The Good and the Not so Good

The Good:

In my May 28, 2012 post, I wrote about SpaceX’s successful launch of a cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS). It was the first time a ship owned by a private citizen had visited the ISS, and now they may have an opportunity to expand into the manned space shuttle business.

On August 3, 2012, NASA announced three companies had been contracted to design and develop the next generation of crewed spacecraft under the umbrella of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. NASA’s press release states the CCiCap’s objective is to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability. Their goal is to achieve safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and low Earth orbit. The idea is that the technology, once developed, would be available to the government and private sector.

The three companies are:

• Sierra Nevada Corporation, Louisville, Colo., $212.5 million
• Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Hawthorne, Calif., $440 million
• The Boeing Company, Houston, $460 million

According to NASA, these commercial partnerships have the potential to set the agency on a course to provide new transportation into space for its astronauts, while expanding human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enabling new missions of exploration across the solar system.

The Not so Good:

NASA is working on an in-house project called Morpheus, a vertical test bed demonstrating new green propellant propulsion systems and autonomous landing and hazard detection technology. It is a full spacecraft that will be capable of carrying 1100 pounds of cargo to the moon.

On Friday, August 3, 2012, NASA completed a successful tethered test flight at Kennedy Space Center.



It went so well that NASA decided to attempt a free flight with a Morpheus prototype on Thursday, August 9th. Unfortunately, the craft crashed about fifty feet from the launch site.



NASA says no one was injured, no property was damaged (besides the vehicle), and they have been able to recover significant data that will give them greater insight into the source of the problem.

I think both these events are of equal importance. I hope NASA doesn’t give up on Morpheus. This was a setback but no one was injured and to me, the fact that they are creating a homegrown spacecraft is huge. Also, since NASA has awarded some developmental contracts I have hope that the United States space effort is not dead.

Does anyone else think both these events are of equal importance?

SpaceX – A New Era in Space Travel

There are a number of nations (e.g., the United States, Russia, China, India and Japan) that have satellites in orbit. Only a few nations have demonstrated the ability to launch spacecraft (Russia, the United States, the European Union, China, Japan, and India).

One sovereign nation, North Korea, has made three failed attempts (2006, 2009 and most recently April, 13, 2012) to launch weather satellites. The suspicion is that these launch attempts are thinly veiled tests of a ballistic missile delivery system.



Courtesy Google Images

Therefore, when SpaceX sent a cargo capsule, the Dragon, that docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, May 25, 2012, they accomplished something that no other private citizen had—build a spacecraft that docked with the ISS. I think it’s remarkable that they achieved this feat in just ten years.

There are other competitors in the commercial space realm. According to the Washington Post there are five other company’s which may be close to following SpaceX into orbit.


· Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Virginia
· Alliant Techsystems, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia
· Boeing Co. of Chicago, Illinois
· The Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nevada
· Blue Origin of Kent, Washington

SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk, the creator of PayPal, in 2002. SpaceX’s COTS 2 Mission Press Kit states that Musk’s vision was to eventually make it possible for people to live on other planets.

What do you think? Is this the first step toward commercialization of space?

Photos: http://spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com/

Videos: http://vimeo.com/spacexlaunch