Universe Today
SpaceX
is hosting a worldwide live premiere event tonight, May 29, unmasking the veil from the company's commercial
"Dragon V2" manned
spaceship, the next step in US human spaceflight at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST, 0200 GMT).
And none other than billionaire entrepreneur
Elon Musk
, SpaceX CEO and founder, will be the master of ceremonies for the live show direct from SpaceX's state-of-the-art design and manufacturing facility and Headquarters in Hawthorne, CA!
You can watch LIVE here - via the embedded player above.
Alternatively you can
watch courtesy of a streaming webcast courtesy of SpaceX at: www.spacex.com/webcast
Read my "Dragon V2" or "Dragon Version 2" preview story -
here
.
Musk's (and NASA's) goal is to restore America's capability to launch US astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station (ISS) by 2017 and to put an end total US dependency on Russia's Soyuz for astronaut rides to orbit and back.
"SpaceX's new Dragon V2 spacecraft is a next generation spacecraft designed to carry astronauts into space," says SpaceX.
"Cover drops on May 29. Actual flight design hardware of crew Dragon, not a mockup," Musk tweeted recently to build anticipation.
[caption id="attachment_110143" align="alignleft" width="339"]
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon cargo capsule bound for the ISS launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, FL. File photo. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com[/caption]
Dragon
is among a trio of US private sector manned spaceships being developed with seed money from NASA's Commercial Crew Program in a public/private partnership to develop a next-generation crew transportation vehicle to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS by 2017 - a capability totally lost following the space shuttle's forced retirement in 2011.
The
Boeing
CST-100
and Sierra Nevada
Dream Chaser
'space taxis' are also vying for funding in the next round of contracts to be awarded by NASA around late summer 2014.
The gumdrop-shaped 'Dragon V2' is an upgraded, man rated version of the unmanned Dragon spaceship that will carry a mix of cargo and up to a seven crewmembers to the International Space Station (ISS).
The cargo Dragon just successfully completed its third operational resupply mission to the ISS with a
successful splashdown
in the Pacific Ocean on May 18.
[caption id="attachment_112250" align="alignleft" width="580"]
Dragon V2 – SpaceX's next generation spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to space. Credit: SpaceX[/caption]
Stay tuned here for
Ken's
continuing SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada, Orbital Sciences, commercial space, Orion, Mars rover, MAVEN, MOM and more planetary and human spaceflight news.
Ken Kremer
[caption id="attachment_106728" align="alignleft" width="580"]
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk briefs reporters including ken Kremer/Universe Today in Cocoa Beach, FL prior to SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blastoff with SES-8 communications satellite on Dec 3, 2013 from Cape Canaveral, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com[/caption]