Cheap Rockets

     Anyone paying much notice to the news lately has likely heard about a little company called SpaceX. In May of this year SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets to deliver its Dragon Capsule to the ISS. That flight was a test run, to make sure it could be done without any serious problems. The mission was a complete success, streamed live on NasaTV the entire day, thought with not nearly the press coverage our friend Curiosity got.
     SpaceX is a small private space company started in 2002 by Elon Musk, the creator of PayPal. Its goal is to act as a cheaper method of orbital payload delivery, particularly to the ISS, though Musk is interested in extending the company's reach farther into the solar system. They operate using three rocket designs, the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy, and use the Dragon capsule with all three designs.
     Today (October 8th) was the first commercial payload mission for NASA, meaning they are shipping supplies up to the ISS. I've had a hard time finding the exact numbers, but as I've heard it the SpaceX system is nearly 1/10th as expensive as the system NASA has used for resupplies for the longest time, especially with the retirement of the Shuttle program.
     With the advent of these new private companies who are more than eager to do simple tasks like resupplying, it frees up NASA's hands for more ambitious projects, like Mars or a replacement for the Shuttle, something we desperately need.