SpaceX and NASA just made a formal announcement that Elon Musk’s first company is scheduled to launch their first commercial resupply mission on October 7th. It will be deployed to the International Space Station.
Back in May, SpaceX Dragon did a demo flight of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation System, which included a non-essential cargo mission. Elton Musk sent a video over the weekend that showed the first and shortest flight of the company’s vertical take-off and landing system that is planned to be used for future rockets.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is set to launch again from Cape Canaveral, and it will carry 1,000 pounds of supplies, which includes materials for about 63 new scientific investigations. The Commercial Resupply Service flight is called CRS-1. It includes the flight of over 500 pounds of station hardware and 700 pounds of science materials. The Dragon should return in late October, when it will splash down off the coast of California.
Since the retirement of space shuttle orbiters, the Dragon is now the only vehicle that is capable of bringing back large quantities of cargo.
It’s reported that Space X Dragon will make twelve missions to the ISS. The Orbital Sciences Corporation was also under the same program to fly cargo.
Space X will eventually build rockets that are able to land with precision back on solid ground. The Dragon is predicted to make solid landings on Earth and Mars.
Modern spacecraft technology is pretty exciting. It’s good to know just how far we have come, and how we’ve succeeded in space technology. What’s exciting about all of this, is that who knows where we will be six months to a decade from now. All of this money and time spent on these missions are sure to bring back some exciting finds, which will eventually bring us to more knowledge of space.
