14 DAY TRIAL // On Wednesday, June 13, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden paid a personal visit to McGregor, Texas, where Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) has its Rocket Development Facility. The top official met up with the company's CEO, Elon Musk.
The latter, a co-founder of the PayPal online payment service, is the mastermind behind both SpaceX and Tesla Motors, and the man responsible for driving the space company towards great success.
Though founded less than a decade ago, SpaceX has already managed to design and manufacture two rockets, Falcon 1 and Falcon 9, and an unmanned spacecraft, the Dragon cargo capsule. It also has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for resupplying the International Space Station (ISS).
The Falcon 9 carried out its first flight in June 2010. In December 2010, it flew to space again, this time carrying the Dragon capsule. The event made SpaceX a member of a select group of countries that are able to launch retrievable spacecraft to orbit.
A few weeks ago, SpaceX launched the third Falcon, also carrying a Dragon. The capsule was able to dock to the ISS and deliver supplies, the first time a private spacecraft was allowed (and was able) to do this. These are some of the reasons why the NASA Administrator decided to visit the company.
Bolden has been an avid supporter of NASA's current direction of development, which involves relying on private companies for access to low-Earth orbit. This clears the way for the American space agency to focus its attention on landing a human crew on a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, and on Mars by 2030.
He wanted to meet up with Musk so that he could take a tour of the SpaceX facility, and see the Dragon capsule that returned from the ISS on May 31. The top NASA official also joined the company's CEO in thanking the 150 employees working at the RDF for their hard work.
“The Dragon capsule is a tangible example of the new era of exploration unfolding right now. Commercial space is becoming a reality as SpaceX and our other commercial partners look ahead to future missions to the space station and other destinations,” Bolden said.
“I congratulate Elon Musk and the entire SpaceX team again for this historic milestone,” he continued. The company is currently being funded through a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Program (COTS) contract.
The agreement calls for SpaceX to carry out 12 resupply flights to the ISS (not counting the recent one) over the next few years.