Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal (top picture) is at last seeing the benefits of his investment in SpaceX, the space technology company he formed in 2002. After early failures - par for the course in the complex and high-risk space business - SpaceX successfully launched a second Falcon 1 rocket on July 13, hauling Malaysia’s RazakSAT Earth survey satellite safely into space.
The video (middle) shows the launch, from countdown to orbit. It’s fascinating to watch, with many items to spot, such as passing through the clouds after launch, the stage separation, glowing rocket nozzle and much else.
The next big milestone for SpaceX will be a successful flight for the Falcon 9 rocket later this year. This is the SpaceX heavy-lifter, designed to tote the company’s reusable Dragon cargo capsule into orbit. SpaceX already has NASA contracts for 12 missions, as far out as 2015. They will resupply the International Space Station (ISS), taking the job on after the Space Shuttle stops flying.
Following the Dragon cargo capsule will be the Dragon seven-seater crewed spacecraft (bottom). And this item is really interesting - if all goes according to plan, Dragon will form a private spaceflight answer to the ‘big government’ approach to new human space projects. Whether Dragon and Falcon 9 will compete with NASA’s troubled Constellation program, with its Aries boosters, Orion capsule and Altair lunar lander, is anyone’s guess at the moment - a big review of the scheme is underway right now.
Thanks to ‘hantonr’ for the video.
Visit SpaceX here.
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