BREAKING: SpaceX rocket begins milestone mission to space station

[Amster Dan]

Source: MSNBC

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — For the first time, a private rocket launched a commercial spacecraft toward the International Space Station early Tuesday.

The Falcon 9 rocket built by California-based SpaceX blasted off at 3:44 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the company's robotic Dragon space capsule into orbit.

The unmanned spacecraft had been due to make its maiden trip to the International Space Station on Saturday, but a rocket engine glitch forced a launch abort in the last half-second. Over the weekend, SpaceX engineers discovered a faulty check valve was to blame for the abnormally high chamber pressure in the engine that caused the abort.

"Since then, they replaced that check valve with a new unit and have tested all the other engines for similar problems," Mike Horkachuck, NASA project executive for SpaceX, said Monday.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47514404/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T7tGgMVXlEM

[bananas]

1. Congratulations to Elon Musk and the SpaceX team!

[BumRushDaShow]

2. K&R & Congrats!

[tclambert]

3. And a night launch! Those are always beautiful.

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I know a young man who works for SpaceX. Congratulations to him and all involved.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Scotty and Gordon Cooper are going up.

The Falcon 9 rocket's second stage is also reportedly carrying ashes from 308 people, including actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on the 1960s television series "Star Trek," and Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper. The ashes were flown under a deal with the memorial spaceflight company Celestis.

Thanks for the thread, Amster Dan

[4th law of robotics]

5. Best of luck to them

I'm glad someone is picking up the slack now that our politicians have decided space exploration is too hard.

[Doc Holliday]

6. Not at all.....

We just can't afford it any more. All the lazy-ass welfare bums are sucking up the money that we could be using for space exploration!

They're bleeding us dry, I tell ya!

[4th law of robotics]

9. For the cost of one B-2 bomber . . .

sigh.

/cancelling manned space exploration is one of the greatest human tragedies I've ever witnessed.

[unkachuck]

7. so....

....corporations are now allowed to possess and launch ICBMs and maybe someday nuclear weapons? Corporations have gained the powers of statehood.

....will someday corporations also be allowed to have artillery, tanks and standing armies too?....it's almost like giving terrorists instructions on how to build effective IEDs....this will come home to haunt us....

[octothorpe]

8. This is really the natural progress of space missions...

It's not astronomical in costs like it was way back when only government did it. Private entities control things/systems that could be far more dangerous than these. How about we just stop them when they start trying to make it so they can have their own nuclear arsenal too. I mean, we can't have Apple nuking Google because of Android... While we're at it, we can legalize same sex marriage, but just say no if people start demanding they be able to marry their dogs.

[Posteritatis]

10. As far as absurd overreactions go, this one's pretty up there. (nt)