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SpaceX Launches First Private Rocket From Launch Complex 39A

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday February 19 2017, @08:47PM   
from the back-in-business dept.

takyon writes:

SpaceX has launched an ISS cargo mission focused more on new scientific instruments than resupply. The first stage rocket booster was successfully landed on a ground pad at Cape Canaveral:

SpaceX has launched the first private rocket from the same historic site that saw some of NASA's greatest space missions, then landed a booster nearby in a resounding success. The California-based company's Falcon 9 rocket launched a robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station today (Feb. 19) at 9:39 a.m. EST (1439 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center — the same pad that once hosted Apollo moon missions and space shuttle launches. "Liftoff of the Falcon 9 to the space station on the first commercial launch from Kennedy Space Center's historic Pad 39a!" said NASA commentator George Diller.

[...] Some space station additions are traveling in the unpressurized "trunk" of the spacecraft: SAGE-III, an Earth-monitoring tool that will look for ozone in the atmosphere, and a Space Test Program payload including the Lightning Imaging Sensor, which will track lightning worldwide, and Raven, which will collect data to help future spacecraft rendezvous autonomously.

Also at NYT, USA Today, Spaceflight Insider, and TechCrunch.

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Original Submission

• SpaceX Performs Gov't AND Private Launches (Score: 5, Informative) by martyb on Sunday February 19 2017, @09:34PM

  by martyb (76) on Sunday February 19 2017, @09:34PM (#469085) Journal

  When the government is essentially your organization's only customer, then your organization is not really "private".

  That is to say, when the bulk of your funding comes from stealing other people's resources under threat of violence, then you are not really operating in the "private" sector.

  According to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches#Past_launches [wikipedia.org] one can see that SpaceX HAS benefited greatly from government-funded launches, but it is a gross mischaracterization to deem that as: "not really operating in the 'private' sector."

  A cursory glance down the list shows at least 13 out of 30 launches were for the private sector: Orbcomm (3), MDA Corp, SES (2), Thaicom (2), AsiaSat (2), Eutelsat, Spacecom, Iridium, and others.

  --
  Wit is intellect, dancing.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+3
  Informative=3, Total=3
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		5