Historic SpaceX Falcon 9, Dragon flight revisited

William Atkins
Thursday, 16 December 2010 23:57

Science - Space

The highly successful mission of the first commercial spacecraft to be launched into orbit about Earth and safety returned home was completed on December 8, 2010. SpaceX is proud of its accomplishment, with images and information for you to enjoy.

With the successful mission of the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX joins the illustrious group of six nations or space agencies that have delivered their own spacecraft to an orbit around Earth and returned it safety back to Earth.

These six nations/space agencies are: the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India, and the European Space Agency.

They are now joined by SpaceX, the first commercial company to complete this orbital journey into space and back.

In addition, Virgin Galactic has taken its SpaceShipOne spaceplane into a suborbital flight (without a full orbit) into space and safety back to Earth.

This news story was reported by iTWire with its December 9, 2010 story 'Historic launch: SpaceX's Falcon 9.'

Within the article, NASA administrator Charles Bolden remarked, "While rocket launches from the Cape are considered a common occurrence, the historic significance of today's achievement by SpaceX should not be lost.'

Page two concludes with more on this story.