Posted on 05/14/2012 4:43:38 PM PDT by KevinDavis
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has announced a modification of its NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., to add an additional configuration of the Falcon 9 rocket to its fleet. The SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 launch service will be available to the agency's Launch Services Program to use for future missions in accordance with the on-ramp provision of NLS II.
(Excerpt) Read more at nasa.gov ...
bump
Always interesting to see them moving forward on this thing.
So am I, as long as it is a breakthrough in cost. I'm not convinced it is.
It's one thing to have Washington as the customer. They've purchased Atlas rockets for years. The French sell their Ariane.
I thought the Falcon was some kind of breakthrough in ratio of payload to LEO in terms of total vehicle size/weight.
Pardon my skepticism, but with our shuttles all retired from service and NASA itself downgraded to a feelgood warm and fuzzy for muslims, just exactly what might they even have TO launch on one of these or any other rockets?
Upcoming launches:
14May2012/2001 PDT Soyuz/ISS 30S
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp31/status.html
15May2012/1513 PDT Ariane 5/JCSAT 13 and VinaSat 2
http://www.arianespace.tv/
17May2012/0939 PDT H-2A/GCOM W1(Shizuku) and KOMPSAT 3
http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f21/index_e.html
17May2012/1212 PDT Proton/Nimiq 6
http://www.ilslaunch.com/
19May2012/0155 PDT Falcon 9/Dragon C2+
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/status.html
The Dragon capsule also being developed for NASA by Space-X.
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