Last night SpaceX, the private spaceflight company founded by
PayPal and Tesla’s Elon Musk, unveiled its new Dragon capsule. A
previous version of this capsule is already zipping back and forth
between Earth and the International Space Station (ISS) delivering
cargo and supplies—there have been three successful missions since
2012. The Dragon V2 is outfitted with seven seats and the other
bells and whistles necessary for manned flight.
The interior is pretty slick and the
touchscreen controls look downright modern!
SpaceX says it will start test flights in 2016. Which is just in
the nick of time: The U.S. currently has a deal with Russia to use
their Soyuz rockets to get American astronauts up to the ISS
through 2017. But right now the Russians are the only game in town
and at $76 million a pop, they’re not exactly offering bargain
airfare. What’s more, testy relations between the Yanks and the
Sputniks puts even that expensive, tenuous link to humanity’s
outpost in low Earth orbit in jeopardy.
In addition to looking
pretty awesome, the Dragon V2 and its Falcon rockets are designed
to be maximally reusable. The new Dragon capsule has thrusters to
help with a soft landing (rather than the usual parachutes) and the
early stages of the rocket will also be retrievable and reusable
thanks to collapsible metallic legs. That makes turnaround time
much shorter and saves cash. In other words: The private
alternative for getting Americans (and perhaps anyone else who
wants to buy a ticket) into low Earth orbit looks like it’s going
be faster, cheaper, better.
Read lots more about the private spaceflight scene in our
special space
issue.
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