Its Cargo Capsule Home, SpaceX Looks Ahead

[MindMover]

After a nearly flawless nine-day routine, the Dragon stuck the landing, too.

The first commercial mission to ferry supplies into space ended successfully Thursday when a cargo capsule known as the Dragon fell to earth on target in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico, NASA officials said.

Tethered to three large parachutes, the unmanned capsule, which had carried about 1,100 pounds of food, water, clothing and equipment to the International Space Station, hit the water at the relatively gentle speed of about 10 miles an hour at 8:42 a.m. local time. It came down about 560 miles west of Baja California, witnessed by technicians from the company that built and flew it, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX. They were to load the capsule aboard a barge and haul it back to Long Beach, Calif.

“This really couldn’t have gone better,” Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, said at a televised news conference from the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. “I’m overwhelmed with joy. It’s been 10 years, and to have it go so well is incredibly satisfying.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/science/space/first-spacex-dragon-cargo-flight-ends-with-a-splash.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimesscience&seid=auto

[HopeHoops]

1. ^5

[BumRushDaShow]

2. K&R

Congrats!

[backscatter712]

3. Truly awesome!

SpaceX just locked down a lucrative contract building Dragons and launching resupply flights to the ISS.

There should be a couple more Dragon flights this year, and they're also working on the Falcon Heavy.

They've also got the Grasshopper, a prototype that will help SpaceX figure out how to make the Falcon 9 first stage reusable. The ultimate plan is to launch from Cape Canaveral, then when the rocket stages, the first stage will turn itself around, use a reserve of fuel to fly itself back to the Cape, and land upright on a landing pad.