As NASA’s next manned spacecraft seems destined to be mothballed, SpaceX—a private space company—prepares to ready its Falcon 9 rocket for a first flight.
If the United States decides to privatize manned spaceflight—and that seems to be the Obama administration’s plan—then post-Shuttle astronauts may ride aboard a Falcon 9.
All the pieces of the Falcon 9 have [...]

When the shuttle is retired, how will NASA astronauts get to the International Space Station?
In the past, when the shuttle suspended operations due to the Columbia disaster, NASA astronauts rode to the ISS via a Russian Soyuz. It was, pretty much, the only way to get there. But soon that might not be true anymore.
Elon [...]

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. [...]

The International Space Station will be re-supplied in the future by a private spacecraft!
SpaceX has won a contract from NASA to use its Falcon 9 booster and its Dragon spacecraft to send supplies to the ISS starting in 2010. Another winner is Orbital Sciences, which will also be re-supplying the ISS.
The 2 smallish startups beat [...]

The “carrier” plane for the commercial spacecraft SpaceShipTwo took its first test flight today. And the unmanned Falcon has been taken through its paces recently with some success.
Options Considered
But NASA’s Ares I rocket—the booster for the country’s next manned spacecraft—won’t be tested until July of next year. And it’s future is in question as the [...]

SpaceX has introduced a new spacecraft, called “DragonLab”. They bill it as “a Free-Flying, Reusable Spacecraft Offering Fast Track to Orbital Flight for Pressurized and Unpressurized Payloads.”
Low Cost SpaceLab
But what can it do? It can be used as an orbital laboratory to conduct experiments in space. Interesting.
But even more interesting is the previously announced “Dragon” [...]

When Elon Musk isn’t busy making millions on the internet (as he did with PayPal) or developing electric sports cars (as he is doing with Tesla Motors), he’s working on making spaceflight cheaper.
Cheaper, dependable spaceflight seems to be the mission of SpaceX, Mr. Musk’s venture that is developing the Falcon launch vehicle.
But spaceflight is hard. [...]