In 2010, NASA will retire the space shuttle. Which leaves one to wonder how the agency plans to continue to supply the International Space Station (ISS). Wonder no more - NASA, through its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, awarded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a $1.6 billion contract to send unmanned cargo flights to the ISS. That buys NASA a minimum 12 flights of SpaceX's Falcon 9 spacecraft, with a contractual option to order additional missions - a potential total of $3.1 billion. While this seems to be a hefty price tag, NASA is benefiting from SpaceX's setbacks, lessons learned and investments that it took to develop Falcon 9 (it was originally planned to debut in 2007). As this September 2009 Popular Mechanics article describes, the ambitious SpaceX team is not easily discouraged.
The first test launch of the Falcon 9 may occur as soon as February 2nd. Three more demonstrations / test launches will follow, with Falcon 9's first flight to the ISS scheduled between May through November 2010. If all goes well, the Falcon 9 will haul 20 tons of cargo to the ISS by 2016. An earlier model of Falcon 9, Falcon 1, was listed as one of Popular Science's Best of What's New innovations for 2009. With the Falcon 9 carrying cargo loads, NASA is freed up to focus on accomplishing manned missions to the Moon and possibly Mars.
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