Science Bulletins: SpaceX Dragon Succeeds in Historic Mission

SpaceX achieved a milestone in space travel last month, becoming the first private company in the United States to successfully launch a cargo capsule, attach it to the International Space Station, and safely return it to Earth. Their Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft were developed with NASA engineers to supply the ISS following the termination of NASA's space shuttle program. Dragon is designed to carry both cargo and astronauts, and future missions may include in-space technology demonstrations, instruments tests, and experiments.

This latest Astro Bulletin from the American Museum of Natural History's Science Bulletins program is on display in the Hall of the Universe until July 11, 2012.

Science Bulletins is a production of the National Center for Science Literacy, Education, and Technology (NCSLET), part of the Department of Education at the American Museum of Natural History. Find out more about Science Bulletins at http://www.amnh.org/sciencebulletins/.

Related Links

SpaceX Dragon Overview
http://www.spacex.com/dragon.php

SpaceX Falcon 9
http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php

NASA: Commercial Space Exploration
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/comme...

Astronaut Joe Acaba: Dragon Arrives
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/acaba/p...

International Space Station: Dragon on Board
http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEM53OZWD2H_...

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Shaunt1]

This is incredible! Maybe they'll go to the moon next.

[SolX2Mars]

Google "NASA Red Dragon" and "Solar System Express"

[docmordrid]

SpaceX is moving fast. The Mars launcher family is expected to be announced next year, Falcon Heavy #1 goes to Vandenberg around the first of the year, NASA Ames and other centers are working with SpaceX on Dragon unmanned science missions to Mars under the names Red Dragon and Ice Dragon using Falcon Heavy, and the next-gen Falcon 9 (v. 1.1 - 69.2 meters / 227 feet tall) is just 3 flights from now - probably Q1 2013 - from Vandenberg AFB. From then on all F9's will be the v. 1.1.

[Noah Saber-Freedman]

soon, soon. things are in motion.

[zhbroder]

great! how much potential is there for private missions to mars? isn't it exponentially farther/difficult/expensive?