SpaceX to attempt Falcon 9 Rocket landing on Floating Ocean Platform

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, complete with "hypersonic grid fins," that SpaceX will attempt to land on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean as part of a Dec. 16, 2014 launch.

Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX

SpaceX will apparently attempt something truly epic during next week's cargo launch to the International Space Station.

During the Dec. 16 launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which will send SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule toward the orbiting lab, the California-based company will try to bring the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back to Earth for a controlled landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

The bold maneuver marks a big step forward in SpaceX's development of reusable-rocket technology, which the company's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, says could eventually cut the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100 and perhaps make Mars colonization economically feasible.

A photo of the "autonomous spaceport drone ship" on which SpaceX will attempt to land the Falcon 9 rocket.

Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX

Musk shared photos of the Falcon 9 and landing platform via Twitter late last month, ratcheting up interest in the cargo mission, the fifth of 12 unmanned resupply flights SpaceX will make to the space station for NASA under a $1.6 billion contract.

"Autonomous spaceport drone ship. Thrusters repurposed from deep sea oil rigs hold position within 3m even in a storm," Musk tweeted about the platform on Nov. 22.

"Base is 300 ft by 100 ft, with wings that extend width to 170 ft. Will allow refuel & rocket flyback in future," he added in another tweet.


The Falcon 9 photo revealed that the rocket is outfitted with "hypersonic grid fins" to increase stability during a return to Earth.

"Grid fins are stowed on ascent and then deploy on reentry for 'x-wing' style control," Musk tweeted on Nov. 22. "Each fin moves independently for pitch/yaw/roll."

At a conference at MIT in October, Musk said that SpaceX would attempt to land the Falcon 9 first stage on the floating platform during the rocket's next flight.

The next liftoff on the rocket's schedule is the Dec. 16 Dragon launch.

SpaceX Dragon unmanned spacecraft approaches ISS

A contrail is seen behind the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon supply ship as it flies into space after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a resupply mission to the International Space Station, on September 21, 2014

SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft was nearing the International Space Station on Tuesday with a cargo of supplies, including freeze-dried meals, 20 live lab mice and a 3D printer.

Germany's Alexander Gerst, an astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA), will operate CanadArm-2, the 57.7-foot (17.6-meter) robotic arm attached to the ISS, to capture the Dragon and bring it in to dock with the space station.

He will be assisted by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman.

The berthing operation will be complete when the vessel latches fully onto the research outpost about two hours later.

The Dragon capsule is carrying more than 5,000 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of supplies and material for science experiments, including a tool to measure wind speed at the ocean's surface.

The spacecraft launched early Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is SpaceX's fourth contracted mission with NASA for supply trips to the ISS and back.

The Rodent Research Hardware System, which will be installed at the International Space Station, includes three modules: the habitat at left, the transporter in the middle and the so-called animal access unit at right. 

Credit: NASA / Dominic Hart

The lab mice are the first live mammals to hitch a ride aboard a commercial cargo ship, and they are enclosed in a NASA-made research cage for studying the effects of weightlessness on their bodies.

This Zero-G Printer is the first 3D printer designed to operate in zero gravity. 

Also on board the SpaceX Dragon capsule is this 3D printer experiment.

The printer was built under a joint partnership between NASA MSFC and Made In Space.

Contracted as the “3D Printing in Zero-G Experiment” this first version of the Zero-G printer will usher in the era of off-world manufacturing.

This initial version of the Zero-G Printer will serve as a test bed for understanding the long-term effects of microgravity on 3D printing, and how it can enable the future of space exploration.

SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying a Dragon spacecraft, successfully launched

The SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying a Dragon spacecraft loaded with scientific equipment and cargo launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on Sept. 21, 2014.

Image Credit: NASA /Frankie Martin

An eruption of fire and smoke sent a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft skyward laden with 5,000 pounds of scientific equipment and supplies destined for use by the crew of the International Space Station.

"This launch kicks off a very busy time for the space station," said NASA's Sam Scimemi, director of the International Space Station, noting upcoming launches of a Soyuz carrying the next crew of the station and launches of cargo spacecraft within a month.

Lifting off at 1:52:03 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 21, from Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon etched a yellow and white arc across the sky as it flew on a path roughly paralleling the East Coast of America.

The nine Merlin 1D engines of the first stage shut down as planned about 2 minutes and 41 seconds into flight and the single Merlin engine of the second stage ignited to carry the Dragon the rest of the way into orbit.

Cheers greeted the video from Dragon as the second stage pushed itself away from the orbit-bound spacecraft and a pair of solar array "wings" unfolded to recharge the Dragon's batteries.

"There's nothing like a good launch, it's just fantastic," said Hans Koenigsman, vice president of Mission Assurance for SpaceX. "From what I can tell, everything went perfectly."

Following the launch, the spacecraft starts a two-day chase to catch up with the space station. It is scheduled to complete this pursuit by Tuesday morning.

Once the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft reaches the ISS, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman will reach out with CanadArm-2, the station's robot arm, and maneuver the capsule to latch onto a port of the station.

The station crew later will unload the equipment and supplies inside the Dragon, including a glovebox-sized habitat holding 20 mice that will be used for microgravity research into bone density.

SpaceX Night Time Launch: AsiaSat 6 Satellite Lifted Into Orbit

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks across the night sky on Sept. 7, 2014 in this long-exposure view of the AsiaSat 6 satellite launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Credit: SpaceX

The private spaceflight company SpaceX successfully launched a new commercial telecommunications satellite for Asia early Sunday (Sept. 7) in a dazzling nighttime liftoff that ended a nearly two-week delay for the mission.

A SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT) Sunday, carrying the AsiaSat 6 satellite into space for Hong Kong-based firm AsiaSat.

The launch was originally scheduled for Aug. 26, but SpaceX pushed it back to give engineers time to investigate the self-destruction of its Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) rocket during an Aug. 22 flight test in Texas.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the AsiaSat 6 satellite lifts off from the spaceflight company's launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sept. 7, 2014 in this still from a SpaceX launch webcast. 

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX's F9R rocket prototype is quite different than the company's operational Falcon 9 booster, so the mishap did not raise any specific red flags about SpaceX's commercial liftoffs, company representatives said.

But SpaceX wanted to do a thorough check of its launch systems regardless, to make sure all is well. 

"What we do want to triple-check is whether even highly improbable corner case scenarios have the optimal fault detection and recovery logic," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said in a statement late last month.

Sunday's launch appeared to go off without a hitch, with SpaceX declaring the mission a success about 30 minutes after liftoff.

SpaceX: Reusable Rocket Test as Seen from Support Airplane - video

An amazing new video shows a stage of the private spaceflight company SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket make a soft splashdown in the ocean after delivering six satellites to space.

The newly released video shows a view of the splashdown, which took place on July 14, from the perspective of a plane chasing the re-entry and landing in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Falcon 9 stage appears to come down toward the water at an angle before its rockets fire, slowing its descent.

"Towards the end of the video, the camera operator attempted to zoom in and, unfortunately, lost sight of the stage and was unable to capture the tip-over into the water," SpaceX representatives wrote in a video description.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket's boost stage made a landing in the Atlantic Ocean after delivering six satellites to orbit on July 14, 2014. 

Credit: SpaceX

This is the second video of the successful reusable rocket test. SpaceX also recorded more footage from the splashdown using an onboard camera that captured the test from the actual rocket.

The test gave SpaceX representatives some useful data that could be applied to future tests.

"This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able [to] consistently re-enter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near-zero velocity," SpaceX representatives wrote in a July update about the onboard camera video.

SpaceX lofted six commercial satellites into orbit on July 14, before performing the flyback test with the Falcon 9.

The California-based private spaceflight company has been mounting these tests to help it make reusable rockets a reality in the future.

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft Leaves ISS to burn up in Earth atmosphere

The Cygnus spacecraft as seen when it was released from the International Space Station on Aug. 15, 2014.

Credit: NASA (via Twitter as @NASA)

A private cargo ship loaded down with trash left the International Space Station Friday morning (Aug. 15). Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft is due to plunge into Earth's atmosphere, burning up above the Pacific Ocean on Sunday (Aug. 17).

The Cygnus spacecraft launched to space on July 13 with close to 3,300 lbs. (1,496 kilograms) of supplies for the six astronauts on the orbiting outpost.

"A flock of nanosatellites was also shipped to the station aboard Cygnus for future release from the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock beginning next week," NASA officials said in a statement.

"Individually known as “Dove” satellites, the group will collect continuous Earth imagery documenting natural and man-made conditions of the environment to improve disaster relief and increase agricultural yields."

Virginia-based Orbital Sciences is one of two private companies that fly unmanned missions to the International Space Station for NASA.

The departure of Cygnus marks the end of the company's second mission (Orb-2) to the space laboratory under a $1.9 billion contract for eight resupply missions.

The other company, SpaceX, uses its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket to bring cargo to the station under a $1.6 billion NASA deal for 12 missions.

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft seen from the International Space Station after its release on Aug. 15, 2014.

Credit: NASA TV

Sprite Kicksat Mini satellites launch into orbit aboard SpaceX Falcon9 rocket

"Sprite" mini femtosatellites that are now in orbit. Credit: Zac Manchester

After years of planning and several last-minute delays, about 100 Cornell-developed mini femtosatellites demonstrating space flight at its simplest have launched into orbit and are now circling Earth.

With just a laptop, antenna and a few other basics, space flight enthusiasts can listen for signals sent by the cracker-sized "sprites" that launched April 18 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of NASA's CRS-3 mission.

Still inside their mothership craft, the sprites are scheduled to deploy on May 4 to become the smallest free-flying spacecraft.

Zac Manchester

The project is called KickSat and has been led by Zac Manchester '09, now a graduate student in aerospace engineering, since he was an undergraduate doing research with Mason Peck, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University.

Sprites are mini satellites stripped down to their most basic components: a microcontroller, transceiver and solar cells for power.

Manchester took the project to Kickstarter in 2011 to see if amateur space enthusiasts would help fund the venture.

More than 300 people sponsored KickSat and were allowed to transmit whatever signal they wanted from it – for example, their initials or a message to a loved one.

The KickSat housing is engraved with the sponsors' names.

The sprites are housed inside a 3U CubeSat, which is a small satellite frequently used in space research.

The 3U CubeSat is aboard a capsule that separates from the shuttle, which continues to the International Space Station.

The KickSat 3U CubeSat is second in line to deploy.

The big event – when the sprites leave the spacecraft and begin transmitting signals – will be the afternoon of May 4 (subject to change). Manchester has been updating his Kickstarter blog with mission information.

"After a beautiful launch at 3:25 this afternoon [April 18], KickSat was deployed in low Earth orbit. We at Cornell and several amateur radio operators around the world have made contact with the spacecraft, and it is alive and well. I can't thank all of you enough for your tremendous support over the past two years. Thank you for believing in KickSat!"

Boeing Electric Satellite Backlog Poised To Grow

The L-3 Comms xenon-ion propulsion system (XIPS) used aboard the Boeing 702SP is said to be one of the lighter electric-propulsion technologies on the market, maximizing the weight savings but at a price of lower thrust. 

Credit: Boeing

Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, which booked a headline-grabbing four-satellite order for its new all-electric 702SP satellite design in March 2012 and has gone two years without another commercial order, on March 11 said it would sign a new customer within weeks.

At Satellite 2014, Boeing officials also said they had sold three 702SP satellites to an unidentified U.S. government customer in 2013, an order that presumably allowed the government buyer to profit from scale economies by piggybacking on the original four-satellite contract.

One industry official said Calif.-based Boeing has already signed an authorisation to proceed with the unidentified commercial customer, and that the coming contract was all but certain.

Boeing’s first 702SP order was with Satmex of Mexico, now part of Eutelsat Americas following its January acquisition by Eutelsat of Paris, and ABS of Hong Kong. Each operator agreed to purchase two satellites.

Jim Simpson

Jim Simpson, president of Boeing Satellite Systems International, said the four options that were purchased along with the four firm orders expire at the end of this year.

Patricio Northland, chief executive of Eutelsat Americas, said the company is negotiating with Boeing to extend the option deadline to permit his company to validate the 702SP’s performance, or at least its orbit-raising ability, before purchasing more spacecraft.

The first two 702SP satellites, one for Eutelsat Americas and one for ABS, are scheduled for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in early 2015.

Simpson said that while this represents a slight delay from the original planning, it is within the contract terms calling for delivery between December 2014 and March 2015.

The xenon-ion propulsion system used aboard the 702SP is said to be one of the lighter electric-propulsion technologies on the market, maximizing the weight savings but at a price of lower thrust.

The satellites will require between six and eight months to travel from where they are dropped off by the Falcon 9 to final geostationary position.

Russian satellites have been using electric propulsion for decades. It is used to effectively maintain their satellites in a stable geostationary orbit.

They are generally smaller than Western satellites and are usually launched aboard the heavy-lift Proton rocket, which can carry them directly to their final geostationary position.

But the Russian Satellite Communications Co. of Moscow recently experimented with using electric propulsion to perform the full orbit-raising task.

RSCC’s Express-AM5, launched aboard a Proton in December, reached its final operating position only in March as it used its electric propulsion thrusters to perform the orbit-raising maneuver.

Andrey Kirillovich, RSCC’s director for integration services and turnkey projects, said March 13 that the satellite’s thrusters performed as designed.

He said Express-AM5, whose payload was provided by MDA Corp. of Canada with a platform built by ISS Reshetnev of Russia, is in good health at its operation location at 140 degrees east.

SpaceX: All four landing legs now mounted on Falcon 9 rocket

All four landing legs now mounted on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket being processed inside hanger at Cape Canaveral, FL for Mar 16 launch. 

Credit: SpaceX/Elon Musk 

The historic blast off of the first SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket equipped with 'landing legs' and also carrying the Dragon cargo vessel is bound for the Space Station.

The launch is now slated for March 16, following a short and "successful" hot fire check test of the first stage engines on Saturday, March 8.

The brief two second ignition of all nine upgraded Merlin 1D engines powering the first stage of SpaceX's next generation, commercial Falcon 9 rocket at the end of a simulated countdown, is a key test.

The rocket engine milestone test is required to clear the way for next Sunday's planned night time lift off at 4:41 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

SpaceX owner and entrepreneur, Ellon Musk, is shown here next to a model of the Dragon spacecraft.

 "Falcon 9 and Dragon conducted a successful static fire test in advance of next week's CRS-3 launch to station!" SpaceX announced today.

The primary goal of the unmanned SpaceX CRS-3 mission is to deliver over 5000 pounds of science experiments, gear and supplies loaded inside Dragon to the six person crew living and working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) flying in low Earth orbit under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.

"In this final major preflight test, Falcon 9's 9 first-stage engines were ignited for 2 seconds while the vehicle was held down to the pad," said SpaceX.

The static hot firing is a full up assessment of the rocket, engines, propellant loading and countdown procedures leading to a launch. The engines typically fire for a barely a few seconds.

SpaceX engineers will evaluate the engine firing to ensure all systems are ready for launch.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Adds Landing Legs

A look at the landing legs SpaceX is mounting on its Falcon 9 rocket for the company's next cargo mission to the International Space Station, which is slated to launch on March 16, 2014.

Credit: Elon Musk /SpaceX

Putting landing legs on the Falcon 9 rocket, which is slated to blast off on March 16, marks another step in SpaceX's quest to develop a fully reusable launch system but current plans don't call for the Falcon 9 to actually touch down on the legs after next month's liftoff, said SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.

Elon Musk

"Mounting landing legs (~60 ft span) to Falcon 9 for next month's Space Station servicing flight," Musk said Sunday (Feb. 23) via Twitter, where he posted a photo of the rocket.

"However, F9 will continue to land in the ocean until we prove precision control from hypersonic thru subsonic regimes."



SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract to make 12 robotic supply runs to the space station for NASA using Dragon and the Falcon 9.

The company has already completed two of these flights successfully; the March 16 flight will initiate contracted mission number three.

But the company's ambitions extend far beyond low-Earth orbit. Musk has said that he established SpaceX primarily to help humanity become a multiplanet species, and he hopes the company plays a prominent role in getting a Mars colony up and running.

One key to making such big dreams a reality is developing a fully and rapidly reusable launch system, which Musk has said could lower the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100.

Toward that end, SpaceX has been testing a reusable rocket prototype called Grasshopper, which has a made a series of higher and more complicated flights over the past year and a half.

SpaceX launches commercial satellite after 3rd attempt

After two delays, private US company SpaceX on Tuesday successfully launched its first commercial satellite, after repairs were made to the Falcon 9 rocket.

It roared into space at 2241 GMT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, SpaceX said in a statement.

Its $100 million satellite was placed in orbit 14 minutes later, a SpaceX spokesman confirmed.

The rocket's cargo was a telecommunications satellite for the Luxembourg company SES, which until now has used European Ariane rockets or the Russian Proton for its satellite launches.

"Restart was good, apogee raised to 80k km (50k miles). Yes!!!," SpaceX owner Elon Musk, the billionaire Internet entrepreneur, said shortly after takeoff.

SES-8 is SpaceX's first launch to a geostationary transfer orbit -- 80,000 kilometers (50,000 miles) from Earth -- and most challenging mission to date, the company said earlier on Twitter.

The SES-8 satellite is due to provide television, cable TV and other services to countries including China, India and Vietnam.

SpaceX is eager to get into the commercial satellite launch business, estimated to be worth $190 billion a year.

The launch is the first using an improved version of the Falcon 9 after a test flight in California.

SpaceX's Reusable Falcon 9, 'Grasshopper' Rocket, Leaps Sideways - NASA Video

An experimental reusable rocket built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX has soared though a series of ever-higher test flights over its Texas launch site, but it may have just taken its most awesome leap yet: a sideways rocket hop.

Nicknamed Grasshopper, the rocket prototype successfully performed a sideways "divert" test yesterday (Aug. 13) at SpaceX's proving grounds in McGregor, Texas. SpaceX released an amazing video of the sideways Grasshopper rocket flight today (Aug. 14).

The new video shows SpaceX's Grasshopper launching to an altitude of 820 feet (250 meters). The rocket then went into a hover mode, moved 328 feet (100 m) sideways, and then returned back to the center of its launch pad. From launch to landing, the flight lasted just over one minute.

The Grasshopper rocket, which is officially known as the Falcon 9 test rig at SpaceX, stands roughly 10 stories tall and its large size presents a challenge of control for sideways maneuvers. SpaceX officials said in a statement that the test proved "the vehicle's ability to perform more aggressive steering maneuvers than have been attempted in previous flights."

"Diverts like this are an important part of the trajectory in order to land the rocket precisely back at the launch site after re-entering from space at hypersonic velocity," SpaceX officials added.

SpaceX's Grasshopper rocket is a prototype for a new launch system built around completely reusable rocket vehicles. The project aims to make spaceflight cheaper and more efficient than current systems that use expendable rockets that burn up in Earth's atmosphere after lifting their payloads into space, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has said.

The Grasshopper rocket incorporates the first-stage tank of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which is used to launch the company's robotic Dragon capsule on contracted cargo runs to the International Space Station for NASA.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion NASA contract to make 12 unmanned deliveries to the orbiting outpost. It has flown two of those 12 flights so far.

Wednesday's test flight is the latest in a series of ever-more ambitious tests for the Grasshopper rocket system. In mid-June, the SpaceX's Grasshopper made its highest flight so far, reaching an altitude of 1,066 feet (325 m) before returning to its launch pad.

Billionaire Elon Musk Unveiling Mysterious 'Hyperloop' Transport System

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stands next to the company's Falcon 9 rocket, which blasted SpaceX's Dragon capsule into orbit in December 2010.

Credit: SpaceX

How would you like to zip from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes, on the cheap and on your own schedule?

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk says it can be done, and he's going to tell us how next month.

Elon Musk, the visionary behind electric-car firm Tesla and the private spaceflight company SpaceX, has been teasing us for a year about something he calls the "Hyperloop."

This new solar-powered travel technology, Musk says, would go twice as fast as an airplane and be completely crash-proof.

The Hyperloop would also be a cheap way to get around, with tickets costing much less than a seat aboard a plane or train. And there would be no scrambling to make a set departure time — you'd be sent on your way whenever you showed up at the station.

Musk has described the Hyperloop as a "cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table," inspiring speculation about passenger-packed pods being blasted pneumatically through vacuum tubes.

A diagram of such a system drawn up by self-described "tinker" John Gardi "is the closest I've seen anyone guess so far," Musk tweeted on July 15.

But Musk has mostly remained mum, keeping details about the Hyperloop to himself.

He has said he will publish a design of the concept by Aug. 12, so we'll all just have to be patient for a few more weeks.

SpaceX's New Merlin 1D Rocket Engine Cleared for Private Launches

Two of SpaceX's Merlin 1D engines sit on a test stand at the company's rocket-development facility in McGregor, Texas.

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX's next-generation rocket engine is ready to fly and will likely power a commercial space launch for the first time this summer, company officials announced Wednesday (March 20).

The Merlin 1D engine was judged flight-ready after firing for a total of nearly 33 minutes over the course of 28 different tests at SpaceX's rocket-development facility in McGregor, Texas. The new engine will soon be incorporated into the company's Falcon 9 rocket, officials said.

"The Merlin 1D successfully performed every test throughout this extremely rigorous qualification program," SpaceX CEO and chief designer Elon Musk said in a statement. "With flight qualification now complete, we look forward to flying the first Merlin 1D engines on Falcon 9’s Flight 6 this year."

The Falcon 9 has flown five times to date, most recently on March 1, when it blasted the robotic Dragon capsule toward the International Space Station on California-based SpaceX's second contracted supply run for NASA. According to the company's launch manifest, flight number six will launch a Canadian communications satellite, likely in mid-June.

Company officials say the Merlin 1D will provide a big boost for the Falcon 9, which until now has been powered by Merlin 1C engines in its first stage (nine of them, hence the name).

"The Merlin 1D has a vacuum thrust-to-weight ratio exceeding 150, the best of any liquid rocket engine in history," SpaceX officials wrote in a press release Wednesday.

"This enhanced design makes the Merlin 1D the most efficient booster engine ever built, while still maintaining the structural and thermal safety margins needed to carry astronauts."

SpaceX indeed plans to launch astronauts using the Merlin 1D. The company is working on a manned version of its Falcon 9/Dragon transportation system, in the hopes of scoring a NASA contract to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.

The SpaceX-2 mission Launch

Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 9 rocket lifts off Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:10 a.m. EST on Friday, March 1, 2013, carrying a Dragon capsule filled with cargo.

 The SpaceX Dragon capsule is making its third trip to the International Space Station, following a demonstration flight in May 2012 and the first resupply mission in October 2012.

The SpaceX-2 mission is the second of 12 SpaceX flights contracted by NASA to resupply the orbiting laboratory.

Image Credit: NASA

SpaceX Dragon Launch - Video

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft lifted off at 10:10 a.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, beginning its mission to resupply the International Space Station.

Credit: NASA

SpaceX Dragon Capsule Readies for Flight

Technicians attach the Dragon capsule to a Falcon 9 rocket at the SpaceX facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., during preparations for the CRS-1 mission.

SpaceX is set to launch the first of a dozen operational missions for NASA to deliver more than 1,000 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station on Oct. 7.

Launch time is 8:35 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, just a few miles south of the space shuttle launch pads.

The spacecraft will be joined to the station three days later.

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

SpaceX Grasshopper Takes Its First Hop - YouTube

On Friday, September 21, 2012 SpaceX's Grasshopper vertical takeoff and landing test vehicle (VTVL) took its first test flight hop from the company's rocket testing facility in McGregor, Texas.

The short hop of approximately 6 feet is the first major milestone for Grasshopper, and a critical step toward a reusable first stage for SpaceX's proven Falcon 9 rocket.

As seen in the video, Grasshopper consists of a Falcon 9 first stage, a Merlin-1D engine, four steel landing legs, and a steel support structure.

SpaceX is working to develop vehicles that are fully and rapidly reusable, a key element to radically reducing cost and increasing the efficiency of spaceflight.

SpaceX says the next goal for the Grasshopper is to be able to hover at roughly 100 feet sometime in the next several months.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is planning a launch on October 5 for the first contracted cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station.