NASA hails SpaceX launch as 'a new era' for spaceflight. In a pivotal moment for personal spaceflight, a towering white rocket lifted a cone-shaped capsule into area early Tuesday on a mission to the International area Station.
SpaceX's Falcon nine rocket carried the unmanned Dragon capsule into area once a 3:44 a.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking the primary time a personal company has sent a areacraft to the space station.
The mission is taken into account the primary take a look at of NASA's commit to outsource area missions to privately funded firms currently that its fleet of area shuttles is retired. SpaceX aims to persuade NASA that its Falcon nine rocket and Dragon capsule are able to strive against the task of hauling cargo -- and eventually astronauts -- for the area agency.
INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC: SpaceX's demonstration mission
"Today marks the start of a brand new era in exploration; a personal company has launched a spacecraft to the International area Station that may commit to dock there for the primary time," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in an exceedingly speech at the cape. "And whereas there's lots of labor ahead to successfully complete this mission, we tend to are definitely off to smart begin."
In a separate news conference, Elon Musk, SpaceX's 40-year-old billionaire founder and chief govt, spoke at company headquarters in Hawthorne. it had been there that SpaceX staff had gathered, watched and cheered because the Falcon nine climbed toward the heavens.
"There's most hope riding on that rocket," he said. "When it worked ... and that they saw their handiwork in area and operating because it ought to, there was tremendous elation. For us, it's like winning the Super Bowl."
But the launch is simply the start, and also the toughest tasks within the mission lie ahead.
The Dragon capsule can rendezvous with the area station because it circles the world at concerning one,700 mph. Once the Dragon catches up to the station, it should complete a series of difficult tests to see if it's able to dock.
If all goes well, the crew aboard the station can snag the spacecraft with a robotic arm and lead it in. SpaceX hopes to dock the Dragon, that is meant to hold up to seven astronauts, as early as Friday.
After years of testing, NASA is hoping to show the duty of carrying cargo and crews over to non-public business at a lower value. Meanwhile, the agency can specialize in deep-space missions to land probes on asteroids and Mars.
The agency has poured nearly $400 million in seed cash into SpaceX in hopes that the corporate will at some point complete routine missions to the area station. NASA is distributing $63 million to the Russians on every occasion it desires to send an astronaut to the station.
SpaceX, formally referred to as area Exploration Technologies Corp., is one in all the leading contenders to hold astronauts for NASA at some point. Company officers say cargo missions can yield valuable flight expertise toward accomplishing this goal by 2015.
Still, the corporate has experienced repeated delays over the years. for example, SpaceX planned to launch this mission Saturday. The countdown was flawless till the last second, when the rocket engines briefly lit up and then went dark.
SpaceX said a flight laptop detected an anomaly in one in all the rocket's 9 engines and automatically stop working the launch sequence. Later that day, company engineers traced the matter to a faulty valve, and technicians fastened it among hours.
That created Tuesday's launch all that a lot of exciting for Musk, who said that when he saw the Falcon nine finally carry off, "every little bit of adrenaline in my body released at that time."
Founded in 2002, SpaceX makes the Dragon and Falcon nine at a sprawling facility in Hawthorne that when was used to assemble fuselage sections for Boeing 747s. The hardware is placed on an enormous rig and trucked to Cape Canaveral for launches.
The company, with concerning one,800 staff, has a $1.6-billion contract to haul cargo in twelve flights to the area station for NASA. If this mission is successful, SpaceX launch can begin fulfilling the contract later this year.
SpaceX has currently had 3 successful launches of the Falcon nine.
With Tuesday's successful SpaceX launch, the reusable Dragon became the primary U.S.-made areacraft to go to the area station since the space shuttle started flying quite thirty years ago.
"We're at the dawn of a brand new era in area exploration," Musk said. "There are not any precedents for what we're doing here."
Source : www.latimes.com/
SpaceX's Falcon nine rocket carried the unmanned Dragon capsule into area once a 3:44 a.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking the primary time a personal company has sent a areacraft to the space station.
The mission is taken into account the primary take a look at of NASA's commit to outsource area missions to privately funded firms currently that its fleet of area shuttles is retired. SpaceX aims to persuade NASA that its Falcon nine rocket and Dragon capsule are able to strive against the task of hauling cargo -- and eventually astronauts -- for the area agency.
INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC: SpaceX's demonstration mission
"Today marks the start of a brand new era in exploration; a personal company has launched a spacecraft to the International area Station that may commit to dock there for the primary time," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in an exceedingly speech at the cape. "And whereas there's lots of labor ahead to successfully complete this mission, we tend to are definitely off to smart begin."
In a separate news conference, Elon Musk, SpaceX's 40-year-old billionaire founder and chief govt, spoke at company headquarters in Hawthorne. it had been there that SpaceX staff had gathered, watched and cheered because the Falcon nine climbed toward the heavens.
"There's most hope riding on that rocket," he said. "When it worked ... and that they saw their handiwork in area and operating because it ought to, there was tremendous elation. For us, it's like winning the Super Bowl."
But the launch is simply the start, and also the toughest tasks within the mission lie ahead.
The Dragon capsule can rendezvous with the area station because it circles the world at concerning one,700 mph. Once the Dragon catches up to the station, it should complete a series of difficult tests to see if it's able to dock.
If all goes well, the crew aboard the station can snag the spacecraft with a robotic arm and lead it in. SpaceX hopes to dock the Dragon, that is meant to hold up to seven astronauts, as early as Friday.
After years of testing, NASA is hoping to show the duty of carrying cargo and crews over to non-public business at a lower value. Meanwhile, the agency can specialize in deep-space missions to land probes on asteroids and Mars.
The agency has poured nearly $400 million in seed cash into SpaceX in hopes that the corporate will at some point complete routine missions to the area station. NASA is distributing $63 million to the Russians on every occasion it desires to send an astronaut to the station.
SpaceX, formally referred to as area Exploration Technologies Corp., is one in all the leading contenders to hold astronauts for NASA at some point. Company officers say cargo missions can yield valuable flight expertise toward accomplishing this goal by 2015.
Still, the corporate has experienced repeated delays over the years. for example, SpaceX planned to launch this mission Saturday. The countdown was flawless till the last second, when the rocket engines briefly lit up and then went dark.
SpaceX said a flight laptop detected an anomaly in one in all the rocket's 9 engines and automatically stop working the launch sequence. Later that day, company engineers traced the matter to a faulty valve, and technicians fastened it among hours.
That created Tuesday's launch all that a lot of exciting for Musk, who said that when he saw the Falcon nine finally carry off, "every little bit of adrenaline in my body released at that time."
Founded in 2002, SpaceX makes the Dragon and Falcon nine at a sprawling facility in Hawthorne that when was used to assemble fuselage sections for Boeing 747s. The hardware is placed on an enormous rig and trucked to Cape Canaveral for launches.
The company, with concerning one,800 staff, has a $1.6-billion contract to haul cargo in twelve flights to the area station for NASA. If this mission is successful, SpaceX launch can begin fulfilling the contract later this year.
SpaceX has currently had 3 successful launches of the Falcon nine.
With Tuesday's successful SpaceX launch, the reusable Dragon became the primary U.S.-made areacraft to go to the area station since the space shuttle started flying quite thirty years ago.
"We're at the dawn of a brand new era in area exploration," Musk said. "There are not any precedents for what we're doing here."
Source : www.latimes.com/
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