By Kathleen Caulderwood - After weeks of subtle hints, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. CEO Elon Musk on Thursday will unveil its latest “space taxi,” the next in a line of ships built with NASA made to ferry American astronauts and equipment to the International Space Station without help from Russia.
“Cover drops on May 29. Actual flight design hardware of crew Dragon, not a mockup,” the billionaire business magnate wrote in a tweet on April 29. On Tuesday, Universe Today reported that the unveiling will happen at the company’s Hawthorne, California headquarters for a private audience.
In 2012 the original Dragon model became the first non-government spacecraft to deliver cargo to the ISS and return safely to earth, and has made the trip several times since then. The new ship, called the Dragon V2, is an updated version outfitted to carry a crew, and is the latest result of a $1.6 billion public-private partnership with NASA to ensure American crews can get to and from the station on their own.
Astronauts currently use Russian Soyuz capsules to make this trip, at a price of $71 million per seat, with an outstanding bill of $457.9 million for their services. a price that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden called “unacceptable” according to the Washington Post. The situation is made more awkward given the political tensions between Russia and the United States over Ukraine.
“After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest to the USA to bring their astronauts to the International Space Station using a trampoline,” said Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in April, prompting Musk to respond via Twitter:
“Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that @SpaceX has been working on with @NASA,” he wrote.
“No trampoline needed.”'