Craft to shake up space access unveiled
Print Edition
A company that has flown unmanned capsules to the Space Station has unveiled a craft to fly seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit that SpaceX founder Elon Musk says will revolutionize access to space.
The cone-headed spacecraft dubbed Dragon V2 featured landing legs and a propulsion system designed to land the manned craft anywhere on land “with the accuracy of a helicopter,” Musk said at the Southern California rocket builder’s headquarters.
The technology would enable rapid reloading and reusability of the spacecraft, he said, noting that in the past rockets and spacecraft return to Earth in a fireball, rendering them unusable.
“This is extremely important for revolutionizing access to space because as long as we continue to throw away rockets and spacecrafts, we will never truly have access to space, it’ll always be incredibly expensive,” Musk said.
The white capsule also featured a sleek interior with swing-up computer screens at the control station, a two-level seating system to accommodate up to seven astronauts and large windows for them to marvel at Earth’s curvature.
Since the shuttle fleet retired in 2011, NASA has said it wants US companies to fill the void by 2017 and has doled out seed money to spur innovation.
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