YouTube - SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 2 Launch Webcast


SpaceX Launches, Recovers Successfully


The age of truly private access to space arrived Wednesday as SpaceX's Dragon capsule was launched from Cape Canaveral, orbited twice and splashed down on target in the Pacific west of Mexico. After many delays, the California company's Falcon booster appeared to perform flawlessly in a many-billion-dollars gambit that is predicted to lead to the routine commercialization of space launches. "It's just mind-blowingly awesome. I apologize, and I wish I was more articulate, but it's hard to be articulate when your mind's blown - but in a very good way," said an apparently pleased SpaceX CEO Elon Musk after the capsule, which eventually may carry up to 20,000 pounds of astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station settled comfortably into the Pacific under three parachutes.

The money involved is considerable but in this case much of the risk is borne by Musk and others with similar dreams, NASA is funding commercial space initiatives based on achievment and by the time the candle was lit on Wednesday, SpaceX had achieved 17 of them, entitling it to $253 million in funding. Musk says they'd spent more than $600 million to that point. It's not clear what getting 158 miles high, circling the Earth twice and splashing down less than a half mile from the target will get them. It's worth noting that while nuclear-powered aircraft carriers have been dispatched to recover space capsules in the past, an inflatable boat with an outboard motor accomplished the task this time.

 

Cool stuff - I wonder how long before the future as predicted by "Alien", etc. (commercialized space) will be reality...

 

I love evrything that has to do with space but the day I will be truely excited is the day we figure out a type of fuel that will help us merely "fly" into space. A reusable aircraft that will have the ability to shuttle people to and from space that will be launched with it's own power

To be honest, I feel we could have gotten there by now if that pesky cold war was still going on. I mean, the SR71 is 40 year old technology, we would have had to develope something to get us even higher

waiting and hoping to see this accomplished in my lifetime

 

Call me crazy but I think we will see it in my kids lifetimes, and only because of commercial/private industry's involvement. I've long said NASA (well, the government) should stick to research and get out of the manned space flight business.

 

I love reading/watching stuff like this. It's epic and makes our rediculous conflicts as human beings seem pathetic.

 

Nice! Did anyone hear about the "secret payload" they brought along on the flight?

It was a wheel of cheese, supposedly to pay homage to a skit in Monty Python's Flying Circus.

 

More like pay "fromage"...