Thursday, December 15, 2011
SpaceX: Build Your Own Falcon 9 Rocket
Fans of Hawthorne-based SpaceX, the commercial rocket firm of Elon Musk, have been riding high this week, with the approval of its NASA launch mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for February. Plus, the firm has also just been tapped by new space startup Stratolaunch--backed by Microsoft billionaire Paul G. Allen--to help power that company's own space efforts. However, what might make fans of the company the happiest, is the firm said today that anyone can now build their own, Falcon 9 Rocket--albeit, as a 1:88 scale model--in the next few weeks, via a Falcon 9/Dragon model kit. SpaceX said the model kits are currently in production, and allow anyone to build and fly their own, 1:88 scale model of the Space X Falcon 9 with the Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX explained the kits will allow anyone to launch their own Falcon 9, and includes dual parachutes to return the actual, launch-able rocket back to Earth.