This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/may/22/spacex-blasts-off-space-station

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
SpaceX rocket blasts off for space station SpaceX rocket blasts off for space station
(about 2 hours later)
A commercial rocket has blasted off with supplies for the International Space Station. A privately owned, unmanned rocket has blasted off from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida on the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.
The SpaceX company's Falcon 9 rocket took flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, opening a new era of spaceflight. It carried a capsule named Dragon that is packed with half a tonne of space station provisions. The 54-metre (178ft) Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 3.44 am (0744 GMT) from a refurbished launch pad just south of where Nasa launched its now retired space shuttles.
This is the first time a private business has launched a vessel to the space station – something only major governments have done until now. Less than 10 minutes later, the rocket and its cargo – a Dragon capsule with 544 kg of supplies for the station crew – reached orbit.
The real test comes on Thursday when the Dragon gets close to the space station. It will undergo practice manoeuvres and, if all goes well, the docking will occur on Friday. "Feels like a giant weight just came off my back," the company's founder and chief executive, Elon Musk, posted on Twitter after Dragon deployed its solar panels, the first of several key milestones that must be met before the spacecraft is cleared to dock at the station.
Nasa and SpaceX stress that this is a demonstration flight. "Falcon flew perfectly!!" Musk wrote.
Nasa is counting on companies such as Space Exploration Technologies – SpaceX – to take over the task of flying cargo, and eventually astronauts, to the $100bn space station, which orbits about 240 miles (390km) above Earth.
Currently, Nasa is dependent on Russia to fly crew to the station at a cost of more than $60m per person. Russia, Europe and Japan also fly cargo to the station.
If its test flight is successful, SpaceX will become the first private company to reach the space station, a microgravity research complex for science experiments and technology demonstrations. SpaceX and a second company, Orbital Sciences Corp, already hold contracts worth a combined $3.5bn to fly cargo to the station.
SpaceX is among four firms vying to build space taxis to fly astronauts, tourists and non-Nasa researchers.
Separately, Nasa contributed nearly $400m to SpaceX's $1.2bn commercial space programme, which includes development and up to three test flights of Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon capsules.
An analysis by the US government accountability office shows that a similar programme under traditional Nasa procurement would have cost four to 10 times as much, said Nasa's Alan Lindenmoyer, who manages the agency's commercial spaceflight initiatives.
Tuesday's launch followed a last-second cutoff of Falcon's planned liftoff on Saturday. Engineers later traced the problem to climbing pressure in an engine chamber due to a faulty purge valve.
"It looks like we probably could have flown with the condition," SpaceX's president, Gwynne Shotwell, said during pre-launch mission commentary broadcast on Nasa Television. "Once we separated from the ground, things would have settled down a bit, but it was still the right thing to do."
Dragon will take about a day to reach the space station's orbit. It will then spend another day practicing manoeuvres and testing its communications systems and navigation aids. If all goes as planned, Nasa is expected to clear Dragon for berthing at the space station on Friday.