The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was successfully launched to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Dragon capsule, perched atop the launch vehicle, is to dock with the International Space Station, bringing supplies and new experiments into orbit.
I was going to say that there are no astronauts aboard today's flight -- although SpaceX is touting Dragon as a vehicle that will carry astronauts in the future -- but that statement is not entirely accurate.
Some of the ashes of Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper were included in a container in the rocket's second stage. Also in that container, according to ABC News were the ashes of actor James Doohan and 306 others.
With the end of America's Space Shuttle program, American astronauts had been reduced to hitching rides into space aboard Russian Soyuz capsules. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden issued a statement this morning asserting that today's launch is "the beginning of a new era in exploration.... [W]e're working to promote competition and have multiple private sector partners so we don't find ourselves in the situation we are today -- having only one way to get to the space station."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accompanying photo obtained from NASA.
Posts
1 comment:
...but the same issue of NYT includes this jeremiad about America's waning leadership in physics. With best regards, Jack, ~Bill Burton
Post a Comment