Neoseeker : News : SpaceX: private orbital flight by 2011?
Hardware Newsletter:
Email:

Latest News
Mon, Sep 08
Sun, Sep 07
Sat, Sep 06
Fri, Sep 05
Thu, Sep 04
Wed, Sep 03
send article hardware newsletter   article comments (13)

SpaceX: private orbital flight by 2011?
William Henning - Friday, May 16th, 2008 | 12:41PM (PT)


Forget suborbital flights, ISS here we come!

According to Aviation Week and Space Technology, SpaceX claims that it would be ready to offer flights for crews to the ISS by 2011 as long as NASA allows it to proceed under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk says it would only be a small incremental task, pointing out that their current Falcon 9 vehicle, which is set for its first demonstration in March 2010, already has a pressurized habitable area with life support for live cargo, and that they have been planning for humans for the start - and as proof, pointed to the fact that the Falcon 9 has windows... and that cargo does not need windows.

Nasa is already committed to COTS for delivering cargo to the ISS, and it is not a large leap to imagine using commercial launchers for changing crews. Mind you, some law makers are having trouble grasping the concept.


SpaceX: private orbital flight by 2011? Image 1

Source: SpaceX Claims Crew Transfer Ability By 2011

Section: Technology

  Related Stories

back to news    comments or corrections
- This news story is archived and is closed to comments now -

Comments:

May 16th, 2008 1:35PM(PT)
x_revenge
i'd like to go to the moon and beyond, too! i wonder how big the time difference is between earth and the moon...buy, oh, who cares...i'd love to just go there and have no care in the world...
May 16th, 2008 2:13PM(PT)
tallteen86
Ummmmm what?

You get on the moon, when you get on the moon....

It doesn't have 'cycles' like the earth, as it doesn't rotate on it's axis. Rather, it orbits the Earth. Sometimes it is on the 'day' side (depending on where you are) though.

The non-glamorous side of space-flight is having a hard time walking again, when Earth-bound. not to mention the launch puts out about 6Gs....
May 16th, 2008 2:58PM(PT)
OmegaFury
Yeah it does, tallteen. It takes 29 1/2 days Earth days to make one rotation. To rotate around the Earth once, it takes the moon 27 1/3 Earth. Because the moon revolves and rotates at about the same time, the same side of the moon is always facing the Earth. http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/moon_worldbook.html
section: The movements of the moon, and Rotation and orbit.
I'm pretty sure NASA knows what they are talking about lol.
May 16th, 2008 2:59PM(PT)
OmegaFury
"to rotate around the earth once"- I meant revolve around the Earth once.
May 16th, 2008 6:05PM(PT)
tallteen86
I could have sworn it didn't.

I thought it's orbit (around the earth) was 29.5 days or so....

I could have sworn it always faces the same direction whenever I see it....Must be because of the lunar phases (which take about the same amount of time as the rotation of the moon itself) that tricked me into thinking the moon itself doesn't rotate on it's axis.
May 16th, 2008 9:07PM(PT)
Dead_Homeboy
The moon rotating on its axis and it revolving around the earth aren't quite the same. It does eventually show its other side, but it takes hundreds of years.
May 16th, 2008 11:43PM(PT)
tallteen86
Errr, I already stated the difference....

I previously stated that it didn't rotate on it's axis: "It doesn't have 'cycles' like the earth, as it doesn't rotate on it's axis"...

But the link states it does....Did you not read my posts properly?
May 17th, 2008 1:06AM(PT)
x_revenge
there is even a song about the dark side of the moon (pink floyd, never heard it, but i know it exists)
May 17th, 2008 1:23AM(PT)
tallteen86
According to the link, which is NASA of all things, the moon in fact DOES rotate on it's axis (which I thought it didn't)....

Dark side of the moon can be any part of the moon that isn't exposed to the sun's light. Mind you, one would think (and I thought) that it meant it never faces the Earth, but apparently it does at some point....
May 17th, 2008 5:13AM(PT)
THM
That is too risky at the moment with the current space shuttle technology!!!

Remember what happend to Columbia Space Shutttle on Feb 1 2003!!! Explode.....

But, anyway, I prefer going to Mars than Moon regardless of the greater risk.
May 17th, 2008 7:27AM(PT)
Dead_Homeboy
What I mean by my previous post, tallteen, is that the side of the moon we will never see (not dark or light, but the actual side of the moon) will eventually face the earth, but it takes over a thousand years. Maybe more, I'm not sure. Possibly, it will never turn to show its other side, because of the bulge in the side of the moon we see. Long ago, the moon did spin much faster than it does now, but the bulge in the moon created a torque, which slowed the moons rotation to what it is now.
May 19th, 2008 1:08AM(PT)
a guy
you're all missing the point. spacex has the chance (and ability) to completely change humanity. making space flight commercial (truly commercial, not like boeing or lock-mart) is the key to making space the "current frontier". spacex will do it... it's how long it will take that is the question.
May 19th, 2008 5:41AM(PT)
Honor
also adding in the south hemisphere and maybe the northen hemisphere in all of the history of earth the moon is always at the top never the bouttom down here might be false but i'm no counting sunset and that but still and also it is amasing how you can see the moon even know how far away it is

- This news story is archived and is closed to new comments now -

  RSS Feeds

Latest Comments
Most Comments
Latest Net Reviews:
·Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H
·Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H
·NZXT Avatar
·Leadtek WinFast PX9600 GSO Extreme
·Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2
·Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME

Latest Inhouse:


Compare Prices

Motherboards
 Abit
 ASUS
 Gigabyte
 Intel
 iWill
 Shuttle
 Soyo
 Super Micro
 Tyan
 More...

Processors
 AMD
 Intel
 More...

Memory
 SDRAM
 RDRAM
 DDRAM
 More...

Video Cards
 ATI
 Visiontek
 PNY
 3Dfx
 More...

search for lowest prices

(0.0692/d/ascension)