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SpaceX Developing Orbital Crew Capsule

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the fly-me-to-the-moon dept.

iamlucky13 writes "Private aerospace firm SpaceX has revealed that it has secretly been working on a crew and cargo vehicle since late 2004. Development of the capsule, named Dragon, has so far been funded by SpaceX and its partners, which includes the Canadian company that built the robotic arm for the International Space Station. Dragon would be launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 and dock at the ISS with assistance of the robotic arm. While SpaceX founder Elon Musk is prepared to complete development of the capsule with his own resources, SpaceX is seeking funding from NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, which makes up to $500 million available through 2010 for private spacecraft development."

4 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Think ahead... by OriginalSpaceMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    If they thought ahead they would have realized that it's much more efficient to put 2 robotic arms on IIS. One to catch the capsule and one to throw it back to Earth. Now IIS will have to take it's glove off before it can throw the capsule back down.

    --

    You talk better than you fool!
    1. Re:Think ahead... by whyrat · · Score: 2, Funny

      If they intend for people to visit the ISS someone will also need to design and build a gift shop module.

    2. Re:Think ahead... by garrett714 · · Score: 4, Funny

      If they thought ahead they would have realized that it's much more efficient to put 2 robotic arms on IIS. One to catch the capsule and one to throw it back to Earth. Now IIS will have to take it's glove off before it can throw the capsule back down.

      So if you did this would IIS finally become a real server?

      ;-)

  2. What's with the naming??? by ssummer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scaled Composites has the "White Knight", SpaceX has the "Dragon", what's next? The "Grand Wizard" orbiting space station?