When NASA stops flying the space shuttles later this year, the United States will no longer have a vehicle to carry humans to space—unless commercial industry can fill the gap. Last year, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) became the first company to send a spacecraft into low Earth orbit and have it reënter the atmosphere. The flight is part of a partnership with NASA, which has awarded SpaceX $1.6 billion for at least 12 flights to carry cargo to the International Space Station. But SpaceX’s goal is something far greater: a NASA contract to carry humans to space.
Preparing for its first test flight, the Falcon 9 rocket sits at SpaceX’s launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida (above). Approximately 55 meters tall and four meters wide, the two-stage rocket is powered by nine hydrocarbon Merlin engines. It is made of an aluminum-lithium alloy and a carbon fiber–aluminum composite.
Credit: Mike Howard/SpaceX
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