R
rocketscientist327
Guest
I didn't see it posted here sooo.... more great SpaceX news…<br /><br />El Segundo CA – August 29, 2007 – SpaceX has successfully completed the first of three phases of review required by NASA’s Safety Review Panel (SRP) to send its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). Over a series of meetings spanning four days at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the team of SpaceX engineers developing the Dragon spacecraft presented their Phase I plans for sending the cargo version of Dragon to the $100 billion dollar orbiting space laboratory. <br /><br />The review covered twenty-three specific hazards, with extra attention paid to the danger of collision – one of the most difficult hazards to mitigate. The issue of preventing a collision with the ISS was a primary topic of the safety review and is generally considered one of the more difficult visiting vehicle topics. According to the Safety Review Panel’s approval letter, the Phase I collision hazard report for Dragon was approved on the first attempt <br /><br />“To date, no other group has passed the Hazard of Collision report the first time through or completed the overall review in such a short time,†said Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX. “The fact that we passed in under a week speaks well of our team’s capabilities.†<br /><br />As part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition, SpaceX intends to demonstrate its launch, maneuvering and docking abilities by 2009 – a year before NASA has scheduled the conclusion of Space Shuttle operations. <br /><br />http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=28<br /><br />I am pretty excited. I know there are some SpaceX bashers here but they seem to be headed in the right direction. I hope all goes well and we see Dragon flaying late next year! Huuzah! <br /><br />Incoming flames from jimfromnsf <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /><br /><br />Respectfully,