Delay for space station's 1st private cargo run

If SpaceX and other private companies manage to completely replace NASA's role of providing Low Earth Orbit, they'll make it a LOT cheaper, and they'll introduce a lot of innovative and interesting ideas to get us into orbit cheaply. Think of humanity getting into space like laying a bride. The early foundation will be weak cables. Once we establish it, we have to gradually make it stronger. What these private companies can do is give us the techniques and tools to get into orbit cheaply. That way, NASA can concentrate on getting further than that, and improving on that technology to get larger payloads up.

SpaceX is awesome, and I love seeing civilian space travel get closer to reality. Unfortunately another reality is that space travel is tricky business regardless of who's business it is.

its only a few weeks.
its gonna be nice when its done.

Why is it the lowest bidder costs the most money and gets the least done? Billions of dollars was allocated for the heavy lift program, Orion and Constellation which General Bolden canceled under orders of the Presidency without legal consent or notification to congress. The cancellation destroyed countless careers, eliminated over twenty thousand jobs and thousands of businesses and employees who supplied manufacturing and manufactured components for the Space Program. Whose pocket did that go into?
This administration, like the last one, seems to deal more in death than discovery.
And we are shorted with a NASA being dismembered, and forced, by Obama Administration to beg and buy a ride from Russia. So very sad.

Could the stalwart companies do the same thing? Sure. But they've become so locked in to Congressional decision-making that they only move when Congress tells them to. Space-X Dragon will be dependably delivering payloads while the competition is still held up in one committee or another.

Oh ya, the good eng's don't want to move or live in Huntsville, Alabama!!!!!!! What a boring town, nothing to do. The people are clannish. The colleges suck, restaurants suck, the schools suck, the roads and infrastructure suck, home prices are high in the better areas, crime is high, poor medical care and if you don't go to CHURCH your a sinner outcast! It just SUCKS!

Many of us eng's in the rocket industry have gone to and left Space-X. Why, because Elon Musk is a hot head that has insisted his employees take unacceptable risks that they felt would endanger the mission. You can't tell this guy nothing he does not already know. And that makes it all very dangerous.

This shows how messed up our program really is, the military has a beautiful shuttle that could be easily converted to take passengers and cargo to the space station! But they won't let NASA use it!! Who really runs our country? Is it the citizens, is that Congress? Or is it the military?

Ya, Russia is leading the US now in science. More out sourcing of american manufacturing jobs. Why? I have worked in the launch biz for 21 years. I am 55 now and can't get a job. Why? US HR people / companies do not appreciate the experience of the employees that put the US into space in the first place. We are the people who the younger engineers should be learning from. Instead they hire a college grad and set them at a desk and walk away and expect them to come up with something they have never done before. Stupid!

"Several hundred pounds"; I wonder what the $/lb cost is. It appears as though they have a long way to go to replace the Russian supply runs.

to retire the shuttle was ok what u should have done is built a few more the shuttle works great what is wrong with u nasa. such stupidity in this country now too much leaning on other countries instead of making our own country the best.

Whatever happened to "on-time and on-budget"? I thought that private industry was supposed to be so great compared to NASA. After all the hype, we find out - SURPRISE! - that they have problems too.

Now the real question. Does SpaceX lose a portion of its payment for the delay? If not, why not?

Why doesn't NASA just contract with Boeing to build a nice little shuttles at the military have and use those to deliver astronauts and cargo to our space to nation?

I'm sorry but they do not have near enough space experience yet for them to be allowed anywhere near the space station. We need them to be certified with many other staged dockings in space, before they can dock with the space station. The certification process for the space shuttle main engines alone was tens of thousands of seconds of sucessful tests long before being certified to launch a man. Docking should be the same very strict guidlines. You do not just launch and start docking with no record of missions. This kind of approach is an accident in the making. Space can only be done with the most ultra conserative and strick certifications. If any engine failure set back the SSME, the certification process went back to zero seconds of testing. One wrong bump on the space station docking at its could be vehicle and crew total loss.

When Obama is gone we can get back to science and technology, and get this country back on course.

oh yea and when civilian space travel makes nasa look like fools they will tax them and regulate them to death

Back to the drawing-board type of failure. Better to find the flaw now than when the craft is dangerously close to the space station. For those who rushed to shut down the US Space Shuttle- You guys should be forced to pick up a box and start walking to Russia to load their rocket.

This is a REALLY bad idea. These guys don't understand reliabiluty, radiation or any of the other threats that are inherent to operation in space. Space is expensive because it's freakin' hard.
Hint: Star Trek is fiction.

I just hope nuttin' goes wrong and we end up wit a mess liken da big ol' boat ova der in itialay.

WHAT A BIG SHOCK!!! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ..... the BOON DOGGLE IS BEING EXPOSED!! Guess SpacedX can't find enough D-Cell Batteries for their Racket Ship???

Don't you just LOVE THIS LINE: "This first Dragon capsule to visit the space station will carry several hundred pounds of astronaut provisions — nothing crucial, in case of a failure." ..... nothing crucial, in case of a failure.!!! WOW AIN'T THAT SOME CONFIDENCE!!!

Wonder how much of the Federal Funding is a KICK BACK INTO THE DEMOCRAT PARTY COFFERS!!!????