SpaceX Dragon Launch To ISS Set For April 30th 127
Spy Handler writes "NASA announced today a tentative April 30th date for SpaceX launch to the International Space Station on an unmanned cargo mission. 'Everything looks good as we head toward the April 30 launch date,' said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations. If successful, SpaceX will become the first private company to launch a space vehicle and dock with the ISS."
Re:Most Excellent (Score:5, Informative)
Boeing is in it. They are designing a capsule called CST-100, together with Bigelow Aerospace. There is also a more direct competitor to SpaceX, the Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences and also scheduled to launch this year. Not to mention many smaller but ambitious players like XCOR that work on upper stage engines with ULA.
Arianespace (Score:5, Informative)
The European Arianespace is commercial since 1980. They launch their Ariane rockets on a regular basis. You want competition? You got it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianespace [wikipedia.org]