Falcon 9 Coming Along

SpaceX plans the first launch of its Falcon 9 rocket as early as February 2, 2010, from Cape Canaveral.

Falcon 9 is designed to carry the Dragon capsule to orbit. Dragon, in turn, is currently designed to deliver cargo to ISS, and SpaceX has a contract with NASA to do precisely that. The company, however, has even bigger plans. It wants to turn Dragon into a spacecraft capable of ferrying astronauts to and from ISS. SpaceX estimates Dragon could be ready for its first crew three years after NASA gives the green light.

A private company with the capacity to put people in orbit on a consistent basis could completely change the game. Once corporations, universities, and others have real access to low Earth orbit, the task of expanding the human economy beyond Earth can begin in earnest. Interorbital Systems plans its first manned launch in 2011 from Tonga, in the South Pacific. If both IOS and SpaceX are successful, the big boys like Lockheed Martin, sniffing a huge new opportunity, will inevitably jump in. That might be the point of no return. Humanity may finally be on the way to expanding into space.