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Originally Posted by CAPT D
im glad private companies are getting involded with space flight but, its sad that we are ending our space shuttle program. whats worse is we now need to pay the russians for rides into space.
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From what I have read, Space X will be completing a cargo run to the ISS with it's new Dragon capsule by the end of this year. Thought I remembered seeing something that said it could be crew-rated by 2012 sometime, so HOPEFULLY we won't have to rely on the Russians for too many trips. I know Space X is also hard at work on their Falcon Heavy rocket that will be capable of putting up twice the amount of cargo as the space shuttle to low Earth orbit.
The major benefit to having the private sector take over the space race: their direction doesn't change every 4 - 8 years, thus they can set longterm goals and stay on target, all while doing things much more efficiently and for a lot less money.