Congratulations to SpaceX for the successful COTS demonstration launch today! HELL YEAH!
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| Falcon 9 looking sexy on the pad |
Today's launch of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with the Dragon crew/cargo capsule appears to be a huge success. Launch went well, first stage / second stage separation went well, and the Dragon capsule confirmed separation and powered on it's propulsion systems successfully in orbit.
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| Today's Falcon 9 launch at Kennedy Space Center, FL |
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| Second stage kicking ass |
Damn fine job. I watched the webcast with great anticipation, as this test had a lot on the line for the US, SpaceX, NASA, and human spaceflight in general. Very happy to see that it went smoothly. These screenshots are from that webcast. (
www.spacex.com/webcast.php)
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| Dragon capsule separates and starts to kick ass on its own |
All that is left now are a few orbits around the earth, re-entry (not trivial), and recovery (and inspection).
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| Dragon capsule can carry cargo and crew to LEO |
Will be looking forward to additional updates on their COTS demonstration mission as it becomes available. I might post more, as information and images trickle in from various sources.
wow nice! grats to them
ReplyDeleteBig milestone.
ReplyDeleteEvery time a rocket like that launches into space we get closer to Star trek capability ships :)
ReplyDeleteThat is cool news.
ReplyDeleteso this is a new model from the US?
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome :D
ReplyDelete@smatchimo, yes this is a new model from a commercial US company. the launch vehicle / rocket (falcon 9) and the capsule (dragon) are both new.
ReplyDelete