragon capsules to orbit in three or four years. His Falcon 9 rockets lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Musk monitored today's operation from the company's Mission Control in California.

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The space station has been relying on Russian, Japanese and European cargo ships ever since the shuttles retired. None of those, however, can bring anything of value back; they're simply loaded with trash and burn up in the atmosphere.