Just over a month after its first successful rocket launch, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. plans to market a new spacecraft it is developing.
Known as SpaceX, the Hawthorne developer of experimental low-cost rockets said Monday that it will commercialize a version of a free-flying reusable spacecraft it is making for NASA.
SpaceX has invited government and commercial representatives to a workshop on Thursday to introduce the DragonLab spacecraft concept.
The vehicle will be similar to the Dragon, which the company is developing to ferry cargo and people to and from the international space station.
During the workshop, SpaceX also hopes to learn about potential customers' needs in space transportation.
Would-be clients for the DragonLab include universities, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, the Department of Defense as well as NASA.
Possible DragonLab applications include conducting microgravity experiments, deploying small spacecraft into orbit and recovering pressurized payloads -- needing environmental control -- and unpressurized payloads, which can survive in the vacuum of space.
"There's been a wide range of different sectors, many of whom are within NASA and the DoD, many of whom are losing the opportunity to fly in space with the space shuttle ending in 2010," Max Vozoff, product manager for Dragon and DragonLab, said in an interview.
The DragonLab would be launched into orbit from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a payload up to 13,200 pounds.
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