[Polpolion]

long story short: commercially operated spaceships.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/31/us/spacex/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=bGoJ66WNapE&feature=youtu.be&nomobile=1

Regardless about how you feel about phasing out the STS program in favour of this you gotta be glad everything seems to be working well for this project.

[Thaeris]

I was really, really happy to hear about the entire scenario. Apparently, the initial launch was not working as planned, but the issue was resolved, and a day or two after the intended launch date, they got the Dragon up and in order for a flawless mission.

Heck. Yes.

Furthermore, I've read the launch system is cheaper than any other current US rocket system, which is also full of win. I CANNOT WAIT for the day that we get the manned capsules up and running, which is also the day we get to stop paying the Russians to put our astronauts in space and train our crews.

[The E]

This is absolutely the right move. It's time for private companies to do the grunt work of space infrastructure stuff, and for NASA to go back to the more experimental stuff.

[Thaeris]

I'm all for NASA doing whatever NASA does best, which is generally anything in space. The problem is funding. Do not forget that all the things NASA uses are typically designed and built by sub-contractors. This included the Space Shuttle (which Rockwell International designed; several other contractors such as Grumman were also involved in the design bid), and pretty much anything else you can think of. Private industy is really no different than any of the previous contractors, other than the fact that, as of now, it is not nearly as reliant on government contracts to get the job done. The precieved lack of corruption (which, the private industry cannot afford at the moment) and injection of competition into the system will give the space industry the kick in the pants it has needed for quite some time.

[General Battuta]

I watched an embarrassing percentage of this mission live, it was awesome. Pretty sure mission control asked the ISS for a debug log at some point because their HUD wasn't aligned right

e: it wasn't very :jeb: though

[stinkyFeet]

Yay for getting into space more cheaply and all the cool stuff that enables!  Space X is awesome, Now I want to build a model rocket.