SpaceX Launch Indicators New Period In Spaceflight

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From NPR News, that is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I’m Audie Cornish.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: T-minus 10, 9, eight, seven, six…

CORNISH: And as we speak marked the beginning of what could possibly be a historic area mission. A rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, however it wasn’t carrying a NASA spacecraft.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: …three, two, one, zero. And launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as NASA turns to the personal sector to resupply the worldwide area station.

CORNISH: SpaceX is a small American firm, and it simply despatched up an unmanned capsule known as Dragon that is filled with cargo for the station. As NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce stories, if Dragon can handle to dock there later this week, SpaceX may have achieved one thing that is solely been executed by a couple of huge authorities area businesses.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: As the Dragon capsule blasted off earlier than daybreak, the flames from its Falcon 9 rocket appeared like a vivid, shining star transferring up by the pitch black sky. Less than 10 minutes later…

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Falcon 9 and Dragon are in orbit.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Dragon (unintelligible) separation (unintelligible).

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The capsule separated from its rocket. SpaceX launch controllers clapped and hugged. The firm was based a decade in the past by Elon Musk, who made a fortune with the Internet agency PayPal. Musk spoke to reporters by a video hyperlink from SpaceX headquarters in California. Someone requested how he’d felt because the rocket left the bottom.

ELON MUSK: Every little bit of adrenaline in my physique launched at that time. It’s so – it is an especially intense second.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Musk desires to rework area flight by making it far cheaper. And NASA desires personal automobiles like Dragon to take over routine runs to the area station now that the company has retired its area shuttles. NASA has a cargo supply contract with SpaceX and labored intently with the corporate to make this mission occur.

CHARLES BOLDEN: What a spectacular begin. I imply, it was simply picture-perfect – a picture-perfect launch. Everything on the automobile’s working properly.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: NASA administrator Charles Bolden stood subsequent to the massive countdown clock at Kennedy Space Center the place folks had gathered to observe the launch. He says this reveals that the United States remains to be within the area recreation.

BOLDEN: You know, there have been individuals who thought that we had gone away. And as we speak says, no, we’re not gone away in any respect. We’ve acquired the Dragon, the SpaceX NASA staff that got here by this morning with flying colours, and I hope all people celebrates that for what it’s.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: In a couple of years, personal area taxis may carry astronauts. But this time, Dragon is simply full of provides like meals, garments and a laptop computer laptop. And it could actually’t simply casually fly as much as the station. NASA wants to ensure there isn’t any probability of a collision, so floor controllers at SpaceX should put Dragon by its paces, flying it beneath and across the station from a protected distance to indicate it is totally beneath management.

Only then will NASA let it enter the maintain out sphere, an imaginary circle across the outpost. Once it comes shut sufficient, the astronauts who dwell there’ll use a robotic arm to seize Dragon and fix it to the station. That may occur on Friday, or possibly under no circumstances. Jeff Greason co-founded one other industrial area flight firm, XCOR Aerospace. He says the objectives of this mission are very bold.

JEFF GREASON: SpaceX is trying to mix the aims of a number of totally different check missions into one mission. And in the event that they pull it off, in fact, that is fabulous.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: But he says even when they solely get midway there, this mission will nonetheless be one for the books. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News. Transcript offered by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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