Tuesday, May 22, 2012

SpaceX Commercial Rocket Blasts Off For International Space Station

By Nick


http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/22/spacex-commercial-rocket-blasts-off-for-international-space-station/

11 comments:

Nick said...

Considering that only about 10-20 years ago, only NASA put rockets into space. Now, SpaceX and Virgin Galatic are blasting off. Times are changing.

Will said...

The article is interesting because it shows a new generation of how space exploration happens. The fact that a private company is shooting rockets into space for NASA, perfectly shows the passage of time and the advancement of the world. I think that it is good that somebody is still launching humans into space, considering that nasa isn't doing such a good job of it. Since NASA has shut down its "Shuttle Program," people will have to find a way up there themselves.

Chloe said...

Technology is advancing so fast. It is amazing that not too long ago, the first astronaut was taking his first steps on the moon. Now, regular humans can take a vacation to the space station. Imagine how much this cost!

Samantha said...

How fantastic, humans in space, truly the last frontier, right. I guess Star Trek comes to mind. One day we will spend half our life on earth and the other half in space. I do think the government should be more actively involved in space exploration. A conflict of interest could arise when private companies are going into space, kind of scary if the wrong people go into space.



It is great that humans are still going into space. One day in the future scientists will make a ship like the one in star trek. People would spend their life on the ship exploring space.

Sergio said...

This article was very interesting to me because it showed how countries were passing NASA in so many ways. For example, the Russians were humiliated when they lost the Space Race to the U.S. but since Nasa has stopped sending its rockets into space, it relies on Russian cargo planes. This also worries me. When's the last time you heard somebody say, "This must be good. It was made in Russia." Never!

Private companies going into space will change the final frontier forever. This is because many countries agreed that they couldn't own property in space but this does apply to companies.

The increase in space technology is interesting because former GOP candidate, Newt Gingrich said that the U.S.A. could establish a colony on the Moon by 2016. Even though this was an empty promise, he was right in saying that there could be humans living on a planet or moon in a moderate amount of time. This would be very expensive considering that just the ISS space station took over $1 billion to build.

What shocked me the most is that at the end of the article, it said that more than 300 people like James Doohan (star trek actor) paid to get their ashes into space.

Samantha said...

How fantastic, humans in space, truly the last frontier, right. I guess Star Trek comes to mind. One day we will spend half our life on earth and the other half in space. I do think the government should be more actively involved in space exploration. A conflict of interest could arise when private companies are going into space, kind of scary if the wrong people go into space.


Sorry, the second paragraph above was the bad paragraph.

Sergio said...

Sorry about the errors in my blog. In my second paragraph, I meant to say that the rule did not apply to companies and in my 3rd paragraph, I meant to say that it took over 100 billion dollars to make the ISS.

Cami said...

I cannot believe that such a little time ago only NASA could launch spaceships. The whole idea of Virgin Galactic is amazing to me. I mean, thinking that anyone could go up to space as a trip. It costs like $100,000 though, and it's like a two month trip.

David said...

It’s great that the first commercial supply ship is on its way to the International Space Station. The Dragon is delivering a half a ton of food, water and clothing. There are no astronauts onboard, but one day they’ll transport a crew too. Now NASA says they can “focus on deep-space missions to land astronauts on asteroids and Mars.” But I wonder how using privately built and operated space vehicles will change things for NASA. Who will make all the important decisions, like what technology to use, what safety standards, which astronauts will go on the missions, and what missions? What happens if something goes wrong, like a spaceship explodes and the astronauts die? What if a company uses unsafe technology? What if they don’t do enough safety tests? Who will be responsible? These are important questions to ask.

Sergio said...

The use of private companies being space reminded me that since they wouldn't be on Earth or property of a country, they could do things that we would consider illegal such as murder and still get away with it. This is a lot like what happened with wiki leaks.

Sergio said...

This amazing but risky. What it crashes into the ISS (international space station)? This was a great strategy for NASA to use. Since private companies don't have their own space stations, they will have to share credit for their discoveries with NASA. The commercial rocket is impressive because many other rockets can burn up while falling down to Earth.