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The SpaceX Dragon capsule parachuted to a splash landing in the Pacific Ocean on the morning of May 31, having completed its mission of cargo delivery to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Dragon was the first privately operated craft to dock with the ISS, heralding the arrival of a newcomer to the game long dominated by national space agencies such as NASA and Russia's Roscosmos. SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., and helmed by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, is in line to make 12 cargo runs to the station in the next few years under a $1.6-billion contract with NASA.
NASA and SpaceX reported that the capsule landed near its target splashdown point, about 900 kilometers off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. The Dragon will be hauled out of the ocean by recovery boats, ferried to dry land and unloaded. It contains hardware and cargo no longer needed on the ISS, as well as science experiments that had been carried out in the station's unique microgravity environment.
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6 Comments
Add CommentAbsolutely wonderfull news, congratulations to all concerned.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShows what can be done for as little as $1.3B with a smart dude at the helm. Note the Chinese can't touch Spacex's cost per kilo to orbit.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisToo bad the stupid oil soaked SOB's in the White House can't see their way to finance a molten salt reactor startup like Flibe energy with the same amount of cash. I guess the old we develop it, hand it over to the Chinese, then buy it back from them, stupidity will have to work on that one as well. I'm surprised they haven't handed Spacex over to them as yet.
That's what we get voting in a US government run by lawyers as opposed to the Chinese one run by engineers.
Nope Obama/Chu's Big Oil bosses have them wasting $10's of billions duplicating Chinese and European efforts tweeking last centuries solar cell technology and about the same amount on fairytale carbon sequestering projects.
This is a scheme to funnel Billions of our tax dollars to billionaire and former owner of Paypal, Elon Musk:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBehind The Scheme To Privatize NASA Elon Musk, The Downey Connection & Google Owners
by Steve Zeltzer
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/04/15/18644789.php
I have to agree with Carlyle on this one...Excellent news..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree it's all thrilling and absolutely wonderful news, but to me it's deja vu all over again circa 1962. The real news behind the splashy splash-down pictures is the privatization of the space industry. It sure seems the private sector can deliver a payload just like the NASA boys did 50 years ago (is it really that long ago?), "fast and dirty," no exotic space planes needed, just a little entrepreneurship, a lot of bucks and a little Buck Rogers from a deep pocket. Who wants in on the inevitable IPO? Careful, you may well be burned like the Facebook chumps that bought into an over-subscribed offering. Just goes to show, the game is rigged; only the insiders make the big money.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCool. When can I book a ride?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this