Well done to the SpaceX team on Falcon 9 launch

One of the best "good news" stories of the past week has been the successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

If their programme continues to be this successful, it will indeed start a new era of spaceflight. It is already helping to stimulate new ideas about how to approach launch vehicles for spacecraft and may help to go further into other aspects of space exploration.


NASA, the Russians, ESA, the Chinese, India, Japan and others have already done an enormous amount towards developing the technologies that help mankind to understand our planet, the Solar System and the universe.  In addition, the spin-off technologies have had an enormous impact on all our lives - from modern communication via satellite and tracking devices via GPS to new materials and a better understanding of many scientific and technological processes.

But many of the large agencies are at least partly funded by government agencies.   The successes of SpaceX and other emerging private companies bring a new element of competition and possibly also new ways of looking at the management and financial accountability relating to space exploration.  It opens the field to make this kind of human endeavour one that is open to many more engineers, scientists and technical experts.  They are creating new frontiers and in the long run, we will all benefit.

Here is a gallery of launch pictures from Universe Today, and another gallery from CNet News and here is an interesting piece via The Economist.

(Photo credit: The small picture at the top of this article is by Alan Walters)