Paypal billionaire and low-key mad scientist Elon Musk is set to unveil SpaceX’s first commercial astronaut ferry, the Dragon V2, at 7pm PT. Version 1.0 of the Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver goods to the International Space Station.
In addition to pioneering commercial space travel, this spacecraft could help America’s space program work through it’s rocky relationship with the Russian government. The U.S. currently shells out $70 million per seat on the Russian Soyuz rocket. But, as Cold War-era tensions between Vladimir Putin and President Obama rise, NASA will need a friendlier ride to space. After Deputry Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin joked that NASA would have to resort to trampolines, Musk tweeted:
Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that @SpaceX has been working on w @NASA. No trampoline needed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2014
The Dragon V2 will reportedly have enough room to for both cargo and seven brave astronauts. We could speculate more, but we’ll have more details about the space hardware soon enough.
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