Sarita Kang) has developed a new system that uses a combination of lasers and magnets to make a liquid for the rocket to “see into” and “see where it’s going.”
In the U.S., SpaceX has developed a “spacedock” vehicle called Dragon that will use a Falcon 9 rocket to carry astronauts out of the International Space Station.
The same process is being used with SpaceX’s new Dragon 2 rocket that is slated to blast off for the first test flight in the new year with astronauts as early as this summer.
The first time the Dragon 2 rocket will fly on a mission to the ISS aboard Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket is in late 2018, said Jeffrey Bader, vice president for advanced systems at Orbital ATK.
The upgraded Antares rocket will be reusable, meaning it can carry the spacecraft back and forth to the ISS, rather than being expendable that way.
Once an upgraded Antares rocket flies, SpaceX’s Dragon could fly as often as four times, Bader said. That increases SpaceX’s odds of catching up to the station because it would use less propellant.
“You are building a rocket, a new engine and a new stage so you are going to need less and less propellant as you go higher,” Bader said.
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