SpaceX to Launch 1st Private Capsule to Space Station This Week
Monday, May 14, 2012 at 7:24PM
 |
| The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the first Dragon spacecraft bound for the International Space Station is seen resting atop SpaceX’s launch site in Cape Canaveral, Fla. CREDIT: SpaceX |
The private spaceflight company SpaceX is preparing to launch a robotic capsule to the International Space Station this week, following a series of delays that postponed the historic first flight of a commercial spacecraft to the orbiting outpost.
SpaceX is slated to launch its Dragon capsule to the space station atop the company's own Falcon 9 rocket on May 19 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is set for 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT).
The test flight was originally scheduled to occur on April 30, but has been delayed several times to complete final checks of the spacecraft's flight software.
The Dragon launch will now occur shortly after three new crewmembers arrive at the orbiting complex. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft, carrying NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, is slated to blast off from Kazakhstan tonight (May 14), and will arrive at the station on May 17.
Full Story: http://www.space.com/15671-spacex-capsule-space-station-launch.html
Reader Comments