The first ever commercial resupply mission occurred last night at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and it was an amazing spectacle. It was the picture perfect launch for SpaceX and the sign of hope for Americans that the Space Age isn’t over just yet. However, there was the minor hiccup of one of the engines on the rocket that exploded during liftoff!
During the ignition of the 9 Merlin engines, one of them overheated and exploded mid-flight. However, the engineers at SpaceX planned for this sort of incident, and the computers on board immediately rerouted the fuel to the functional engines. The rocket continued its journey as if nothing even happened.
This is the first of 12 supply missions NASA has contracted for $1.8 billion, and they will return to U.S. soil. These missions will return with over 1,000 pounds of technology and scientific research. Not only is this good news for scientific research, but this also brings jobs back that were terminated when the space shuttles were retired a year ago.
SpaceX is planning on taking astronauts up to the ISS (International Space Station) in the near future, but for now the U.S. is sending there astronauts to Russia to hitch a ride with the cosmonauts.
So question Nation:
If commercial space travel became an everyday occurrence, would you hitch a ride or are you nervous about the whole idea of traveling faster than the speed of sound into the vacuum of space just to get to New York faster? Let us know!
