Selparis

Space Exploration

Posts Tagged ‘Space Shuttle’

SpaceX’s Rendevous with the ISS

Posted on: May 16th, 2012 by partapsingh No Comments

Space X’s COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) Demo Flight 2 is scheduled for Saturday. If the demonstration completes all the objectives set forth by NASA, the Falcon-9/Dragon system will be certified for regular cargo deliveries to the International Space Station. In other words, the United States will finally have a private sector replacement for the Space Shuttle‘s cargo delivery function.

Entrance_to_SpaceX_headquarters

SpaceX HQ (Courtesy of Bruno Sanchez-Andrade Nuño)

While we’re all hopeful for success in this new phase in space exploration, I wonder why we couldn’t have had a proven system in place earlier, before the retirement of the Shuttle. Why are we still dependent on Russia to get our personnel to and from the station? It feels like we’ve set ourselves back, as if it’s 1959 again and we’re once again behind the Russians. I hope we can close the gap again quickly.

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