All the computers on the International Space Station that used to run Windows XP now run Linux, reports Extreme Tech. The reason: Microsoft's OS just wasn't "stable and reliable" enough, according to the United Space Alliance, the spaceflight operations company that manages the hardware onboard the ISS in conjunction with NASA.

Image courtesy of NASA. 

A voyage to the stars: Science fiction authors typically just assume we can do it. The awesomely ambitious 100-Year Starship project, however, was formed, quite literally, to help perform the heavy lifting.

Project members spoke in a session at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference on Monday in Austin, where they laid out some of the problems humanity will have to overcome for humans to leave the planet. The issues range from simply finding a planet that could support human life to constructing a spacecraft that could get us there to developing some form of propulsion that would enable a manageable trip length. Then there are more prosaic concerns, like creating a self-sustaining food source and even a social structure that would preserve society over a voyage that would likely take decades, or even longer.

(Watch a webcast of the 100 Year Starship session from SXSW.)

"It's a 'Grand Challenge,'" affecting every nation and culture, said Dr. Mae Jemison, an astronaut and doctor who was a member of the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. "Every person in this nation, every society and culture... have wondered what the stars are like," she said. As we discover that more and more stars may harbor Earth-like planets, the 100YSS project is compiling a list of possible "targets."  

Do The Benefits Outweigh The Problems?

100YSS is flying against strong headwinds. With the end of the Space Shuttle program, the moment, the United States is currently dependent upon Russia just to reach Earth orbit. (On the plus side, Elon Musk's Dragon autonomous rocket docked with the International Space Station just last week.) President George W. Bush's plans to put a man on Mars never materialized, and President Obama's secret trip to Mars is still just a hoax. More and more, cost concerns are forcing even interplanetary explorers to look for new, cheaper ways of collecting the same data via automated probes, not manned spaceships.

But just as there are a number of reasons to argue against a trip to another star, so are there reason to support it, as well. Dr. Jill Tarter, who holds the Bernard Oliver chair at the SETI Institute, reminded SXSW attendees of the spinoff benefits of space exploration, from global positioning satellites (GPS) and the satellites that helped their cellular phones operate to the trend towards miniaturization and the new materials that modern electronics are made from.

The clearest benefit is simply the scientific knowledge that can be gained through study, Tartar and Jemison claimed. Figuring out how to create and store enough energy to a power a small society through space could also help solve the world's energy problems. Developing self-repairing systems that could survive deep space could offer new directions for earth-bound manufacturing, too.

Panelist LeVar Burton, who played Geordi LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation, noted that humans could simply benefit from closing the gap between science and science fiction.

Lessons For Those Of Us Who Stay Home

Plus, there's the inevitable decline of the planet. Considering a trip to another world forces us to rethink how handle our affairs here on Earth. Humans require some 2,000 calories per day on average, but producing those calories now typically requires about 200,000. That's not sustainable, Tarter said.  "We won't make the time when the sun goes out, not the way we're going now," she added. 

The longevity of human society is another issue - and those concerns would be magnified for space travelers cooped up next to one another for dozens if not hundreds of years. "After 100 years, I couldn't stand you another second," Jemison said.

After all, in a completely closed environment, you can't even wash your clothes. Jemison reminded the audience that manufacturing  dying and washing clothes can be one of the "nastiest" on earth. "So you have to think differently all the time, but at the same time, clothing is our identity... and how do you keep that identity?"

Let's Get Physical

The Barbarian Group's Benjamin Palmer, who moderated the discussion, made an astute point: the problems of going to the stars are physical, so very different from the software and apps that rule the rest of SXSW. To make this work, there may need to less "separation between physical, software, and the biological," said Tarter. Or perhaps there's another alternative. "Maybe we're not sending humans," she asked, "but human representatives that are something else."

Jamison and Endeavor images via NASA.

Today on Reddit, private commercial spaceflight company SpaceX set its software engineers loose in an AMA. On the site, AMA stands for "Ask Me Anything", and an AMA thread (found on /r/IAmA/) is a no-holds barred session of questions and answers in real-time via Reddit's nested comment system.

In the past, even President Obama stopped by an AMA for a little while to chat about the White House homebrew recipe.

At SpaceX, the engineers design code for rockets and spacecraft and the code that goes into the manufacturing process. They basically make this happen:

Want to be a professional rocket-launcher with equity in one of the hottest companies in the hottest emerging industries around? In the AMA, members of the SpaceX team explain how they scored one of the sweetest programming gigs ever, describe what it's like to work with Elon Musk and take a quick jab at North Korea, (naturally).

1. What Happens When Things Go Wrong... In Space

2. On How Big The Code Base Is

3. No Really, Pyongyang - Is That You?

4. Linux Powers SpaceX

5. On The Scope Of SpaceX's Computing Power

6. Want To Be An Astronaut? Learn C++ Instead

7. What's Next For That Whole Space Exploration Thing

8. When Can We Go To The Red Planet, Already?

Image courtesy of NASA

While Boeing's 787 Dreamliner plans are literally going up in flames, Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk has "put it on the line" over at Flightglobal.

A Boeing Competitor

Musk wrote the aviation media site to say that "the [battery] pack architecture supplied to Boeing is inherently unsafe." Boeing, meanwhile, has yet to even confirm the cause of the problem that has ground the planes worldwide.

The famous entrepreneur runs one of a very few Boeing competitors for such lucrative government projects as spaceships and satellites. According to the Wall Street Journal, the chief executive’s SpaceX, which he founded and chairs, stands to rake in $1.6 billion in revenue over the next 5 years. One may wonder: is there a conflict of interest here?

A Lithium-Ion Supporter

Perhaps not, posits Forbes editor David Ewalt. He says that Musk merely wants to see lithium-ion batteries succeed in the marketplace. Ewalt writes that since "both Tesla and SpaceX rely on lithium ion battery packs in their vehicles... It’s in Musk’s interest to help establish the safety and reliability of these systems before customers and investors start to look askew at his own businesses."

On the other hand, Musk's public stance distances himself from the lithium-ion batteries by marketing the differences between the two companies’ approaches. Take the description as told by Flightglobal:

Both Boeing and Tesla use batteries fueled by lithium cobalt oxide, which is among the most energy-dense and flammable chemistries of lithium-ion batteries on the market. While Boeing elected to use a battery with a grouping of eight large cells, Tesla's batteries contain thousands of smaller cells that are independently separated to prevent fire in a single cell from harming the surrounding ones.

A Boeing Helper?

In another email, Musk wrote Reuters to suggest that SpaceX battery packs might be the salve for Boeing's woes. Musk has previously tweeted his support and publicly pledged company resources.

Of course, Boeing has decades of experience in aviation engineering, so perhaps Musk’s offers might be more like the needlings of Larry Ellison into Hewlett-Packard. Who knows? Maybe Ellison and Musk shared some tips on the set of Iron Man 2?

Boeing 787 image courtesy of mirounga / Shutterstock. Elon Musk image courtesy of Phil Stafford / Shutterstock.

Do you have a burning scientific question that can be answered only by putting a satellite into orbit? You're in luck. It’s now feasible to do just that, using only off-the-shelf technology, in a design called a CubeSat. It’ll run you around $50,000. For university, commercial or government projects, this new price point is a game changer.

A CubeSat is a 10 centimeter cube, or exactly one liter of volume, that weighs about one kilogram. Anything you can fit into that shape is good to go. You can even bolt two or three cubes together. In the parlance, a standard CubeSat is a “1U,” two cubes is “2U,” and three is “3U.” There are detailed design specs freely available online.

If you’ve got a science mission that qualifies, NASA will launch your CubeSat for free as part of its CubeSat Launch Initiative. If you don’t qualify for NASA’s program, it could cost $100,000 or more to hitch a ride aboard a launch vehicle, but that’s still vastly cheaper than a commercial satellite launch.

The cubes are loaded into a Poly-PicoSatellite Orbital Deployer (or P-POD) and dropped into orbit. A P-POD can hold up to three cubes. Over 100 CubeSats have been launched since 1999. They can remain in orbit for a month or so before falling back to Earth.

What would you do with a CubeSat? You can take photos from orbit, collect atmospheric data, perform biology experiments, send radio transmissions or just test your equipment. We live in a golden age for do-it-yourself technology.

Thanks to Stephen Murphey for sending in the cool video!

Russian cosmonauts tossed a 20-pound spherical satellite overboard on Monday. Scientists will track the 21-inch target to test techniques for monitoring junk objects in orbit. The treacherous cloud of space junk threatens to take out the satellites that drive GPS, broadcast, remote imaging, and other functions. Canadian satellite watcher Kevin Fetter caught it on video from the ground.

video via spaceweather.com

We can take it to Mars but when we get there, the pictures we take - suck. 

Whenever we leave Earth, we pack the computing power equivalent of a canteen of water. That's right, a whole 32 ounce canteen. Less than a 7-11 Big Gulp. 

The Mars Rover is no exception. Yes, the one ton, $2.5 billion Curiosity is capable of traveling millions of miles into space and surviving the "seven minutes of terror," but with a two megapixel camera, a low power computer chip, and only 4.5 gigabytes of data storage, your average smartphone can take better pictures. Much better pictures. Let's put it like this: your memory stick on your computer has more data storage space than this thing.  

Why you ask? Two main reasons.

When NASA first began work on the mission in 2004, this technology was state-of-the-art. Less than a decade later, that tech, at least on the computational side, can't keep up. With a limited stream of data, around 32 MB a day, getting that info to Earth is also a big challenge. And pictures aren't the only thing being sent by the Curiosity -- it's also sending recordings and other measurements, which are beamed to two satellites orbiting Mars, and then on to Earth. Phew.

Think of it like this: you share cable dial-up Internet with your whole family, and your little brother streams long, long YouTube videos while you try to get the pinwheel to stop moving so you can scroll through your 10 open tabs. It takes a while, and there's only so much bandwidth. That's kind of what's happening a few miles upstairs in the Milky Way. 

Another reason the camera and data storage is limited in capacity, is because careful planning went into preventing harmful radiation from compromising equipment aboard the Curiosity, says Ben Cichy, NASA JPL's chief software engineer for the Mars science laboratory.

"We have to make sure a single particle of sun can't damage it," he said, noting that the equipment aboard the craft is redesigned to withstand the harsh environment of space. "That slows it down."

When Mars rover Curiosity touched down Sunday, August 5th, it was more than a technological triumph for the space agency; it was another victory in a four-year-old social-media campaign that has expanded to Google+ Hangouts, Angry Birds and Xbox 360 Kinect games and, in the future, maybe mission-specific apps.

The space agency proved it's as adept at landing a rover on Mars as it is at entertaining a global audience, be it through a smoothly executed live-stream viewed by millions or an interactive web tool simulating the rover landing.

And as Jason Townsend, the Deputy Social Media Manager at NASA explained, it’s just the beginning as far as social-media outreach is concerned:  

“We're always looking for new opportunities to connect with new audiences and share information about our missions, programs, and people. We're always exploring where the public is, and figuring out where social media is headed next. We are on the most popular platforms — and when new ones emerge, we'll go there, too.”  

Besides hitting all the social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Flickr), NASA had a variety of interactive features made just for Curiosity. “Eyes in the Sky,” an interactive computer simulation that followed Curiosity’s descent live, was a Reddit favorite, hitting the front page of the social-news site in a thread threatening NASA with a “friendly DDoSing.”

“Eyes” wasn’t the only interactive tool created for the rover. Xbox 360 Kinect owners could also download and play the “Mars Rover Landing” game for free. "Our main goal is to bring NASA back to the living room," said Matt Clausen, the lead artist at Human Interfaces at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and lead artist for the Xbox game. "I grew up in the 1980s, and I watched [a] space walk on TV," explained Clausen, "and this is the first game created by NASA to go into the living room."   

In fact, NASA has been experimenting with the Xbox Kinect and Nintendo Wii controllers "to control real robots," said Clausen, because "we're looking at simpler ways to do things," including bridging the gap between NASA and the public. 

The public can expect more interactive features and games in the future, explained Townsend, as they’re in line with NASA’s quest to inspire the next generation of kids.

The most recent development is Angry Birds Space update, "Red Planet," done in time with the Mars Curiosity landing.  Townsend said NASA and Rovio worked collaboratively on the game after a joking tweet between the Rovio's Twitter account and @NASA, the Twitter account managed by Townsend.

Can we expect mission-specific smartphone apps any time soon?

“Definitely,” said Townsend. "We've got several apps in the pipeline, and we have a variety of teams working on them," he added, though he wouldn't elaborate.

Clausen, who is working on a few of those apps, said "this was all a very big experiment - which we feel has been very successful."   

As for NASA's most immediate move in social-media, "we're currently expanding on Google+, and figuring out how to do Google Hangouts," said Townsend.  

Said Michelle Viotti, the Mars public engagement manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a press release: "Because Mars exploration is fundamentally a shared human endeavor, we want everyone around the globe to have the most immersive experience possible."

Curiosity's Shadow and Mount Sharp, courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA has surprised two groups of people in getting the Curiosity rover safely on Martian soil. The first set were the skeptics who said the agency couldn't pull it off, and the second are skeptics of government-run social-media campaigns.

In both efforts, NASA has gone all in, with tactics and strategies that a lot, and maybe most, people doubted would succeed.

And yet, as Monday’s early morning landing of an SUV-sized robot proved, NASA at its best needs no help publicizing itself. It has even earned praise from veteran journalist Jeffrey Jarvis and has been viewed as a contrast to NBC’s contentious Olympics online strategy.

New dispatches from Mars are trickling out as the rover sits still while NASA completes status checks of the robot. Among them is spectacular video of the last two-and-half-minutes of the landing.

Will Curiosity determine if Mars ever supported life, or help map out a manned mission to Mars? It's too soon to say, but the answer will most likely debut on NASA social media. Here's how the Curiosity mission continues to play out online.

Twitter

Like previous rover missions, NASA shared news of the mission live through multiple Twitter accounts, the most notable being @NASA, @NASAJPL (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory), and @MarsCuriosity. @MarsCuriosity followed NASA’s four-year-old cheeky practice of tweeting in the first person as a rover, a tactic that amassed 400,000 followers in the 48 hours leading up to Curiosity's landing.

Celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson even got in the act, tweeting questions to Curiosity, to which the rover quipped back equally witty responses. It was this kind of playful social promotion that won the ordinarily very buttoned-down space agency a Shorty Award in 2009 for its Twitter campaign promoting the previous Phoenix lander mission to Mars.  

If you can only follow one of NASA’s social media profiles, ReadWriteWeb recommends @MarsCuriosity.  

Facebook, Google+

NASA, of course, has a Facebook page, liked more than 1 million times, and so does Curiosity. Information posted there is also posted on Google+ as well as on the Twitter accounts. Jason Townsend, NASA’s deputy social media manager, said NASA will experiment with Google+ hangouts, too.  

Flickr

The space agency uses Flickr primarily to tweet official photos of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory crew and esteemed guests like Bill Nye "the Science Guy" or White House Science and Technology Advisor John Holdren.

YouTube

The lab's YouTube channel,  JPLNews, has over 300 videos - tutorials, simulations, interviews and mission footage, including "Curiosity's Descent."  NASA's primary YouTube channel, NASA TV, houses another 2,000 or so videos. 

Live-Streams

Along with a stream available on the JPL site and via Xbox Live, NASA hosts at least nine channels on the free service Ustream.

ReadWriteWeb recommends NASA’s HDTV Ustream channel, as it offers the best video quality.

Bonus Interactivity  

“Eyes in the Sky” was the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s interactive computer simulation that followed Curiosity’s descent in real time. That sim also lets you check out other planets. And the lab also has several other interactive features. 

Even more interactive than “Eyes” is NASA’s free “Mars Rover Landing” game, on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect.

Aerospace firm SpaceX announced Friday that it won a $440 million contract from NASA to modify its Dragon capsule for human space flight as a private-sector successor to the Space Shuttle. The plan is to launch the first Dragon flight carrying American astronauts by 2015.

The Dragon capsule can carry seven astronauts, and it launches aboard the 227 foot-tall SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. These vehicles proved themselves in May in an unmanned mission in which Dragon became the first private spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station.

Since that mission, SpaceX has undergone tests to ensure that the vehicles are ready for manned spaceflight. On July 17, Dragon passed NASA’s design review, which outlined its new launch pad emergency procedures, its life-support systems, cockpit design and propulsive landing system. While the unmanned Dragon splashed down in the ocean, the piloted version will have thrusters to guide it to a landing.

“This is a decisive milestone in human spaceflight and sets an exciting course for the next phase of American space exploration,” SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk said in a press release. “SpaceX, along with our partners at NASA, will continue to push the boundaries of space technology to develop the safest, most advanced crew vehicle ever flown.”

See also: Profile of SpaceX Founder Elon Musk

Musk: @spacex may employ 1,000 at the Cape in four or five years, says there is reason for Space Coast to be "very optimistic."

— James Dean (@flatoday_jdean) August 3, 2012

Google gave Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center a 50th birthday present Thursday, putting 6,000 vivid, panoramic views of the legendary facility on Google Street View. Now that the space shuttle fleet is retired, Kennedy’s mission will change, so these Street View images are among the last views of the site that launched the first era of the Space Age. Here are five snapshots we took while sneaking around.

(at top) Up close with the Space Shuttle Endeavour in the Vehicle Assembly Building

A retro mural outside Launch Firing Room #4.

At the controls in Launch Firing Room #4.

Space Shuttle hydraulic fluid and blurred-out signs at the bottom of the launch pad.

The view from the top of the launch pad.

On the day with the best weather in Virginia between July 21 and July 24, NASA will test its Inflatable Re-Entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3). It's a 10-foot wide, 680-pound inflatable heat shield for delivering payloads to a planet's surface from orbit. The shield will be carried by a rocket that will re-enter Earth's atmosphere at Mach 5. As it descends, its speed could reach up to 7,600 miles per hour.

"We originally came up with this concept because we'd like to be able to land more mass and access higher altitudes on Mars," says Neil Cheatwood, IRVE-3 principal investigator at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

The test flight - from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia - will take approximately 20 minutes.

After a flawless unmanned test in May, the private space firm SpaceX is preparing its Dragon capsule for manned flight. On Thursday, it passed a critical NASA design review, enabling SpaceX to move forward with its ambition to carry people into space within three years.

As part of the review, SpaceX presented plans to NASA for every phase of a manned mission. It described a new launch pad, the capsule’s capabilities for docking with the International Space Station, its living arrangements, energy requirements and landing techniques. It also reviewed the safety mechanisms, such as the new SuperDraco launch abort system.

See also: SpaceX Dragon Returns Safely to Earth

The Dragon capsule is designed to carry up to seven astronauts. NASA’s goal is for at least two of the four private spaceflight firms to have operational manned missions by 2017.

You can learn more about this stage of the Dragon program at Space.com.

Lead image from unmanned Dragon mission courtesy of NASA TV.

The star U Camelopardalis is about to die, and NASA’s Hubble telescope has captured a stunning image of one of its last gasps. It’s a rare kind of star composed of more carbon than oxygen, giving it low surface gravity compared to other stars. Consequently, U Cam releases bubbles of gas every few thousand years - a blink of an eye in stellar terms - as its core begins to fuse. NASA predicts the star has only a few hundred years left before it collapses. 

See the full-size image on NASA.gov.

Dream Chaser, a reusable space plane designed to carry astronauts to and from a low orbit, passed its first flight test last week. This isn't a capsule or a light space tourism craft. It's a rugged, streamlined, privately built successor to NASA's Space Shuttle, and it's well on its way into orbit.

Built by Sierra Nevada Corporation, Dream Chaser passed its first "captive-carry" test, during which it was slung underneath an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter and pulled through the air, verifying its aerodynamic performance. Like the Space Shuttle, the new vehicle will launch vertically on the nose of a rocket and return to Earth as a lifting-body glider. It's not the only space plane in development, but it's the space-mission workhorse. Competing designs, such as those from Virgin Galactic, are mostly for sightseeing. 

Dream Chaser's typical re-entry only pulls about 1.5G. It can land on any airport runway. Unlike the Space Shuttle, its ablative heat shielding and nonvolatile thruster fuel allow it to be handled by ground crews immediately after landing. The plan is to build a whole fleet and keep them in constant rotation.

Dream Chaser was funded by NASA's Commercial Crew Development program (CCDev), part of the government's new strategy to reboot manned space flight with slimmer margins, more competition and private-sector efficiency. Sierra Nevada Corporation has received $100 million in CCDev grants over its two funding rounds so far. Dream Chaser became a high priority after SNC received the largest share of NASA's initial round of CCDev funds in 2010. 

A contractor for more established private space firms, the company employs over 2,000 people at 35 facilities in 16 U.S. states. It is designing the rocket engine for SpaceShipTwo, the private space plane venture built by Northrop Grumman subsidiary Scaled Composites. SpaceShipTwo will be operated by space tourism company Virgin Galactic, which has agreed to help market Dream Chaser's services. Virgin also operates the White Knight Two jet that will serve as the Dream Chaser's platform in drop trials.

In the rapidly accelerating private spaceflight industry, there is already a second generation of companies. But the demands of the mission have drawn top talent from aerospace firms old and new. Boeing was right alongside Sierra Nevada and other upstarts in both rounds of CCDev funding, landing over $92 million in round two for its seven-person CST-100 crew capsule. That program completed its preliminary software design review last month.

Dream Chaser also graduated in the same CCDev class as SpaceX, which received $75 million in CCDdev round two for the launch abort system onboard the Dragon spacecraft. That vehicle famously completed its landmark space mission last week, becoming the first private spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station and return safely to Earth.

The Dragon's flight was a resounding success for the private space industry, and it showed on the faces of NASA staff when the vehicle berthed successfully with the ISS. The SpaceX capsule paved the way for other private spacecraft to dock with the station. It's a flexible vehicle in its own right, capable of carrying crew as well as cargo. But it's a capsule that must be precisely guided to a landing.

A lifting-body design like Dream Chaser can land at any airport, making manned spaceflights into more everyday affairs. With private companies relieving NASA's burden of routine spaceflight service, the cash-strapped agency can double down on its bolder, longer-term missions.

What's Next for Dream Chaser

The data from the captive-carry test will inform the next phase of approach and landing tests, in which the Dream Chaser will be carried aloft by a Scaled Composites White Knight Two jet and then dropped for a glider landing. The first of these tests is planned for later this year. The eventual mission of Dream Chaser is to carry crews to and from orbit, docking with the International Space Station.

Lead image credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation / Space.com

CG image via Wikimedia Commons

Today's seven-hour window is almost certainly your last chance.

Gizmodo has the start times of the Venus transit around the world, as well as important safety information for watching.

Here's an absolutely epic story from NASA about the 1768 voyage of the HMB Endeavour, under the command of Lt. James Cook, to chart the transit of Venus from the faraway land of Tahiti in order to measure the size of the solar system.

It's tricky to observe our solar system. Check out all the problems Scott Carpenter faced on his 1962 voyage aboard Aurora 7.

But our unmanned missions have made things easier. Cassini just got great photos of a new, tiny moon orbiting Saturn.

We're still pretty baffled by our stellar neighborhood, though. Scientists have measured a massive radiation burst that hit Earth between 774 and 775 AD, but they can't figure out what caused it.

Maybe it's that regular people don't know the whole story. The U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane is about to come down from its orbital mission six months later than scheduled, and we don't know what it was doing up there.

Past entries from Read/Write Daily

We've had some close calls already.

Foreign Policy takes stock of the Pentagon's planetary defenses.

We're still just digging into our home territory. Our rovers on Mars are picking up creepy shadows.

Our plans to send people to Venus haven't panned out.

But our latest moon missions are running ahead of schedule. Will we spot threats in our solar system in time?

Well, we'd better look harder. Here's a video of a two-meter chunk of asteroid blowing up in our atmosphere just a few weeks ago. Close call!

It's all a moot point anyway, of course. Our galaxy will collide with its neighbor in 4 billion years, and that will be all, folks.

Image via Shutterstock

Past entries from Read/Write Daily

After completing every objective of its nine-day mission, the first private spacecraft ever to dock with the International Space Station splashed down off the coast of Baja California today. The landing was right on target. The 19-foot-long SpaceX Dragon capsule was quickly recovered to begin its trip back to the SpaceX facility in McGregor, Texas. SpaceX's successful mission sets the stage for private spacecraft operations to take over some routine responsibilities from NASA, potentially saving money and increasing capabilities.

The Dragon launched on May 22 aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to make its historic rendezvous, successfully docking with the space station on May 25. The following day, the crew of ISS Expedition 31 opened the hatch and climbed aboard, reporting that the Dragon's interior "smell[ed] like a brand new car."

The Dragon brought some nonessential cargo to the station, which the crew unloaded and replaced with spent equipment to return to NASA. The agency has made Dragon's full cargo manifest available to read. It includes crew provisions and clothes, racks and storage containers for science experiments, plus some mission hardware, including spacewalk gloves.

After completing all the tests and experiments, Dragon spent its last day at the station yesterday as crew finished loading its 1,455 pounds of cargo to return to Earth. Dragon unberthed from the station's robotic arm at 4:05 a.m. Eastern time today.

Dragon fired its engines to slow down and drop from orbit, then streaked through the sky over the Pacific, deploying its parachutes at 45,000 feet and touching down right on target at 11:42 a.m. Eastern time.

In future missions, Dragon will land on a pad using precision thrusters, rather than the more traditional water landing.

See also: Profile of SpaceX founder Elon Musk

With the success of this mission, SpaceX begins a series of cargo missions for NASA under a four-year, $1.6 billion contract. If all goes well, private spaceflight companies will take on even more responsibility. The Dragon capsule is designed to accommodate up to seven crew members, and SpaceX plans to begin manned flights within three years.

With private companies like SpaceX handling routine flights, NASA can free up its resources for more ambitious, longer-term missions.

Lead image via SpaceX/AP

On Saturday morning, the crew of the International Space Station opened the hatch of the SpaceX Dragon capsule and went inside. The Dragon docked with the ISS yesterday, becoming the first private spacecraft to rendezvous with the station. NASA astronaut Donald Pettit was the first aboard, remarking that it "smells like a brand new car." Pettit and the crew now have until Thursday to unload Dragon's cargo and refill it with equipment to return to Earth.

The main purpose of the flight was to demonstrate that the Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket that delivered it were capable of reaching the station. SpaceX plans to begin regular cargo missions this year. The Dragon capsule is capable of accommodating up to seven astronauts, and the company hopes to begin manned missions within three years.

The station crew wore oxygen masks and protective gear as a precaution when boarding Dragon, but they found the capsule to be clean and free of debris. "It looks great," Pettit said.

SpaceX represents a sea change for the business of spaceflight. NASA has poured nearly $400 million in seed money into SpaceX in hopes of outsourcing its flight operations to private companies. Just a few years ago, SpaceX launches were failing repeatedly. Dustin Curtis has an awesome excerpt from a Wired Magazine interview with SpaceX founder Elon Musk from 2008. "You're still zero for three," Wired's Carl Hoffman said. "You have so far failed to put a rocket into orbit. ... How do you maintain your optimism?"

"Optimism, pessimism, f___ that; we're going to make it happen," Musk replied. "As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work."

Four years later, astronauts are aboard the first private spacecraft to ever rendezvous with with International Space Station. In yesterday's press conference after the successful berthing, NASA staff were in tears.

Images and video courtesy of NASA

After a flawless launch on May 22, the SpaceX Dragon capsule has become the first commercial spacecraft to berth at the International Space Station. After a flyby last night, the capsule approached the station, and station flight engineers Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers brought the vehicle to berth with the station's robotic arm. The capsule was bolted to the station's Harmony module at 12:02 p.m. Eastern Time.

This first flight delivered noncritical cargo for the crew of ISS Expedition 31. It's mainly a test mission for SpaceX's capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket that delivered it to orbit. Everything has gone off without a hitch.

#Dragon grappled to the International Space Station!!! twitter.com/SpaceX/status/…

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 25, 2012

The successful flight of Dragon paves the way for the first private, manned spaceflight. In addition to cargo, the SpaceX capsule is designed to carry up to seven astronauts, meaning that Dragon missions launched by the Falcon 9 rocket can help take over for the now-retired space shuttle. SpaceX hopes to enable Dragon's crew capabilities within three years.

Dragon's hatches will open Saturday morning, and the station crew will board to conduct some docked operations. Flight engineers Pettit, Kuipers and Joe Acaba will appear on NASA TV at 11:25 a.m. Eastern on Saturday to discuss the first private space flight to the station.

"Looks like we caught a Dragon by the tail." - Astronaut Don Pettit, after capturing @SpaceX Dragon capsule with ISS robotic arm.

— NASA Kennedy / KSC (@NASAKennedy) May 25, 2012

It's a proud moment for Elon Musk, the 40-year-old founder of SpaceX and three other high-tech ventures. See Richard MacManus' full profile of Musk for more on his story.

NASA's mission status briefing on today's successful operations begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. You can watch it here:

Live video for mobile from Ustream

Lead image courtesy of NASA TV.