NASA and the Private Sector - Page 21

SpaceX engineers have cleared the company's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule for another try tomorrow to kick off NASA's first commercial flight to the International Space Station.

The engineers replaced a suspect valve in an engine that triggered a last-second launch abort Saturday and carried out a data review to make sure there were no other problems, clearing the way for a second attempt.

With forecasters predicting an 80 percent chance of good weather, the 178-foot-tall Falcon 9 is scheduled for liftoff from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 3:44:38 a.m. EDT.

On May 22 2012 18:16 Hoban wrote:
Have a cousin who works at SpaceX and he described it like "Christmas came early this year, Santa arrived on a rocket and brought a whole lot of success!" Needless to say, he was pretty excited. I think this spells really good things for the company. They are pulling of these amazing feats at such a rapid pace that we may actually see a drastic evolution in spacefaring in our lifetime. This makes me so giddy. It has always been my dream to some day travel to space. Even if it takes a lifetime of saving, some day I'll do it, and these guys are making it more and more accessible.

And I just noticed your post count is 13337 StealthBlue, does that make you super awesome?

The Dragon, now orbiting Earth, is the spacecraft that SpaceX will attempt to dock with the International Space Station later this week, on Friday, pending tests that will determine whether its sensors, controls and other equipment necessary to complete the historic docking procedure are in working order.

If this is completed, SpaceX will be allowed to dock with the station, becoming the first-ever nongovernmental entity to do so and the fifth ever, outside the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Union.

Then, on Saturday, astronauts currently aboard the space station will enter the attached Dragon capsule and transfer some 1,014 pounds of non-critical supplies, including food, water and clothing, from the Dragon to their orbital home. They’ll replace that cargo with another 1,367 pounds of discarded equipment and garbage and when the Dragon decouples from the station after about two weeks, it will take the new cargo back with it on its re-entry to Earth. The Dragon is supposed to plunge into the Pacific Ocean and be retrieved and re-used, becoming the first of a new class of reusable commercial cargo supply vessels made by SpaceX and other companies.

However, as both NASA and SpaceX officials cautioned, the docking is actually the most challenging part of the mission.

“There are still lots of activities that will occur over the next few days that will stretch the SpaceX team and even stretch the NASA team,” said William “Bill” Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator of human exploration operations, in the press conference held at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida following SpaceX’s launch on Tuesday.

On May 24 2012 10:24 LarJarsE wrote:
nasa cant compete. these private COs are getting more funds. I am all for private companys in exploring outer space