South African born Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX lunches Falcon 9 rocket into space.
"Billionaire Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX, sent his Falcon 9 rocket into space early Tuesday morning with an unmanned Dragon capsule after an original mission was aborted over the weekend. How’s he feeling? Extremely relieved. After the rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. at 3.44 a.m., Musk tweeted: “Falcon flew perfectly!! Dragon in orbit, comm locked and solar arrays active!! Feels like a giant weight just came off my back :)”
- Tiffany Hsu, Los Angles Times
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carried the unmanned Dragon capsule into space after a 3:44 a.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking the first time a private company has sent a spacecraft to the space station. (NASA screen grab / May 22, 2012)
( NASA / May 22, 2012 )
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule lifts off from the Cape Canaveral, Fla.
SPaceX
( John Raoux / Associated Press / May 22, 2012 )
The launch gantry falls away as the Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifts off from launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Fla., before dawn.
( Roberto Gonzalez / Getty Images / May 22, 2012 )
The SpaceX rocket heads into orbit.
Space X Falcon 9 launch
( Craig Rubadoux / Florida Today / May 22, 2012 )
The Falcon 9 rocket streaks into the sky behind a model of NASA's space shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center, heading for a rendezvous with the International Space Station and opening a new era of dollar-driven spaceflight.
A new frontier for space travel( Brian van der Brug, Los Angeles Times / April 19, 2012 )
CEO Elon Musk ponders the upcoming launch in the mission control room of Hawthorne company Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX.
( Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times / May 14, 2012 )
Elon Musk with the SpaceX Dragon capsule on display at Hawthorne company Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX. This Dragon capsule became the first private spacecraft to achieve orbit and return to Earth. Armed with his personal fortune and a Rolodex full of Silicon Valley venture capitalist contacts, Musk started SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and co-founded electric car company Tesla Motors Inc. in Palo Alto.
( Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times / May 14, 2012 )
Inside SpaceX's Hawthorne complex, the company has a vast mission control center where engineers can keep real-time tabs on rocket launches at Cape Canaveral and on the mission itself. They monitor incoming data for anomalies, and if there are any, they can order the launch to be scrubbed or address the mission issues.
( Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times / May 14, 2012 )
SpaceX has a workforce of about 1,800, mostly in Hawthorne and Cape Canaveral. And much like the early days of NASA, the company has a cadre of young engineers -- the average age is in the early 30s -- who have turned down jobs at larger aerospace companies.
Workforce
( Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times / May 14, 2012 )
SpaceX has a workforce of about 1,800, mostly in Hawthorne and Cape Canaveral. And much like the early days of NASA, the company has a cadre of young engineers -- the average age is in the early 30s -- who have turned down jobs at larger aerospace companies.
( SpaceX / April 29, 2012 )
A Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket is transported late last month to a launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla. In addition to the NASA contract, SpaceX has commercial contracts worth more than $4 billion to launch satellites aboard its Falcon 9 rocket for various countries and telecommunications companies.
Source: Los Angles Times