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PayPal Owned and Private Corp. SpaceX Launches Supplies to Space

By S.C. Stringfellow | Update Date: Oct 09, 2012 05:55 AM EDT

SpaceX, which is the common name and use for the company known as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, which must be the coolest name on a business card ever (second only to Star Fleet Academy or Brad Pitt, President of the Universe), is a company founded in 2002 for the purposes of space transportation of goods and services and eventually humans. The company is headquartered in Hawthorne, California by the founder of PayPal Elon Musk, who also happens to be a pioneering force in the electric car industry as the founder of Tesla Motors.

Telsa, which Mitt Romney lied about being a loser company, is a leading innovator in the electric car industry. Based in the Silicon Valley, the company seeks to do for the electric car industry what SpaceX is doing for space transportation. In nine years, the start-up has gone from a great idea by Elon Musk to taking over 13,000 orders for the Model S, a luxury sedan that has drawn raves from everyone.

Mr. Musk's midas touch continues with his successful test of his Falcon 9 launch vehicles and Dragon Spacecraft. In May of this year, SpaceX became the world's first privately held company to send a cargo payload into space to the International Space Station (ISS).

The unmanned Dragon Spacecraft, which is carrying crew supplies and space station hardware, took off from Cape Canaveral at 8:35pm Eastern Time on Sunday.

"We are right where we need to be at this stage in the mission," Elon Musk said in a statement. "We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon's approach to the space station. But the launch was an unqualified success."

The spacecraft is due to dock with the ISS on Wednesday and remain on station for two weeks. The spacecraft is due to return to earth on October 28th with space station hardware and scientific materials.

SpaceX's ISS cargo contract with NASA is worth some $1.6 billion.

NASA has also awarded SpaceX a contract to develop and demonstrate a human-rated Dragon as part of its upcoming program to transport crew to the ISS. SpaceX is planning its first crewed Dragon/Falcon9 flight in 2015, when it expects to have a fully certified, human-rated launch escape system incorporated into the spacecraft.

 Besides NASA contracts, SpaceX has signed contracts with private sector companies, non-American government agencies and the U.S. military for its launch services. It has already launched, for a paying customer, a low earth orbiting satellite with its Falcon 1 booster in 2009. The company plans to launch its first commercial satellite in 2013 from a Falcon 9 space vehicle.

The company has not made any statements as to whether tickets to go to the ISS may be purchased online using a PayPal account or if you get a 10% discount if you are a Tesla owner.

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