Falcon 9 Poised for Launch

SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 launch vehicle—which was recently chosen by NASA to re-supply the International Space Station—is vertical at the launchpad at Cape Kennedy. And it looks beautiful.

Medium to Heavy Lift for Supplies or People

Falcon 9 will be available in 2 configurations, The standard configuration (pictured) is capable of lifting 20,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. A more powerful configuration will be capable of delivering 60,000 pounds of freight—or even astronauts—into orbit.

It’s unclear exactly when this first demonstration flight of Falcon 9 will take place. But, it wouldn’t be setup for launch like that if it weren’t going to be soon.

The flight manifest for Falcon 9 includes several private satellite launches, 3 test flights preparing for ISS re-supply missions, and a launch of a prototype space station module for Bigelow Aerospace. (Bigelow is best known as a company proposing to create inflatable space hotels.)

Lunar Capabilities

SpaceX also mentions that Falcon 9 has capabilities suitable for lunar missions—including placing payloads into trans-lunar injection (i.e., getting the craft out of Earth orbit, and on a trajectory to the moon.) That is a tantalizing possibility.