Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has passed system requirements review for its Falcon 9 booster and Dragon capsule cargo variant for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract. SpaceX is developing the Falcon 9 to boost a 19,100lb payload into LEO at a cost of $29-million each.The Dragon capsule is being developed for NASA as a payload delivery system and, perhaps, a human-rated capsule for commercial astronauts and space tourists to the private Bigelow Aerospace commercial space station expected to be launched by 2010.
The first two flights of the Falcon 9 booster are expected in the first six months of 2008 on non-NASA COTS flights booked prior to the contract award to service the orbiting international space station. The initial launches are slated for the Kwajalein Atoll spaceport in the Pacific Ocean.
The first two flights of the Falcon 9 booster are expected in the first six months of 2008 on non-NASA COTS flights booked prior to the contract award to service the orbiting international space station. The initial launches are slated for the Kwajalein Atoll spaceport in the Pacific Ocean.
1 comment:
I wish Elon Musk and SpaceX all the best, but I can't shake the feeling that they severely underestimated the complexities of space flight.
Now they're planning the first Falcon 9 launch to happen within 18 months, but don't even have one successful flight with the single-engine Falcon 1.
And it's not like you can just strap 9 engines together and hope all works well - there are all kinds of vibration problems and additional failure modes they will have to test.
Count me as a skeptic ... but it's not as simple as: Let a private company do it and everything will work fast, cheap and reliably right away.
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