Popular Science Calls Falcon 9 The First Astronaut Worthy Private Rocket In Orbit

Popular Science calls Falcon 9 "THE FIRST ASTRONAUT-WORTHY PRIVATE ROCKET IN ORBIT" and goes on to explain, "When NASA retires the space shuttle next year, the only American-owned option the U.S. government will have for getting cargo to the International Space Station is to ride with a private spaceflight company. Such an arrangement became viable in June, when SpaceX's Falcon 9-a 180-foot, kerosene-and-liquid-oxygen-fueled rocket capable of delivering six metric tons of cargo or SEVEN ASTRONAUTS TO ORBIT-made its maiden voyage to space."

"For 23 years, POPULAR SCIENCE has honored the innovations that surprise and amaze us - those that make a positive impact on our world today and challenge our views of what's possible in the future," said Mark Jannot, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science. "The Best of What's New Award is the magazine's top honor, and the 100 winners - chosen from among thousands of entrants - represent the highest level of achievement in their fields."

SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft that will increase reliability and performance of space transportation, while ultimately reducing costs by a factor of ten. With the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets, SpaceX has a diverse manifest of launches to deliver commercial satellites to orbit. After the Space Shuttle retires, the Falcon 9 and SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will start carrying cargo, including live plants and animals, to and from the International Space Station for NASA. Falcon 9 and Dragon were developed to one day carry astronauts.

Origin: fromatlantistosphinx.blogspot.com