NINE minutes into its maiden voyage, the privately owned Falcon 9 rocket was in orbit, scoring major points for the idea of commercial space taxis. But a crucial safety hurdle still looms.
The company SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, wants to use its rocket to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station after the remaining space shuttles retire at the end of 2010. The success of Falcon 9鈥檚 first flight on 4 June bolstered its case, but SpaceX still needs to build an ejection system. In the event of a stalled or exploding rocket, this would hurl the crew capsule away from the rocket and parachute it to safety.
Such a system whisked two Soviet astronauts to safety in 1983 when their rocket exploded on the launch pad. NASA has set the bar higher by requiring that future launchers are also capable of ejecting mid-flight, a scenario which makes it harder to control the capsule, says Robert Dickman of the .
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