Claire. Posted September 26, 2016 #1 Share Posted September 26, 2016 NASA: Odds Favor Successful SpaceX Mars Mission Before NASA decided to help SpaceX on its journey to Mars, details of which company chief Elon Musk plans to unveil on Tuesday, the U.S. space agency reviewed the plan for SpaceX's first mission, slated to launch in 2018, and decided it has a reasonably good chance of success. For NASA, a successful mission means that SpaceX's Mars vehicle, called Red Dragon, flies through the Martian atmosphere with its thrusters firing in the direction of travel, a technology known as supersonic retrograde propulsion. The feather in the cap would be a propulsive landing on the Martian surface. "This is a critical, critical technology for us," said Phil McAlister, director of NASA's Commercial Spaceflight Division. "This is flight data that would not be available to us by any other means." Read more: Space.com 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted September 26, 2016 #2 Share Posted September 26, 2016 They successfully test fired their new Raptor engine which is fueled by LOX and Liquid Methane. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/236244-spacex-test-fires-new-raptor-rocket-engine-that-could-take-humans-to-mars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted September 26, 2016 #3 Share Posted September 26, 2016 40 minutes ago, Merc14 said: They successfully test fired their new Raptor engine which is fueled by LOX and Liquid Methane. The Raptor engine is for use on SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport vehicle (what they used to refer to as the Mars Colonial Transport vehicle). The 2018 mission will use a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, so the Raptor will play no part in that mission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted September 26, 2016 #4 Share Posted September 26, 2016 21 minutes ago, Waspie_Dwarf said: The Raptor engine is for use on SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport vehicle (what they used to refer to as the Mars Colonial Transport vehicle). The 2018 mission will use a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, so the Raptor will play no part in that mission. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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