ber 15, 2011
December 8, 2011, marked the one-year anniversary of Dragon’s first Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration flight. The flight made history, as SpaceX became the only commercial company to successfully return a spacecraft from orbit. This feat had previously been accomplished only by five nations and the European Space Agency.
We are now preparing the Dragon spacecraft for yet another historic flight -- becoming the first commercial vehicle in history to visit the International Space Station (ISS)!
NASA recently announced February 7, 2012, as our new target launch date for the upcoming mission. In addition, NASA officially confirmed that SpaceX will be allowed to complete the objectives of COTS 2 and COTS 3 in a single mission.
This means Dragon will perform all of the COTS 2 mission objectives, which include numerous operations in the vicinity of the ISS, and will then perform the COTS 3 objectives. These include approach, berthing with the ISS, astronauts opening Dragon and unloading cargo, and finally astronauts closing the spacecraft and sending it back to Earth for recovery from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
This mission marks a major milestone in American spaceflight. While our first missions to the ISS will be to transport cargo, both Falcon 9 and Dragon were designed to ultimately transport astronauts. Every trip we make to the ISS from this point forward gets us closer to that goal. SpaceX is incredibly excited for what the future holds and, as always, we greatly appreciate NASA’s continued support and partnership in
this process
My post are my personal views and just that. Not a recomendation to buy or sell a security. Always do your own DD. [
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