SpaceX Dragon Launch

Stingray

Another launch of a [URL="http://news.yahoo.com/watch-spacexs-private-rocket-launch-sunday-202215185.html"]SpaceX Dragon rocket[/URL] is supposed to happen on Sunday, Oct. 7, at the cape in Florida. A night launch no less. :)

So when they say the "private sector" is getting involved into space technology, they only mean private contractors working for NASA. I'm not sure that's what those private entrepreneurs had in mind when they got involved.

But then, maybe a bunch of NASA engineers who left the shuttle program are now happily working at places like SpaceX labs. :)

Biggles

I think that's exactly what those private entrepreneurs had in mind. NASA provides a source of initial funding to develop their technology. NASA provides a destination for them to proove their technology with. NASA is the early stage of their business plans.

Stingray

Since NASA laid down so much of the ground work and has the know-how to get the job done, it's not surprising. Maybe Virgin Galactic is trying to be somewhat different and do the other thing which is more along the line of how I understood the meaning of private enterprise. Not public endeavours going private.

Freejack

Haven't several private companies been pushing satellites into orbit for a while?

Jake

Stingray

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAq-Ic5SzfY"]And lift-off!!![/URL]

While it's more spectacular at night, it's harder to see the rocket once you are staring at the exhaust end. ;)

croxis

Apparently one of the engines blew up (a nozzle shattered) and the onboard computer automatically recalculated a new launch trajectory using the remaining 8 engines.

Random Chaos

Yeah, heard that. Amazing technology that they could recover from a complete engine failure and still make orbit and complete the mission.

Biggles

It's awesome that their rocket is robust enough to overcome failures like that automatically. Old NASA rockets required more manual intervention to handle the shutdown of an engine (which did happen several times). It's a great example of applying modern technology to make things safer, and why NASA sticking to the Space Shuttle for so long was, in some ways, not such a great idea.