SpaceX and Its Mission

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This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish A rocket designed and built by a privately owned company recently made history by bringing a supply capsule to the International Space Station. It was the first private spacecraft to carry out such a mission. The company SpaceX launched its Dragon space capsule on the company's Falcon 9 rocket. It was launched May twenty-second from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX mission controllers celebrated when the rocket reached orbit and its solar panels deployed. Three days earlier, a launch attempt was cancelled at the last second when a computer found a problem with the engine. Astronauts on the International Space Station used its robotic arm to secure the capsule. Later, they released the Dragon capsule and it returned to Earth. It landed in the Pacific Ocean after its nine-day mission. Charlie Bolden is the head of NASA, the American space agency. He spoke to reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the rocket was launched. "The significance of this day cannot be overstated." he said. The head of SpaceX watched the launch from company headquarters in California. Elon Musk compared it to winning the Super Bowl. He said there was so much hope riding on that rocket. There was "tremendous elation," he said, when his employees saw all their work operating as it should in space. NASA has invested about four hundred million dollars in SpaceX to hel

Published 2012-06-26 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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