Spacex Preparing For February 7 2012 Mission

NASA recently announced February 7, 2012, as the new target launch date for the upcoming mission to visit the International Space Station (ISS). In addition, NASA officially confirmed that SpaceX will be allowed to complete the objectives of COTS 2 and COTS 3 in a single mission.The COTS 2 and COTS 3 objectives of the flight include approach, berthing with the ISS, astronauts opening Dragon and unloading cargo, and finally astronauts closing the spacecraft and sending it back to Earth for recovery from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.The SpaceX Falcon-9 Dragon mission marks a major milestone in American spaceflight. While the first missions to the ISS will be to transport cargo, both Falcon 9 and Dragon were designed to ultimately transport astronauts - expected by mid-decade.

Source: space-wanderers.blogspot.com