A spacecraft and rocket developed by a private company successfully blasted into orbit Wednesday from Cape Canaveral. The Dragon capsule orbited the Earth and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about two-and-half hours after launch. It is the first time a commercial spacecraft has ever re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
That is the sound of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule blasting off from Kennedy Space Center under blue skies.
This flight marks the first time a commercial spacecraft has attempted to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere, which means the capsule has to withstand scorching temperatures of about 2,000 degrees Celsius.
The reusable Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket were developed by the California-based company Space Exploration Technologies, commonly known as SpaceX.
This test flight is also the first launch for NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, which uses NASA funds to spur development of new spacecraft in the commercial sector. The project aims to build a craft to resupply the International Space Station after the Space Shuttle program ends next year.
Monday, NASA’s acting director of Commercial Space Flight Development, Phil McAlister, cautioned reporters at Kennedy Space Center against reading too much into the launch’s successes or failures.
“I wanted to emphasize that this is a test flight. It is not in any way an indictment for or against the overall program if you have anomalies,” he said. “We expect anomalies.”
SpaceX is one of two companies NASA is investing a half-billion dollars in through the four-year-old COTS program. NASA describes the program as revolutionary, saying it allows the space agency to turn its attentions toward developing next-generation spacecraft that could travel beyond low-Earth-orbit.
NASA has spent $253 million on the project during the past four years. SpaceX says it has spent more than $600 million getting to this point.
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