Posted on 12/29/2014 4:10:39 AM PST by WhiskeyX
Today, NASA selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft to fly American astronauts to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX is deeply honored by the trust NASA has placed in us, and we welcome today’s decision and the mission it advances with gratitude and seriousness of purpose. Under the $2.6 billion contract, SpaceX will launch the Crew Dragon spacecraft atop the Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacex.com ...
It’s good to be a friend of the king.
Would you prefer that we continue to pay the Russians for rides to the ISS?
ABSOLUTELY. We should abandon that idiotic SS and start over. Thus us a vanity reward to Elon Musk.
There are now three different US spacecraft about to be in production: the Constellation capsule, the Boeing capsule and the SpaceX capsule.
So the question isn’t whether we want to keep paying the Russians. It’s how much redundancy we want. Two spacecraft types make sense: one (Constellation) optimized for long duration missions, and a cheaper space taxi to get to LEO and the ISS.
In addition to that, there’s a question of why capsules were chosen for the LEO mission. As opposed to the Dreamcatcher lifting body. Especially in a two-selectee field where one of the selectees was going to be a capsule (either Boeing or SpaceX)
Related...
SpaceX selected for launch of Qatari satellite
http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/12/29/spacex-selected-for-launch-of-qatari-satellite/
Falcon 9 Launch Manifest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_launches
Looks like they are booked up until at least 2019 to lift government and private payloads into orbit.
Next Falcon 9 launch 6JAN2015/0618 EST, 0318PST, 1118 GMT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_CRS-5
Primary payload
NASA has contracted for the CRS-5 mission from SpaceX and therefore determines the primary payload, date/time of launch, and orbital parameters for the Dragon space capsule.
The cargo for the mission includes:
Cloud Aerosol Transport System (CATS), a light detection and ranging remote sensing instrument designed to measure the location, composition and distribution of pollution, dust, smoke, aerosols and other particulates in the atmosphere. CATS is to be installed on the Kibo external facility and is expected to run for at least six months, and up to three years.
Secondary payload
SpaceX has the primary control over manifesting, scheduling and loading secondary payloads. However there are certain restrictions included in their contract with NASA that preclude specified hazards on the secondary payloads, and also require contract-specified probabilities of success and safety margins for any SpaceX reboosts of the secondary satellites once the Falcon 9 second stage has achieved its initial low-Earth orbit (LEO).
Post-launch flight test
SpaceX will attempt to return the first stage of the Falcon 9 through the atmosphere and land it on a 90-by-50-meter (300 ft × 160 ft) floating platform called the autonomous spaceport drone ship.[3] As of October 2014, the ship was being built for SpaceX in Louisiana,[7] but by mid-December, the ship was docked in Jacksonville, Florida ready to go to sea to support the test flight landing attempt.
Congratulations, SpaceX. Yes, this is a little bit fascist, but so is everything else in the military-space-industrial complex. Still, SpaceX has done tremendous work here.
I think they are going to launch a Bigalow module this year too!
Well we used to have our own launch capability and could easily restore it without reinventing the wheel through crony capitalism.
Our space program is a reflection of our current administration.
Definitely reflective of “Muslim Outreach”. Can we say crooked in all applicable languages - that is as nice as I can put it.
“We”?
Who or what do you mean by “we”?
Who or what do you believe to have built the Atlas, Delta, Titan, and Saturn rockets?
Who or what do you believe to build the current Atlas and Delta rockets?
“Well we used to have our own launch capability and could easily restore it without reinventing the wheel through crony capitalism.”
Oh so clueless...
SpaceX is absolutely killing the competition with better technology and lower cost. That is capitalism and competition in their best and purest forms.
Just wait until the reusable boosters drive prices down again. ULA and ESA can’t be happy.
So SpaceX is the equivalent?
Hardly
“Oh so clueless..”
Yes you are.
“SpaceX is absolutely killing the competition with better technology and lower cost.”
Which is why they’ve only managed low earth orbit with unmanned vehicles part of the time???
While doing it on the taxpayers dime.
“Just wait until the reusable boosters drive prices down again”
Yeah, we’ve heard that before with the SRBs.
Enlighten us, Oh Great Wise One.
How is SpaceX not equivalent?
You do know who owns them right? I mean in your worship of the company did you catch how big of an Obama supporter he is?
“Our space program is a reflection of our current administration.”
Not really. The Obama Administration has left its mark on the space program in many important ways with obstruction of prior policies and programs, but the overall strategy is a much delayed version of the fundamental approaches outlined in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Due to the physical limitations and physics involved, there is no way of avoiding a reliance upon government to fund the early technological developments required to make subsequent commercial efforts feasible and economical. Ultimately commercial space ventures must and will greatly overshadow government investments and fund them out of the taxation of commercial profits. The pattern remains in place where step by step government and commercial organizations transition from making extraordinary expeditions into space from the Earth to building relatively self-sustaining and ordinary industries, communities, and economies in space. We are just now beginning to see the technologies begin to make it feasible for privately funded ventures to enter into a competition for engaging in commercial activities in space not funded by government.
Try to refrain from bearing false witness. It just makes YOU look bad.
big of an Obama supporter
I see. It's bad for folks to support 0bama (I agree) ... but you seem to see no problems with equivalent folks supporting Kennedy and Johnson.
You’ve been insulting since your first post, and now you whine.
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