phyzik
06-04-2010, 06:28 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/04/spacex.rocket.test/index.html?hpt=T2
VJrEiMKKjWY
Cape Canaveral, Florida (CNN) -- The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday in its first launch test.
An earlier attempt to launch Friday was aborted seconds before ignition.
Paid for by the money and dreams of a millionaire, the rocket serves as a symbol of the future and could carry astronauts and cargo to the international space station.
This commercial venture by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, carries a mockup of its space capsule, called Dragon.
PayPal co-founder Elon Musk is the CEO of the company. NASA hopes companies such as SpaceX can take over transportation to the international space station.
"It's time for NASA to hand that over to commercial industry who can then optimize the technology and make it more reliable, make it much lower cost and make it much more routine," Musk said last month.
Musk says he believes the U.S. is at the beginning of a profound, fundamental renaissance in space exploration, perhaps greater than when President Kennedy declared that the U.S. was going to the moon during the infancy of the space program.
"If the country executes and the administration and Congress execute in that direction, the impact of these changes will be on par, perhaps even greater, than ... the task that Kennedy put us on to," he said.
This push toward the privatization of space is part of President Obama's blueprint to allow NASA to do bigger and better things with its budget, such as a mission to Mars.
NASA has been flying shuttles in low-Earth orbit and going to and from the space station for 30 years now. The administration would like to see whether private companies can do it cheaper and more efficiently, as the shuttle program is about to fly into retirement.
NASA selected SpaceX and another company, Orbital Sciences, to each develop an orbital vehicle because the U.S. will not have its own way to get to the space station. The U.S. will be renting space from the Russians aboard their Soyuz spacecraft.
"They're standing on NASA's shoulders, so they're designing rockets based on the experience we've had for 50 years or more, going into space," said George Musser, editor of the Scientific American.
"And any enterprise that learns from past experience will hopefully do better," he said.
But the competition is rabid. SpaceX is the first company to reach the launchpad. It has spent almost $400 million to get there.
"They probably hate each other's guts, but the competition is really good for space and for all of us," Musser said.
"Ultimately, what do we want from this? We want to get into space cheaply, so our kids and grandkids someday can go into space and explore the planets," he said.
But SpaceX acknowledges that there will be failures, as there have been since the the beginning of aviation.
Ken Bowersox is a vice president for SpaceX. In his previous life, he flew five space shuttle missions as a commander and pilot. He also lived on the space station for more than five months as its commander.
"Either way, we're going to learn something," he said. "If we have a problem, we can move forward accepting a higher level of risk. That's how we can be more cost-effective."
But NASA Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach says this is a very complicated business. "It's a lot harder to fly rockets then anybody thinks it is," he said.
Leinbach says that every aerospace company and organization has had problems with new rockets, including the shuttle program.
"You run into problems in developing and testing and flying these things you just don't anticipate. I expect that same thing will happen with the commercial providers," said Leinbach.
Friday's test flight was to last about eight to 10 minutes and is scheduled to deploy the mock Dragon capsule into a 155-mile orbit. It would orbit for about a year and burn up in the atmosphere.
If all goes as planned after a series of test flights, Musk says, SpaceX will be ready to begin flying cargo to the space station next year. If NASA awards SpaceX a contract, Musk says they can begin ferrying astronauts to the space station within three years. He says his company is profitable, but his motivations go beyond dollars.
"We want to see a future where we are exploring the stars, where we're going to other planets, where we're doing the great things that we read about in science fiction and in the movies," Musk said.
VJrEiMKKjWY
Cape Canaveral, Florida (CNN) -- The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday in its first launch test.
An earlier attempt to launch Friday was aborted seconds before ignition.
Paid for by the money and dreams of a millionaire, the rocket serves as a symbol of the future and could carry astronauts and cargo to the international space station.
This commercial venture by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, carries a mockup of its space capsule, called Dragon.
PayPal co-founder Elon Musk is the CEO of the company. NASA hopes companies such as SpaceX can take over transportation to the international space station.
"It's time for NASA to hand that over to commercial industry who can then optimize the technology and make it more reliable, make it much lower cost and make it much more routine," Musk said last month.
Musk says he believes the U.S. is at the beginning of a profound, fundamental renaissance in space exploration, perhaps greater than when President Kennedy declared that the U.S. was going to the moon during the infancy of the space program.
"If the country executes and the administration and Congress execute in that direction, the impact of these changes will be on par, perhaps even greater, than ... the task that Kennedy put us on to," he said.
This push toward the privatization of space is part of President Obama's blueprint to allow NASA to do bigger and better things with its budget, such as a mission to Mars.
NASA has been flying shuttles in low-Earth orbit and going to and from the space station for 30 years now. The administration would like to see whether private companies can do it cheaper and more efficiently, as the shuttle program is about to fly into retirement.
NASA selected SpaceX and another company, Orbital Sciences, to each develop an orbital vehicle because the U.S. will not have its own way to get to the space station. The U.S. will be renting space from the Russians aboard their Soyuz spacecraft.
"They're standing on NASA's shoulders, so they're designing rockets based on the experience we've had for 50 years or more, going into space," said George Musser, editor of the Scientific American.
"And any enterprise that learns from past experience will hopefully do better," he said.
But the competition is rabid. SpaceX is the first company to reach the launchpad. It has spent almost $400 million to get there.
"They probably hate each other's guts, but the competition is really good for space and for all of us," Musser said.
"Ultimately, what do we want from this? We want to get into space cheaply, so our kids and grandkids someday can go into space and explore the planets," he said.
But SpaceX acknowledges that there will be failures, as there have been since the the beginning of aviation.
Ken Bowersox is a vice president for SpaceX. In his previous life, he flew five space shuttle missions as a commander and pilot. He also lived on the space station for more than five months as its commander.
"Either way, we're going to learn something," he said. "If we have a problem, we can move forward accepting a higher level of risk. That's how we can be more cost-effective."
But NASA Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach says this is a very complicated business. "It's a lot harder to fly rockets then anybody thinks it is," he said.
Leinbach says that every aerospace company and organization has had problems with new rockets, including the shuttle program.
"You run into problems in developing and testing and flying these things you just don't anticipate. I expect that same thing will happen with the commercial providers," said Leinbach.
Friday's test flight was to last about eight to 10 minutes and is scheduled to deploy the mock Dragon capsule into a 155-mile orbit. It would orbit for about a year and burn up in the atmosphere.
If all goes as planned after a series of test flights, Musk says, SpaceX will be ready to begin flying cargo to the space station next year. If NASA awards SpaceX a contract, Musk says they can begin ferrying astronauts to the space station within three years. He says his company is profitable, but his motivations go beyond dollars.
"We want to see a future where we are exploring the stars, where we're going to other planets, where we're doing the great things that we read about in science fiction and in the movies," Musk said.