Space shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) landed safely in Florida early Friday, gliding in under sunny skies to wrap up a successful 11-day delivery mission to the International Space Station. NASA currently plans to fly only five more shuttle missions. The final mission for Atlantis (STS-132), is scheduled for May 2010.
The US Space Shuttle is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches. After the Shuttle’s retirement, a new Orion spacecraft (left) is planned for first manned launch in 2014.
In the meantime, all crews traveling to and from the International Space Station will have to do so via supply vessels from Russian Progress spacecraft, Japan’s H-2 Transfer Vehicle, Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle or American commercial spacecraft including the the SpaceX Dragon and Orbital Science Cygnus.
Elon Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, provided an update on Falcon 9 launch preparations at Cape Canaveral for SpaceFlightNow, and set odds for success on the low-cost booster’s maiden flight early next year.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket has nine main engines and will carry the Dragon spacecraft (below) which has already arrived at the company’s launch pad. The Falcon 9’s second stage is finishing up testing in Texas before being shipped to Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.
The Falcon 9 is being built to haul supplies to the International Space Station. The Dragon spacecraft, developed by SpaceX for NASA, will conduct up to 12 operational cargo delivery flights in a contract worth $1.6 billion.
NASA also awarded eight missions by Orbital Sciences using their spacecraft called Cygnus. launched with Orbital’s Taurus 2 rocket which launches from Wallops Island, Va. The Taurus 2’s first flight isn’t scheduled until March 2011, at the earliest.
Musk said the Falcon 9 launch won’t happen before early February, 2010 but the high-tech tycoon cautioned about the target dates.
“I definitely want to be clear about any dates that are specified by SpaceX because it’s often mischaracterized in the media as SpaceX delays again or some nonsense like that,” Musk told Spaceflight Now. “The only thing we can really predict with some degree of accuracy, at least, is when the rockets will get to the launch pad.”
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are also getting into the commercial space transport business with Planet Space, developing Sliver Dart, an autonomous hypersonic craft and space-traveling UAVs along with SpaceDev’s Dream Chaser.
NASA manages the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program with agreements totaling $500M for commercial cargo transportation demonstrations with another $50M towards commercial crew development initiatives.
