I have received notice that SpaceX will be running an engine test firing on the pad pretty soon. The second test flight of the Falcon 9 includes a full up Dragon capsule and they will be attempting their first test of the re-entry and recovery of the cargo (and later on passenger) capsule.
I suspect the political situation may have caused them to wait awhile on this, although the time since the first test flight is not overly long ago, only a matter of a few months. I am assuming that Elon would not want to risk a test flight failure during the time when the porkers in Congress were in a frenzy looking for any ammunition they could find to keep all funds flowing to the Ministries of Aviation rather than purchasing services from commercial space providers.
Since the House voted by a very wide margin to accept the Senate bill (which did not cut private space usage nearly as deeply), SpaceX can now risk a second flight.
I give the second flight about 90% chance of attaining orbit like the first flight and 50% chance of a successful re-entry and recovery of the Dragon capsule.
I will keep you informed as I hear more…. oh, and by the way. there was a successful drop test of SpaceShipTwo today.
Yes, great to see SpaceShipTwo finally having a glide flight! But have they got an engine for it?
I can’t recall whether it has been mentioned here that XCOR have successfully completed both subsonic and supersonic wind-tunnel tests of the Lynx:
http://is.gd/fW9jx
For those who don’t keep close track of these things:
SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon: fairly conventional medium-lift liquid fueled disposable rocket with larger than Apollo capsule. Every component has been developed and tested from scratch for about the cost of one shuttle flight. Can take seven astronauts, or lift six tonnes of cargo to orbit (and can return 3 tonnes to Earth, which nothing except the Shuttle can do).
Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo: 8 person hybrid rocket powered airplane carried to 50,000 ft by custom-built WK2 carrier airplane and then capable of reaching 110 km — into space, but not fast enough for orbit. Intended for tourist flights spending several minutes in freefall in space, or launching very small satellites (a few kg).
XCOR Lynx: 2 person liquid fueled rocket powered airplane. Designed to take off from a normal runway then climb to 60 km for the Mk I prototype (100+ km for the Mk II production model). Similar mission to SS2. Fewer paying passengers (1 vs 6) but expected to be far cheaper to operate and capable of 4+ flights a day resulting in lower ticket prices.