NASA: More of SpaceX, Less of Russia

No, NASA would never publicly state that relying upon Russian rockets is a bad idea.

But if you read between the lines you can see they are excited about the emerging new space startups—especially SpaceX’s Falcon rockets.

NASA has approved the completion of SpaceX’s first milestone in the company’s path toward launching crews to the International Space Station (ISS) from U.S. soil under a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with the agency. […]

“This milestone sets the pace for the rigorous work ahead as SpaceX meets the certification requirements outlined in our contract,” said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “It is very exciting to see SpaceX’s proposed path to certification, including a flight test phase and completion of the system development.”

On Sept. 16, the agency unveiled its selection of SpaceX and Boeing to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station using their Crew Dragon and CST-100 spacecraft, respectively. These contracts will end the nation’s sole reliance on Russia and allow the station’s current crew of six to increase, enabling more research aboard the unique microgravity laboratory. (NASA)

Truth be told SpaceX is one of the few space companies who does not outsource their rockets & design to outside firms & countries (practically everything about the rocket is American made).

SpaceX is also less expensive than most rivals (including China) & hopefully NASA will continue to use them to not only resupplies the space station but reach lunar regolith (aka “soil”) as well.