SpaceX launch video

[LunaSea]

http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2008/09/spacex_update_2.html

[Greyskye]

1. Congrats to the SpaceX team

That was a smooth launch! :thumbsup:

[Duppers]

2. wow

Good for them! Give NASA a little competition.

[Johonny]

3. ?

The US air force launches most of the launch vehicles for the nation. NASA's been launching the same crappy shuttle for nearly 30 years now. Space X is competing against ULA, sea launch and the Russians not NASA.

[Duppers]

4. "the same crappy shuttle" uh? A defense of NASA...

Yes indeed, the USAF does launch most of the launch vehicles for the nation, I should have said "they give NASA a little MORE competition" but....

besides Russia, NASA is the only other which the launches the big cargo bay vehicles capable of supplying the space station.

They're the only ones launching passed the immediate planetary environment, the only one now capable of fixing the Hubble, etc., etc.

It is inevitable that enterprises (pun) such as Space X, ULA (which now launches LEO for NASA), and Sea Launch will eventually compete in those areas. Hence, my label 'competition.'

NASA has been described by antagonists as being 'an engineering jobs program.' I take great exception to that, but applaud any one challenging them to do better. The main problem with NASA today is that it's over burden with upper management restrictions.

NASA does a GREAT deal more than just launch "the same crappy shuttle." They, more than an other entity, do research to keep our aging aircraft from falling out of the sky! People should think about that the next time they board a plane.

NASA employs 25,000 civil servants. Considering what they contributed to this country, they're a goddamn bargain.

[Johonny]

6. I have no clue what you are talking about

Anyways for some prospective
Space Shuttle to space station orbit 18,300 Kg
Delta IV H to space station orbit 21,892 Kg
Atlas V to space station orbit 17,590 Kg
Ariane 5 to space station orbit 20,000 Kg
Soyuz FG to space station orbit 7420 kg

Falcon 1 to space station orbit 583 Kg
Falcon V to space station orbit 4284 Kg

[Duppers]

7. "NASA currently depends on the space shuttle and Russian Progress spacecraft ..."

YOU'RE RIGHT, I should not have used the word "CABABLE'.
I don't understand why NASA doesn't pay them to supply the Space Station then.

Popular statements in the press. See below.

Orbital Wins $171 Million Space Station Re-Supply Demo Deal
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
19 February 2008

WASHINGTON — Orbital Sciences Corp. beat out several other finalists to win a NASA Space Act Agreement award worth $171 million to build and demonstrate a launch system capable of delivering cargo to the international space station.

NASA made the award under its $500 million Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which is aimed at stimulating privately owned alternatives to the space shuttle and other government systems for ferrying crew and cargo to the space station.

The U.S. space agency intends to hold an open competition in the years ahead for actual space station cargo-delivery contracts, but Orbital of Dulles, Va., is one of two companies receiving financial help from NASA to develop their proposed systems. The other is Space Exploration Technologies of El Segundo, Calif.

The $171 million NASA awarded Orbital Feb. 19 became available last fall after the agency ended its COTS agreement with Rocketplane Kistler when the latter was unable to raise the $500 million in private financing it needed to finish its K-1 reusable rocket. Rocketplane Kistler of Oklahoma City and Space Exploration Technologies were the original COTS awardees.

NASA currently depends on the space shuttle and Russian Progress spacecraft to deliver supplies to the space station. After the space shuttle retires in 2010, the space station will be dependent on European, Japanese and Russian spacecraft for logistics until NASA's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle or a U.S. commercial alternative enters service.

With Orion not scheduled to make its debut until March 2015 and no guarantee that the U.S. private sector will succeed in fielding a commercial alternative, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin asked Congress Feb. 13 for legislation this year to permit the agency to place a new order with Russia later this year for additional Progress unmanned supply ships and Soyuz crew capsules.

NASA already has agreed to buy roughly $700 million worth of such services from Russia through 2011, when a temporary congressional waiver of the Iran-North Korea-Syria Non-proliferation Act is due to expire. The law prevents NASA from buying space station-related goods and services from Russia as long as that country's aerospace sector continues to help Iran acquire missiles and other advanced weapons.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/080219-sn-cotswinner-orbital.html

(My husband, a NASA physicist, is too busy to be approached by this question; in fact, he stays too busy to read DU, so he has no idea what I post.)

[Duppers]

8. One Way Up: U.S. Space Plan Relies on Russia

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/science/space/06gap.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[RT Atlanta]

5. bad to the bone...

congrats team!