COTS 1 Demonstration Success

Today, SpaceX successfully tested the vehicle that may someday take American astronauts to space.  Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral at 10:43 this morning, and about 13 minutes later, the first Dragon capsule began on-orbit operations.  The capsule, which is intended to carry cargo, and, perhaps, crew, to the International Space Station (ISS), orbited the Earth for a couple of hours while SpaceX conducts tests of the capsule and its systems.  The final series of tests came in the early afternoon, when Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.  Dragon landed in the Pacific Ocean a little after 2pm, and was quickly retrieved by the same ship that recovers the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters.  

Today’s flight was the first demonstration of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program begun in 2006 (under the previous administration), but its success will likely be seen as a commentary on the Obama vision for NASA.  As this administration has unveiled a new approach to space over the spring and summer, the biggest point of criticism has been the increased reliance on commercial providers for access to the International Space Station, not only for cargo, but also for crew.  It is seen as far too risky, placing far too much responsibility on unproven commercial providers for American access to space.  Today’s successful demonstration by SpaceX indicates that there may be something to the Obama space policy’s emphasis on commercial spaceflight after all.  SpaceX’s success today with the second launch of a Falcon 9 and the first flight of their Dragon capsule is a major milestone, but one of the first of many that must be met in the process to achieve commercial access to space.  It took SpaceX a long time (longer than expected) to get to today’s success, and this demonstration is only the first of three increasingly complex missions under SpaceX’s COTS agreement (although Space X is suggesting that the 2nd and 3rd demonstration missions be combined).  Only after a successful demonstration period will Dragon actually transport cargo to and from ISS.