SpaceX successfully test flies Dragon spacecraft

[Sgt Beavis]

This morning SpaceX launched it's 2nd Falcon 9 rocket. This time it was carrying a Dragon space craft that will eventually be used to as a cargo ship for the International Space Station (ISS). Dragon was also designed to eventually be used as a manned spacecraft for ferrying people to ISS.

The flight just ended moments ago with a successful re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific ocean. This is the first time ever that a private company has run its own orbital spaceflight with a re-entry vehicle.

Next up are two more flights for 2011 with the Dragon capsule docking with the ISS for the first time.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/spacex

SpaceX twitter feed:

http://twitter.com/#!/SpaceXer

SpaceX facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/SpaceX#!/SpaceX

Not only is Dragon meant to be a re-usable space craft but the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket is meant to be re-usable. The last test flight was unsuccessful in recovering the 1st stage but it looks like they might be successful this time around. SpaceX reported that they got a radar contact and telemetry from the 1st stage as it was coming down. Something like that will greatly reduce the price of launching cargo and people into space...

[Wicked98Snake]

Sweet I wanna go to space!

[4.6coupe]

So the shuttle goes into retirement... I still remember this like it was yesterday. i was in my 8th grade science class...

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
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For more information about the final mission and crew of the Challenger, see STS-51-L.

Space Shuttle Challenger's smoke plume after in-flight breakup that killed all seven STS-51-L crew members.
STS-51-L crew: (front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair; (back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida, United States, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC).

Disintegration of the entire vehicle began after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The O-ring failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing pressurized hot gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB attachment hardware and external fuel tank. This led to the separation of the right-hand SRB's aft attachment and the structural failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the orbiter.

The crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search and recovery operation. Although the exact timing of the death of the crew is unknown, several crew members are known to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. However, the shuttle had no escape system and the astronauts did not survive the impact of the crew compartment with the ocean surface.

The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the shuttle program and the formation of the Rogers Commission, a special commission appointed by United States President Ronald Reagan to investigate the accident. The Rogers Commission found that NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes had been a key contributing factor to the accident. NASA managers had known that contractor Morton Thiokol's design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings since 1977, but they failed to address it properly. They also disregarded warnings from engineers about the dangers of launching posed by the low temperatures of that morning and had failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their superiors. The Rogers Commission offered NASA nine recommendations that were to be implemented before shuttle flights resumed.

Many viewed the launch live due to the presence on the crew of Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project. Media coverage of the accident was extensive: one study reported that 85 percent of Americans surveyed had heard the news within an hour of the accident. The Challenger disaster has been used as a case study in many discussions of engineering safety and workplace ethics.

Contents [hide]
1 Pre-launch conditions and delays
2 January 28 launch and failure
2.1 Liftoff and initial ascent
2.2 Plume
2.3 Vehicle breakup
2.4 Post-breakup flight controller dialog
2.5 No "explosion"
2.6 Cause and time of death
2.7 Crew escape was not possible
3 Aftermath
3.1 Tributes
3.2 Recovery of debris
3.3 Funeral ceremonies
4 Investigation
4.1 Rogers Commission
4.2 U.S. House Committee hearings
5 NASA response
5.1 Media coverage
5.2 Use as case study
5.3 Soviet teasing and use as a Communist propaganda
5.4 Continuation of the Shuttle Program
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links