Private rocket freighter to take food to international space station
2012 05 08
- Details
CALIFORNIA's Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) plans to launch a private space freighter May 19 from Cape Canaveral to carry payloads to the International Space Station.
Plans to launch Dragon rocket in February, then at the end of April, were delayed by modifications to software. The freighter will carry 521-kilogrammes of food, other consumables and non-critical equipment.
"This is a test flight, and we may not succeed in getting all the way to the space station. I think we've got a pretty good shot, but it's important to acknowledge that a lot can go wrong," said SpaceX CEO and chief designer Elon Musk.
Mr Musk told Agence France-Presse that the repeatedly delayed launch was "exciting" but "extremely difficult" yet expressed confidence in his team.
"It's just taking longer than expected to analyse the data," Mr Musk said. "We need to make sure that the software is going to make the right commands and not endanger the space station."
This time, the gumdrop-shaped Dragon capsule will carry cargo for the space lab and will also aim to return a 660-kilogramme load to Earth.
Seven companies now share US$10 million in federal seed money through the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Flight Opportunities Programme. Most advanced, other than SpaceX, are XCOR Aerospace and Virgin Galactic chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) last August to receive two years of financing to develop cargo delivery to the edge of space, on reusable vehicles.
SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp of Dulles, Virginia, has been contracted by NASA to haul 20 tonnes of cargo to the Space Station through 2016. SpaceX will make 12 flights with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, while Orbital's Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft will undertake eight flights, reports Atlanta area Air Cargo World.
SpaceX completed its first flight in December 2010 and convinced NASA that it could combine its second and third that would include the Dragon berthing with the ISS.
The US government has decided that "routine" transport to low-Earth orbit - tasks such as supplying ISS and launching satellites - should be contracted out. This meant the costly space shuttle programme could be retired, and NASA could move on to exploration, perhaps mining, Mars and asteroids.
"This is currently a very under-served market with long lead times and no guarantee of payload recovery on conventional rockets," XCOR chief operations officer Andrew Nelson told Air Cargo World. "NASA is jump-starting a revolution in the commercial space industry."
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