Blog4Space: launches

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on its debut launch from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida June 4, 2010. REUTERS/Scott Audette

The SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off the coast on its debut launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida, June 4, 2010 rocket.

Credit: Reuters/Scott AudetteBy Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Wednesday, December 8, 2010 7: 22 pm EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - a private company put a spacecraft in orbit and back, he introduced safely on the Wednesday in a revolutionary test flight NASA hopes will lead to freight runs to the international space station after the space shuttles are retired next year.

-Backed NASA mission was designed to try a new system to deliver the goods and perhaps one day, the crew at the orbiting outpost. This was the first private company launched and returned a capsule of the orbit.

Falcon 9 rocket space Exploration Technologies departed at 10 h 43 pm EST. (1543 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Station, carrying first operational dragon capsule society.

After two orbits of the Earth, it is parachuted to a landing in the Pacific Ocean shortly after 2 p.m. (EST) (1900 GMT).

Two test flights are planned, though SpaceX wants to combine the pair and try to dock with the station was subsequently before his first mission of cargo delivery is scheduled for November.

Belongs and is managed by the contractor Internet Elon Musk, SpaceX is one of the two companies with a combined $ 3.5 billion in NASA contracts deliver goods to the space station when the space shuttle is retired after two or three missions

NASA invest 500 million in SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation to develop and test their spacecraft fly. Taurus 4 rocket orbital is scheduled for early next year.

In the flight test on Wednesday, the dragon capsule ran through a series pre-programmed exercises that simulate an approach and docking to the ISS.

After approximately three hours, Dragon fired four of its 18 rocket propellant to leave orbit and re-enter the atmosphere giving its heat shield training which could not be simulated on the ground.

The capsule has survived re-entry and landed about 500 miles off the coast of the Mexico. The company rents a ship from NASA to retrieve the capsule.

"There is so much are evil, and everything went right." We even did go to any system in any backup point... I'm sort of semi-shock "musk said journalists."

SpaceX has spent more than 600 million dollars developing hawks and dragons.

SPACE TAXI

The company intends to upgrade the dragon with a launch exhaust system and hope that it will serve as a taxi for astronauts and others wishing to stroll at the station and other outposts in orbit around Earth.

"Vehicle you saw today can easily carry people," said musk.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

John Raoux/AP

The SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off the coast of AF Wednesday rocket Cape Canaveral in Florida.

A company called SpaceX has provided eye Wednesday coup in the future of the US space program. Rocket company, Falcon 9, departed cap Aviation Canaveral Florida, carrying a space called Dragon capsule. After the two times the Earth orbit the capsule Dragon splashed in the Pacific Ocean.

In the future, the dragon - or something very it - is intended to transport supplies and finally astronauts to the international space station, adopting the role of NASA's space shuttle.

Once the last shuttle retired next year, NASA plans to rely on private enterprises to take cargo and finally the astronauts in space. To encourage businesses to get on board, the Agency decided to try something new: instead of the giants of the aerospace, NASA invited in smaller, entrepreneurial propose new systems companies launch.

New model of partnership

A conference press earlier this week, Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX, explained how his company was able to move discussions to launch in just four years.

"We have to cycle the mother may I with a large number of organizations", she says. "We have basically a set of performance requirements that we have struck."

Shotwell, stated that the new model of partnership also has advantages for taxpayers.

"If we saturation of this program, we have to find investment money to cover the costs - which is radically different from taxpayer financing type cost," she says.

Type cost contracts, taxpayers are on the hook of exceedances.

The Wednesday launch was the first time, a private company tried to put a space capsule orbiting and make it safely to Earth. At the pre-launch press conference, Phil McAlister NASA took care to remind reporters that the Wednesday launch was part of a test program.

"Space flight is very, very difficult", he said. "And if history is a guide, it is without a doubt will be a few anomalies while we go through the test program."

A milestone

But a beautiful sunny Wednesday morning in Florida, the countdown seemed to go swimmingly.

And then, difficulty: slightly less than three minutes before take-off, telemetry indicates a problem with a security launch system. Turns, faulty telemetry - not the security system. If the team of SpaceX launch regrouped and tried again. This time, is there no hitches.

Falcon 9 climbed through the blue sky and wispy clouds on the dashboard. As the flight progressed, the word "face" has been used much - which means that nothing happens to side of what is expected. After nine minutes, the second engine status closed.

On this flight, the dragon capsule had no cargo - just navigation systems and maneuvers that he will be in the future. Three and a half hours after takeoff, dragon capsule landed safely in the Pacific Ocean.

Administrator of NASA Charles Bolden said Wednesday launch was a milestone in the history of spaceflight.

"Not because it is something that we have not done before," said Bolden. "" "" "But it represents the entry of commercial entities of non-governmental entities, access to space".

And for the moment, this is the direction that the US space program will.

With the shuttle program ending this year, Obama administration wants the private sector to take in charge the transport to the international space station. This controversial decision drew criticism from several icons space, including Neil Armstrong. SpaceX, a private company has a contract with NASA for its Falcon 9 rocket allows transporting cargo to the station. If the test Falcon 9 launch is a success, it could facilitate doubts as to the resumption of private flights. Here, a look at some of the structural differences between the shuttle NASA and new the SpaceX Falcon 9.