SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:43 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 8. This is first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station. Attribution / Credits: By NASA (NASAKennedy @ YouTube, NASA.gov) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SpaceX_Falcon_9_launch_with_COTS_Demo_Flight_1_(high_quality).ogv Used with full permission via Public Domain license. _________________________________________________________________ SpaceX (Wikipedia): Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company with its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, USA. It was founded in 2002 by former PayPal entrepreneur and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk with the goal of creating the technologies to reduce space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars. It has developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles, both of which were designed from conception to eventually become reusable, and the Dragon spacecraft which is flown into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with cargo. A manned version of Dragon is in development. SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded, liquid-propellant rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit, in 2008;[5] the first privately funded company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft (Dragon), in 2010; and the first private company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the ISS, in 2012.[6] The launch of SES-8, in 2013, was the first SpaceX delivery into geosynchronous orbit, while the launch of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), in 2015, was the company's first delivery beyond Earth orbit. NASA awarded the company a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract in 2006, to design and demonstrate a launch system to resupply cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX, as of May 2015 has flown six missions to the ISS under a cargo resupply contract.[7] NASA has also awarded SpaceX a contract to develop and demonstrate a human-rated Dragon as part of its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program to transport crew to the ISS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX Falcon 9 (Wikipedia): Falcon 9 is a family of two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicles designed and manufactured by SpaceX. The Falcon 9 versions are the Falcon 9 v1.0 (phased-out), Falcon 9 v1.1 (current version, expendable), and the Falcon 9-R (reusable launch system). Both stages of this two-stage-to-orbit vehicle are powered by rocket engines that burn liquid oxygen (LOX) and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) propellants. The current Falcon 9 (v1.1) can lift payloads of 13,150 kilograms (28,990 lb) to low Earth orbit, and 4,850 kilograms (10,690 lb) to geostationary transfer orbit. The three Falcon 9 versions are in the medium-lift range of launch systems. The Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule combination won a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract from NASA in 2008 to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station launched in October 2012. The initial version 1.0 design made a total of five flights before it was retired in 2013. SpaceX is currently flying an improved and 60 percent heavier Falcon 9 launch vehicle—the Falcon 9 v1.1—which flew for the first time on a demonstration mission on the sixth overall launch of the Falcon 9 in September 2013.[9] The Falcon 9 v1.1 will be the base for the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. Falcon 9 will also be human-rated for transporting NASA astronauts to the ISS as part of a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9

• published: 06 Nov 2015
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