Fri, 10 December 2010 . Details Behind Wednesday's Successful COTS Demo 1 Flight We're still all abuzz over t' successful SpaceX/NASA collaboration that resulted in t' first commercial payload orbited and recovered back t' dear old Mother Earth. Aye aye! While ANN's aerospace affiliations have made it easy for us t' stay close t' t' action and t' people makin' it happen, we simply must admit t' more than a little envy o' all that occurred and t' very talented people who made it happen. This is serious hairy-chested real-live rocket science and it would nay be unusual, maybe even expected, for them t' have had a LOT more trouble with t' Falcon9 program by now... but they haven't and history has truly been made. And better yet, SpaceX's Dragon has orbited t' Earth and come home safely. Dragon is a free-flying, reusable spacecraft bein' developed by SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Avast! Initiated internally by SpaceX in 2005, t' Dragon spacecraft is made up o' a pressurized capsule and unpressurized trunk used for Earth t' LEO transport o' pressurized cargo, shiver me timbers, unpressurized cargo, me bucko, and/or crew members. Begad! In December 2008, NASA announced t' selection o' SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft t' resupply t' International Space Station (ISS) when t' Space Shuttle retires. Avast, me proud beauty! T' $1.6 billion contract represents a minimum o' 12 flights, with an option t' order additional missions for a cumulative total contract value o' up t' ...