SpaceX, Private Spaceships Race to Fill Shuttle Void

Privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is planning to fill the void left by the retiring U.S. space shuttle program with its own space taxi as it ramps up for a test later this year.

The company, run by Tesla Motor CEO Elon Musk, received $300 million from NASA with funds from other investors to develop rockets and capsules it hopes to test launch in November.

It's one of the first of several launches for the company as part of a 12-flight cargo mission to supply the International Space Station now that the U.S. space shuttle program has ended.

NASA tentatively agreed to send SpaceX's craft to the station, but the formal approval is still pending.

"We technically have agreed with SpaceX that we want to combine those flights, but we haven't given them formal approval yet," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations, said last week.

International Business Times

 

I'm very happy to see this after the bittersweet departure of the shuttle.:celebrate Yes, they got some good seed money from NASA but considering that each shuttle launch cost $500M I think it's a wise investment. At least this will give NASA some bargaining power when the Soyuz contract is up. Here's hoping that the private industry can now absorb some of those that have been laid off from the shuttle program.

 

Good news.
There was a project to develop a single stage launch-to-orbit vehicle, but that project was canceled.

Ever since the demise of the Saturn V, we have relied on the shuttle to launch manned expeditions and large payloads.
Now there is nothing to fill the void.


wikipedia.org: Apollo 17 The Last Moon Shot

 

Ya, that's what hurt most man, as there is nothing to replace manned spaceflight for a few years. Who could have ever imagined that the US would ever have had to go to the Russians for an expensive cab ride?:confused

Still, it's a reliable ride and fits in well with the Orion plan on the horizon in three or four years.