The first of what NASA hopes will become a fleet of privately built rockets and capsules successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on Wednesday morning in a major test for the commercial space industry. After twice circling the globe, the capsule landed in the Pacific as planned three hours later.
The successful splashdown marks the first time that a commercial company launched a rocket and capsule into space and brought the spacecraft safely back to Earth.
The landing was announced on the Twitter account of Space Explorations Technologies Inc., or SpaceX, the start-up company that has pioneered the new era of commercial space travel. A recovery team was at the capsule - built to be reusable - within 20 minutes of splashdown, suggesting that it was on target for its landing.
The Falcon 9 rocket built by SpaceX was on its first full test flight. Its Dragon capsule was empty and unmanned, but plans are to fill it in the months ahead with cargo - and ultimately with astronauts - to transport to the International Space Station.
NASA's deputy administrator, Lori Garver, said after the splashdown that the administration was delighted by the success and that "the path to and from the space station is going to be this: a partnership between private companies and government to get the job done most effectively."
The flight is an important moment for President Obama and his administration's hopes to expand commercial space efforts in low-Earth orbit as a way to free up NASA funds for missions to send astronauts much deeper into space and ultimately to Mars.
SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Elon Musk and run from California, successfully launched a Dragon 9 rocket in June, but that test was done without a real capsule. Musk, who founded and sold the online payment company PayPal and is also behind development of the Tesla electric car, said before launch that he rated the chances for a successful mission at about 60 percent.
After the splashdown, Musk said he was in "semi-shock."
"There's so much that can go wrong and it all went right," Musk said. His next challenge is a Dragon capsule rendezvous with the space station that is scheduled for next year.
The Falcon 9 rocket is a pipsqueak compared with the space shuttle it will partially replace - measuring 157 feet with the capsule and weighing 735,000 pounds. The much larger shuttle was needed to fly parts up to the $100 billon international space station, but the fleet is being retired because of its age and because its job is largely done. Each shuttle flight costs about $1 billion, while the entire NASA contribution so far to SpaceX has been $253 million, according to NASA officials.
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/08/MN0G1GNUHS.DTL#ixzz17bNf5g6y
The successful splashdown marks the first time that a commercial company launched a rocket and capsule into space and brought the spacecraft safely back to Earth.
The landing was announced on the Twitter account of Space Explorations Technologies Inc., or SpaceX, the start-up company that has pioneered the new era of commercial space travel. A recovery team was at the capsule - built to be reusable - within 20 minutes of splashdown, suggesting that it was on target for its landing.
The Falcon 9 rocket built by SpaceX was on its first full test flight. Its Dragon capsule was empty and unmanned, but plans are to fill it in the months ahead with cargo - and ultimately with astronauts - to transport to the International Space Station.
NASA's deputy administrator, Lori Garver, said after the splashdown that the administration was delighted by the success and that "the path to and from the space station is going to be this: a partnership between private companies and government to get the job done most effectively."
The flight is an important moment for President Obama and his administration's hopes to expand commercial space efforts in low-Earth orbit as a way to free up NASA funds for missions to send astronauts much deeper into space and ultimately to Mars.
SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Elon Musk and run from California, successfully launched a Dragon 9 rocket in June, but that test was done without a real capsule. Musk, who founded and sold the online payment company PayPal and is also behind development of the Tesla electric car, said before launch that he rated the chances for a successful mission at about 60 percent.
After the splashdown, Musk said he was in "semi-shock."
"There's so much that can go wrong and it all went right," Musk said. His next challenge is a Dragon capsule rendezvous with the space station that is scheduled for next year.
The Falcon 9 rocket is a pipsqueak compared with the space shuttle it will partially replace - measuring 157 feet with the capsule and weighing 735,000 pounds. The much larger shuttle was needed to fly parts up to the $100 billon international space station, but the fleet is being retired because of its age and because its job is largely done. Each shuttle flight costs about $1 billion, while the entire NASA contribution so far to SpaceX has been $253 million, according to NASA officials.
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/08/MN0G1GNUHS.DTL#ixzz17bNf5g6y
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