Video: NASA Shows Affection For Dragons In Space

Posted by darnell on Sep 3, 2007 in Blog, NASA, Space Industry, Space Stations | 0 comments

(Image: Engineering Model of Dragon in SpaceX’s El Segundo facilities. Credit: C. Thompson / SpaceX)

(Hat Tip: Spaceports)

It looks as if SpaceX, a company whose mission is to revolutionize the rocket industry has cleared its first hurdle in becoming NASA’s “transport taxi” to the International Space Station (or ISS).

(SpaceX Press Release) SpaceX has successfully completed the first of three phases of review required by NASA’s Safety Review Panel (SRP) to send its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). Over a series of meetings spanning four days at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the team of SpaceX engineers developing the Dragon spacecraft presented their Phase I plans for sending the cargo version of Dragon to the $100 billion dollar orbiting space laboratory. [...]

“To date, no other group has passed the Hazard of Collision report the first time through or completed the overall review in such a short time,” said Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX. “The fact that we passed in under a week speaks well of our team’s capabilities.”

As part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition, SpaceX intends to demonstrate its launch, maneuvering and docking abilities by 2009 – a year before NASA has scheduled the conclusion of Space Shuttle operations.

With NASA seeking to retire its space shuttle by 2010, the space agency will need a way to temporarily transport goods to the ISS.

With a few members of Congress uneasy about outsourcing that job to foreigners (such as Russia or China), SpaceX could enable America to not only end its shuttle program, but allow the US to save face internationally by using an American company.

(Video: Simulation of SpaceX’s Dragon approaching and docking with ISS. Credit: Odyssey Space Research)

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Carnival Of The Space Geeks (18th Count)

Posted by darnell on Sep 3, 2007 in Blog, Mars, Space Geeks, Space Phenomena | 0 comments

The Carnival of Space is being hosted by Ken over at Out of the Cradle, with a variety of posts ranging from Cislunar space to the far reaches of our known universe.

A few interesting posts include:

• “Shubber” (from Space Cynic) mocks comments on NASA’s attempt to reach out to pop culture.
• Stuart (from Cumbrian Sky) recommends NASA should bring along an artist to capture the essence of Martian beauty.
• Louise (from A Babe in the Universe) highlights about a hole in the universe that is baffling many scientists.

This week’s round will be hosted by Fraser from Universe Today, and if you would like to enter the carnival with a space related post, be sure to visit Why Homeschooling for details.

Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.

Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.