SpaceX Sets Plan For Dragon Launch Abort,Crew Gear

摘要

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) says it needs to make only three modifications to the Dragon capsule, which it flew to orbit and recovered last month, so it can be ready to deliver crewmembers to the International Space Station (ISS). The Hawthorne, Calif.-based company has pro- posed a schedule for making those changes under the second round of NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDEV-2) effort, under which the agency hopes by March to award about $200 million in Space Act agreements running as long as 14 months. Longer term, SpaceX says it will launch its Falcon 9 rocket at least 17 more times before it is ready to fly humans, nine of them with the Dragon capsule it is developing for cargo missions to the ISS.