SpaceX Puts America Back in the Space Business

Hey Space Placers!

Last night at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 8:35 p.m. EDT, SpaceX launched their first official cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). This is a huge accomplishment as it marks the return of American built and American launched space access for ISS.

When the last space shuttle mission flew America had no longer had capability to resupply ISS so it fell upon Europe and Russia to do so. With the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon capsule carrying over 1,000 pounds of supplies safely in orbit it will be Wednesday until they dock with ISS.

The 6 astronauts on board ISS will unload the supplies and put 2,000 pounds of used equipment and experiments in the Dragon capsule for return to Earth in about three weeks.

I can't emphasize how critical this return to capability is for NASA and America's space program. We now can commercially access space with our own resources. We still have to rely on Russia to ferry astronauts to and from ISS but that will change in the near future. The Falcon 9-Dragon system can be modified to carry astronauts instead of cargo. That step will come in the not so distant future.

NASA is already building the first space rated Orion crew capsule for launch on an unmanned mission in 2014. SpaceX will not be far behind with their man-rated Dragon capsule.

See the launch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRTYh71D9P0

Read More About SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20121007

Sky Guy in VA