It is fantastic that SpaceX has been 100% successful with this final test flight of the Falcon/Dragon system. It is great to see a US spacecraft one again supporting the ISS. Hopefully they will be able to get the Dragon human rated quickly so that we can stop relying on the Russians to get our astronauts to the ISS. I hate the fact that we need to rely on another nation to get to the ISS which we foot most of the bill for building to start with. It is very uncomfortable to think that at any time the Russians could completely cut off our access to the ISS. I know that we have treaties to prevent that but relations between our two nations could change at any time and the Russians could take complete control of the ISS. I will be very happy when we once again have the ability to get our own astronauts to the ISS in a US built and operated space craft.

Russians taking complete control of the Space Station? I'm more worried about the fact that their name is 'SpaceX,' and Sissy Spacek's most famous role is Coal Miner's Daughter, with Tommy Lee Jones, who is in the Men In Black, which is about aliens from Space.

"It's the way spacecraft ought to land".....your damned right. I surely don't need vindicated, I know whats right, real space ships don't bounce!!....Musk knows how to run a space industry company, I can see that. I hope others can see that too, it takes more than money. Gumption.

So we wind up spending 5x more money that if the government did it themselves? Yea right....

I haven't been this excited since a shuttle took off. It does feel good to be making our way back to space. Dream Chaser should be very interesting. But good job Space-x and go Boeing.

"SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham told me that a few items will be delivered to NASA officials with a 48-hour turnaround"

We already have a two-day shipping service in space. Looks like SpaceX is aiming to be the future Fedex :p

SpaceX's reusability plans are shown in this video at the SpaceX website: Plans for full reusability

(PS. It would be nice to have links more visible: colored, for example.)

Watching the video, it feels like watching old news reels of the Apollo program. (e.g., http://youtu.be/RsZZ7CvKIYs )

Also, that ship needs a coat of paint but that's the Navy in me talking.

I am glad that we have private industries here in the US that can get us up and back from space. I am looking forward to seeing the next generation shuttle because it seems that the science is limited with just the Dragon capsule and it only serves as a ferry to the ISS but could not do something like work on the Hubble Space Telescope or repair satellites.

Elon said that he had a visit last week from the head of the Russian space agency and some Russian diplomats. He never did say what the purpose of the visit was. Maybe he sold them some missions. I doubt the State Department would have a problem with civilian missions for Russia; however, putting up a satellite for Kim Jong-un would, I expect, would be out of the question. I do hope that SpaceX has some good security for their design details. 

One small leap forward for a few companies and one giant leap backward for the space program. Whoop te do. Looks like the apollo.

If this had happened 30 years ago, we would already have a colony on Mars

if I remember right the orion craft was to look like a airliner, capable of going from ground to space W/O use of boosters. I also do believe that there ws a model of the thing available to build for youngsters, i know I built mone back in the mid to late 70's. the only reason NASA and the gov. have such high prices for their stuff is due to, well, you tell me mr. 500 dollars a hammer. they buy stuff and don't check the price guide and with that kind of accounting you're bound to get jacked. if I or any 1 else built the shuttle it would have cost closer to 1/2 a bill. and wouldn't disentegrate when coming back into the atmosphere. wouldn't have O- ring problems either. these companies are doing what our gov. has done and cheaper, they paid actual cost-5 dollars a hammer. then again what the hell do i know, i never got past basic math and algebra still escapes me

Ok,500 dollar hammers. Sounds crazy right,a hammer from the hardware store costs 10 bucks. Why on earth would nasa be this stupid? They are stupid,right?

Well,maybe not. Consider that it costs 10,000 dollars a pound to put cargo into orbit. A hammer might weigh a pound. It costs 10,000 dollars to launch that. Lets say they can shave the weight by 4 oz. Thats 2500 dollars saved right there,but its more than that. Theres the oppertunity cost associated with it. In other words,the spacecraft will be loaded to the max no matter WHAT is put on it,but if you shave 4oz there,you can put four ounces of somehting else onboard. It all adds up.

So,you tell your engineer to shave some weight from the hammer. The head has to be a similar weight or the hammer wont work. Still,the engineer figures he can shave about 10% and still have it work. It goes and BUYS 20 hammers from the hardware store. The trip takes him 2 hours,and he gets paid about 80k a year ,or roughly 40 bucks an hour. Thats 80 dollars plus 200 dollars for the hammers. He now takes a drill press and drills holes in the hammer heads,it weakens them,so the final design cant do this. Still,he now has 20 hammers with heads ranging from 5% to 30% lighter. He now takes an leaf spring,and cleverly affixes it to a 4x4. He puts a large rock in it,mounts a hammer to it with a hose clamp and repeatedly lifts it to various hights and lets the spring whack a chunk out of a rock,taking carefull notes. This actually takes a day and a half. At 40 dollars an hour,thats 480 dollars. He now knows that a hammer thats 20% lighter works acceptably but 25 or 30% is just to light to do a good job. (Several of the hammers broke,but thats ok,hes not actually going ot use them for anything but basic hammer testing) He now sketches up basic crude design,suggesting a aluminum shaft,and a head with lightening cuts in it,rather than the holes. Hes designed the head to be both strong and light and specifies a high strength,but flexible steel for it. He specifies aluminum for the handle. Overall,hes saved 7 ounces. Now a drafter spends four hours drawing up a detailed blueprint. That costs another 160 dollars. Its sent to a machinist. The machinist charges 2500 dollars setup to create the dies and jigs needed to make the hammer. Once thats done,it costs about 50 dollars to make each one,becuase they are not beign mass produced. A machinist has to make each and every one by hand. They COULD be mass produced for around 25 dollars a piece (they are not made out of cheap castins,but exotic aerospace alloys) but the setup costs would run into the tens of thousands and they only will need 20 of them. The machine shop sends them back a prototype.

So now they have their hammers,right,thats 3500 dollars for the engineering and setup costs,divided over 20 hammers, or 171 dollars per hammer,plus another 50 to make it. Thats 221 dollars per hammer. But now they can crank out 20 and they are done?

Not so fast. They are going to the moon to collect rock samples. Thats the whole science objective of the mission. Imagine if you went out to the field to collect rock samples and your only hammer broke. It would be a disaster. You would have to go back and get another,and on the moon,you cant just run down to the store. They need to make sure the hammer actually WORKS as intended,and will hold up under expected use. They figure the spring on a board will work well for that. They affix a peice of rock to it,and the prototype hammer and give it a few whacks. After 10 times the handle breaks. Not good. They figure out that aluminum just isnt strong enough,but thats where most of the weight savings was. They pull out the materials books and choose a magnesium,titanium,aluminum alloy thats actualy lighter and stronger than aluminum. Its harder to machine though and the machinist needs another 1000 dollars to set up the new tooling. Its not cheap either,and also brings the cost of the hammer up to 75 dollars each. They have another prototype made. This one passes with flying colors. ALl the testing took about a week,at 20 dollars an hour for the tech that performed it.

So,we have 3500 dollars,plus 50 for the first hammer that didnt work,plus another 75 for the second prototype (which cant actually be sent out,as its been beat to heck and actually tested until it broke,to see how well it held up) plus another 1000 for tooling setup (becuase magnesium alloys have to be machined differently so he had to use a differnt machine for it),plus another 800 dollars for the 40 hours of the techs time that tested it (at 20 an hour). Thats 5425 dollars for the design,testing and tooling setup to make the "space hammers".That does not count the 75 dollars each for the hammers themselves. Thats ANOTHER 1500 dollars. Thats $6925 dollars total or divided over the 20 hammers (we dont count the prototypes),it comes out to 345.26 a hammer.

Of course,this was not done by NASA. It was contracted out. Nasa engineers have a lot on their plate and these sorts of things are usually sent out to contractor,which of course there was a line item on a contract for "Hammer : $500"

This was presumably contracted out to some aerospace company. They do this sort of thing out of the goodness of their heart. Those costs are not the costs to NASA,they are the costs to the CONTRACTOR. The contractor does not just have to pay the engineer and the machine shop and the technician,but the secrataries the IT people,and still has to make a profit for the shareholders. They pay about 350 dollars each for the hammers and then sell them to NASA for 500 dollars. All things considered,its a fair price.

The 500 dollar hammer does not look so bad anymore.

It's great that we're allowing private companies to do this. NASA can focus on the long term picture. If we fail to get off this rock, and into other solar systems, we will have done no more than the dinosaurs. They rose to dominate the planet for over 100,000,000 years, only to become extinct. If a rock as big as the one that destroyed them might not totally wipe us out, but it would definitely change the game for millions of years.

Great, get the half, a$$ed government out of it and allow the people with know how to get it on.

Better yet, dump the EPA and allow private citizens to take3 care of it.

I wonder how many NASA people have checked out SpaceX's careers page?

http://www.spacex.com/careers.php

In a Twitter update, SpaceX confirms that it has delivered some cargo items to NASA in an effort to demonstrate 48-hour rush processing after splashdown. You could call this the first commercial express delivery from outer space.

SpaceEx, when it absolutely, positively, has to be to Jupiter overnight.

Do I smell a SpaceX and FedEx merger in the future?

I just want to point to the previous done and now the whole world facing this crap @!$%# consequences of global warming effect and carbon trading system don't quite convincing vice versa.

Facsinating, excited, all experimental, ....... Take it out clear of the impacts. This world not only simply, its dimply..... Formats, settings... Chasing clouds like it be OK but what if??/ Armageddon!!! Orbital!!! You women want to stop your menstruals???

Congratulations to SpaceX. They worked hard, very hard to get this done. They did what only a few countries have been able to do. Positively an achievement to be proud of.

Ok, what is your next big move? I'm waiting to see.

Thanks again SpaceX! You have shown the world what "FREE ENTERPRISE" is capable of doing. Twenty years from now (providing we don't blow ourselves off the planet) all this blather about cost will be a quaint topic for discussion during afternoon teas. Bring on the competition and let's get it started down here. GO SPACEX!

there is no doubt this is a great milestone in humanity, Surely the takeoff and land without the bouncy part will come in due time (hope it's one of my inventions and I am sure you hope it's one of yours)....meanwhile, let's hope America can parlay this brief lead and as well that other countries can follow suit!! A Unified Planetary federation pretty much demands it. And I mean aside from the SF stuff. Take oceanic trade for example, it has made the world smaller and of course aircraft can take off and land pretty much from and to the entire world with no hassle and a standardized set of systems and operating procedures...which is my point, let us set the standard by which the rest measure up, as fecisous as that is. Lastly, I remember when I first signed on to the technology transfer program from nasa....the transfer fees were (as I saw it) quite unbalanced, but man did it really seem like it got out of hand..here the bottom line is, I WANT ACCESS TO THAT AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY!!!...how can I hope to compete? anyone wanna sign on to a new paypal or google or something??....I say give all my small biz competitors a helping hand with the tech that everyones collective taxes helped pay for, give us some means of access to the tech, I am past the point of begging for it, bush policies actually restricted public access, at the very least we must get back to where we once were, sure, keep it in america, all for that, but find some avenues where we the people can share some of that wealth of information, not just dole it to the wealthiest like a special cherry pie.....now I know when the likes of us post on these boards, WE WOULD NEVER GET ANY CREDIT FOR IT, the ratt paks inc, call that free food, so give some of it back to us, we need it, and it will help the country grow stronger in the long term. It is common sense. end of soap box, for now.