Posted on 04/23/2012 12:35:29 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Pending the completion of last-minute work and a final review, a commercial cargo ship making its maiden voyage to the International Space Station should be ready for launch April 30, officials said Monday. The long-awaited test flight is intended to clear the way for routine resupply missions starting later this year.
Launch from complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is targeted for 12:22:26 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) on April 30, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. If the weather or technical problems force a delay, SpaceX can make another attempt May 3. After that, other missions -- a U.S. military launch May 5 and then a Russian Soyuz mission nine days later to ferry three fresh crew members to the space station -- likely would take precedence.
Whenever it flies, the SpaceX flight plan calls for the Dragon capsule to first fly a complex loop around the station to demonstrate that the craft's navigation and abort systems work as required.
Starting from a point 6.2 miles below and 37 miles behind the laboratory, Dragon's suite of flight computers will use data from navigation satellites to compute its position and maneuver itself to a point just 1.5 miles below and 25 miles behind the complex. A variety of tests will be performed before the Dragon drops back down to a point 6.2 miles below the station. Over the next day, the capsule will pull out in front of the station, loop up and over it and eventually return to a point 6.2 miles below and behind the laboratory.
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
Here’s that link again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX2-qEC7P_I
Colonize the moon, drop rocks on the commies.
How long until the government closes NASA facilities to private companies?
It would indeed be a huge game-changer.
Private space exploration (centered in the USA) would absolutely dominate space and rocket technology for the next 100 years.
Why? Because countries like Russia and China would only imitate, not create. NOT because they don’t have smart entrepreneurs, but rather because their Governments would simply not allow private control of such an industry. They would view it as a threat. They would adapt new technologies only after the standards were set. Look at the Internet as a good example.
They USA has waited far too long to promote private space travel. Get the monopoly of space travel out of NASA’s hands.
I don’t know what he donated to Obama but the money for Tesla and Solar City is a complete waste. Eventually Elon will figure that out but it’ll cost both him and us.
As for tax money to SpaceX, no. He’s meeting the requirements and goals that NASA has established for him to conduct safe space ops. When he does a great job he gets a check. He’s paid about $100 million of his own money to get SpaceX going. It’s going to be much cheaper for NASA to send up astronauts of theirs on SpaceX rockets than with the Russians who are charging about $50 million per astronaut to send them to the ISS.
Keep in mind that the COTS money isn’t only going to SpaceX but also to Orbital Sciences Corporation
The Leftist federal government of ours isn’t going to let the public go into space if they can help it. They would much rather keep us imprisoned here on Earth than let us out to explore the solar system, the galaxy and beyond.
Give it a few years.
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