Back on June 4th, the first private space rocket launch was a success! (How do I fall so behind on these happenings?) It was the Falcon 9, by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX for short. It was 154-feet and 735,000-pounds.
The New York Times article says:
“The nine first-stage engines ignited at 2:45 p.m. and burned for three minutes before dropping into the ocean while the second-stage engines burned about six minutes to place a dummy payload capsule almost perfectly into the target orbit 155 miles above the Earth.”
So I was wondering what the U.S. was going to do once the current shuttles are retired given the replacement fleet wasn’t scheduled to be ready until end of 2011, and are currently well behind shcedule (1-2 years?). I read somewhere that we’d be relying on Russia and other ISS countries to fly our contributions up, if not also our astronauts…. But here’s the answer! In Space.com’s article, and supported by the Washington Post’s article:
“SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to use Falcon 9 to carry cargo to the International Space Station after the space shuttles retire.”
Aha! Good, good.
Now for the bad, bad:
“President Obama has proposed cancelling NASA’s existing Constellation program to design a replacement for the shuttle. Instead, his plan depends on eventually transferring responsibility for transporting crews to the commercial sector as well.”
Nooooo! Poor NASA, won’t that only undermine their purpose further?
……….The private company has taken another step toward carrying astronauts to the International Space Station. ………………The three main parachutes on SpaceXs Dragon spacecraft carry to a landing in the Pacific Ocean during a drop test.
Awesome! Thanks for the info :)