First Commercial Spaceship To Launch To Space Station April 30

Looks like we are getting one step closer to having a real commercial space industry. This vehicle I assume could be used to haul astronaughts and equipment to and from the International Spacestation.



www.space.com...

The launch of the first commercially built space capsule to the International Space Station will occur at the end of April, NASA officials announced today (March 15).

They are even using their own rocket to launch it.

The Dragon capsule will launch atop SpaceX's own Falcon 9 rocket and, if successful, will be the first privately built spacecraft ever to rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station. The flight, which represents a crucial step forward for the commercial spaceflight industry, is designed to test the robotic spacecraft's ability to haul cargo to the orbiting complex.

Exciting times, refreshing post! I would give up my business to go work at one of these places. My first fantasy was to be an astronaut. Maybe before I'm too old and grey, there will be taxi services to the moon? I can dream.......

I think, I'm going to keep my feet on the ground but you boys have fun. Let me know how the trip went and take plenty of pictures.

reply to post by usmc0311


One thing that concerns me is the fact that their are NINE engines in the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. I know that SpaceX has developed the Falcon 9 to have "engine out capability" (meaning the vehicle can withstand the failure of one of the engines in mid-flight), but that means the still need to rely on eight engines to work perfectly, every time.

I'm not saying it's "bad", I'm just saying it is a concern.

I hope their engines are mostly fool-proof and not too overly complex. Complexity can lead to problems.

reply to post by usmc0311


I wish SpaceX was public. They seem to be doing better than ORB

Originally posted by badconduct
reply to post by usmc0311

 

I wish SpaceX was public. They seem to be doing better than ORB

I think Orbital Sciences Corporation does quite well in general in launching payloads into orbit, but they do seem to be behind SpaceX in this program to provide a space station re-supply/potential crew spacecraft.

Orbital Corp. has a decent track record of satellite launches, and a nice fleet of more-or-less proven launch vehicles, like the Minotaur, Pegasus, and Taurus -- although they had some recent failures of Taurus rockets at launch, but it had a good 10-year track record prior to that.

Is it just me or does that Spaceship look like a self cleaning toilet ?


Talk about space on the cheap

Great news. Space needs to be opened for Humanity ,otherwise we will suffocate or/and strangle each other.
Private companies are a blessing since they have less beurocracy and politicians to slow them down, on the other hand it will be controlled in the end by corporations and their dubious interests (just as Earth now ).
Still,has to be done.

Originally posted by ZeroKnowledge
Great news. Space needs to be opened for Humanity ,otherwise we will suffocate or/and strangle each other.
Private companies are a blessing since they have less beurocracy and politicians to slow them down, on the other hand it will be controlled in the end by corporations and their dubious interests (just as Earth now

).
Still,has to be done.

I am 100% behind humans in space but low earth orbit is hardly opening space to Humanity. It is like standing on the beach letting the waves tickle your toes. Only big government money can fund the infrastructure to really get man out there. We need to start mining the moon and asteroids so some profit can be made while exploring the solar system. Need US Gov to fund building the road out there.

reply to post by Xeven

I am 100% behind humans in space but low earth orbit is hardly opening space to Humanity. It is like standing on the beach letting the waves tickle your toes.

Sure. But then, we disagree on this:

Only big government money can fund the infrastructure to really get man out there.

Government funds on space programs are decreasing gradually because politicians do not get noticable increase in public support by investing in the space programs as opposed in healthcare/education and do not get same political support as from investing military industry.
Thus things that could be achieved in the last century are very hard to repeat now with much less funds.
There is no space race, China is showing signs but it is not there yet.
But private firms and especially above mentioned corporations can invest huge sums of money if there is profit, since they care little about politics and do not care at all about public wishes.
Mining asteroids will not be done by governments ,and it is starting from low orbit private flights.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Te Falcon Heavy plans on using 27 engines. People say they are reliable and mass production should lower the cost of payload expectations per ton. That is certainly one way to go about it, kind of the Russian way, and the Russians never had a successful launch of their N1 30-rocket heavy lift.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


They will earn profits, by charging the ISS owners a price for deliverables. They likely have the longest private resume of launched payloads, and in fact the Falcon medium can launch near 10,000 pounds to geostationary orbit.

Originally posted by ZeroKnowledge
reply to post by Xeven

 

I am 100% behind humans in space but low earth orbit is hardly opening space to Humanity. It is like standing on the beach letting the waves tickle your toes.

Sure. But then, we disagree on this:

Only big government money can fund the infrastructure to really get man out there.

Government funds on space programs are decreasing gradually because politicians do not get noticable increase in public support by investing in the space programs as opposed in healthcare/education and do not get same political support as from investing military industry.
Thus things that could be achieved in the last century are very hard to repeat now with much less funds.
There is no space race, China is showing signs but it is not there yet.
But private firms and especially above mentioned corporations can invest huge sums of money if there is profit, since they care little about politics and do not care at all about public wishes.
Mining asteroids will not be done by governments ,and it is starting from low orbit private flights.

Sorry, I disagree with you.

The reason that government space programs are decreasing is not because of the lack of political gain, but actually because the Pentagon and DOD already have their own space planes and space born weapons platforms and etc and they don't need or even want the masses; "the local yokels" in space. Another, reason is if people actually start getting off the planet then they can also escape the every tightening grip of governments iron fists.

As, far as commercial space exploration, I don't share some of the posters enthusiasm. The fact is the most we will get out of a commercial space effort will maybe be a couple of orbital resorts and maybe eventually a resort on the moon, so the rich can pay obscene amounts of money to have a nice little vacation. Which in my opinion is useless and meaningless to humanity as a whole. Even if corporations wanted to make a full effort to move humanity into space they couldn't they just don't have the manpower, resources and ability to do it.

The fact is humanity began it's journey to it's true destiny; to become a space faring civilization in the 60s and then we just stopped and really for the past forty plus years the space program and humanity in general has been in a time warp. It's an obvious time warp, when the same plans and ideas are floated over and over and yet never become reality. A perfect example is NASA actually had plans to continue the moon missions and place a base on the moon by the seventies and have a manned mission to mars by the eighties. None of that ever manifested and now you still have presidents who occasionally float the idea, oh we should go to mars...but not now....not yet....maybe in ten years; of course when ten years comes and goes, they will just say the same thing again. At what point humanity realizes they are being kept out of space on purpose I don't not know, but I sure wish we would pull our head out of the sand.

I would also say the corporations aren't going to be any better. They may do a little here a little there, but that is it, nothing meaningful, maybe a couple of space stations and one day a colony resort for the rich, but that is it.

Anyway, you and others can get excited if you want about this news, but sorry I won't. To me it's all just a day late and dollar short and in the end will have no real baring or meaning for humanity as whole, it sure won't move humanity into the next phase of evolution for our species, to actually move off the world that spawned it and utilize the resources of our solar system and actually become not a global but a solar civilization.