CNN news 2011-04-11 加文本

cnn news 2011-04-11

AZUZ: Gagarin went into space on a Soviet rocket. Shepherd and Armstrong went up in U.S. spacecraft. Tito rode on a Russian vehicle. But all of those were launched by government-run space agencies. With the space shuttle program getting ready to end, NASA is turning to outside companies to take over future flights. John Zarrella checks out how this new space race is going.

JOHN ZARRELLA, cnn CORRESPONDENT: Elon Musk is like a big kid with a new toy.

ELON MUSK, SPACE X CEO: We designed this to be super tough. I mean, you can beat the snot out of it and it will still work.

ZARRELLA: Musk's toy just happens to be a spacecraft. He sunk $100 million of his own money into developing it. We caught up with Musk and his Dragon capsule in Washington, D.C., where it was on display: the first commercially-owned vehicle to ever circle the Earth and land safely back.

MUSK: The guy who was the chief designer of the 747, when he saw that thing take off, he says, "I can't believe it works."

ZARRELLA: You say the same thing, don't you?

MUSK: That's how I feel!

ZARRELLA: Musk's company, Space X, is considered the leader in what is quickly becoming a commercial race to space.

MUSK: Races are good.

ZARRELLA: There's little doubt the race is now on. ATK, the company that builds the shuttle's solid rocket boosters, announced it's going to build a rocket called Liberty. Bigger, ATK boasts, than Musk's Falcon 9. And this month, NASA is expected to announce the names of half a dozen commercial companies getting seed money to start developing vehicles to replace the shuttle for carrying astronauts to the international space station.

CHARLIE BOLDEN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Ideally, we would like to have multiple competitors who come down to at least two that we can use, so that we always have an alternative should one be faulty or one fail.

ZARRELLA: The Space X Dragon would be modified to carry astronauts.

MUSK: It's highly likely that we will get one of the contracts from NASA to launch astronauts, and I'm also confident we will be the first to do so.

ZARRELLA: Space X already has a contract for a dozen cargo flights to the station starting next year. This summer, the company expects to make its last Dragon test flight, which is likely to be a docking with the space station. And as long as you're going, don't show up empty handed.

MUSK: We're carrying mostly food and water. That's stuff that has high value once you're in orbit, but if you blow up a cheeseburger, it's not that bad.

ZARRELLA: Musk says despite the successes so far, a failure along the way would not be a surprise. This is, after all, rocket science. John Zarrella, cnn, Washington.