Perlombaan Perusahaan Swasta Menuju Ruang Angkasa

Pihak NASA mengatakan bahwa Space X menjadi perusahaan swasta pertama yang meluncurkan pesawatnya ke International Space Station (ISS), untuk misi pengangkutan kargo.

Falcon 9 and Dragon liftoff at 8:35 PM ET.
Now on their way to the International Space Station.

Allhamdulilah Ilmuwan Muda akhirnya dapat menonton saat bersejarah dimana pesawat luar angkasa buatan perusahaan swasta pertama meluncur ke luar angkasa membawa kargo.

http://www.spacex.com/

 Data Perusahaan

SpaceX

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
Type	Private
Industry	Aerospace
Founded	2002
Headquarters	Hawthorne, California, USA
Key people	Elon Musk (CEO and CTO) Gwynne Shotwell (President) Tom Mueller Co-Founder and VP of Propulsion
Services	Orbital rocket launch
Employees	1,800 (2012)
Website	SpaceX.com

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation is a space transport company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by former PayPal entrepreneur Elon Musk. It has developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles, both of which were designed from conception to eventually become reusable. SpaceX also developed the Dragon spacecraft to be flown into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, initially transporting cargo and later planned to carry humans. On 25 May 2012, SpaceX made history as the world's first privately held company to send a cargo payload, carried on the Dragon spacecraft, to the International Space Station.

SpaceX was founded in June 2002 by PayPal and Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk who had invested US$100 million of his own money by March 2006. In January 2005, SpaceX bought a 10% stake in Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. On 4 August 2008, SpaceX accepted a further $20 million investment from the Founders Fund.

The company has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2002, growing from 160 employees in November 2005 to more than 500 by July 2008, to over 1,100 in 2010. Two-thirds of the company is owned by its founder and his 70 million shares are worth $875 million on private markets, which roughly values SpaceX at $1.3 billion as of February 2012. An initial public offering may happen by the end of 2013. After the COTS 2+ flight the company valuation nearly doubled at $2.4 billion.

Musk believes the high prices of other space-launch services are driven in part by unnecessary bureaucracy. He has stated that one of his goals is to improve the cost and reliability of access to space, ultimately by a factor of ten. SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from orbit on 8 December 2010, after its Dragon capsule returned from a two-orbit flight. Space Foundation recognized SpaceX for its successful Dragon launch and recovery with the Space Achievement Award in 2011.

At various conferences, SpaceX has revealed concept slides for future engine, stage, and launch vehicle designs. Development of these designs would be predicated on demand for increased performance. Company plans in 2004 called for "development of a heavy lift product and even a super-heavy, if there is customer demand" with each size increase resulting in a significant decrease in cost per pound to orbit.

CEO Elon Musk said:   "I believe $500 per pound ($1,100/kg) or less is very achievable."

Elon Musk has stated the personal goal of eventually enabling human exploration and settlement of Mars. 

He stated in a 2011 interview that he hopes to send humans to Mars' surface within 10–20 years.

CEO and President Space Exploration Technologies Corporation: 

Mr. Elon Musk & Mrs. Gwynne Shotwell

Merintis peluncuran wahana ke luar angkasa oleh pihak swasta 

Perjalanan menuju keluar angkasa, peluncuran ini menandai sejarah baru ketika sebuah perusahaan swasta meluncurkan wahana ke antariksa. Selama ini, penerbangan ke stasiun luar angkasa hanya dilakukan oleh lembaga pemerintahan.

Ilmuwan muda bersama Roket RX 520 buatan Putra-Putri Terbaik Bangsa 

dari Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional

“Setiap peluncuran ke luar angkasa adalah peristiwa mendebarkan bagi saya, karena saya membayangkan suatu saat Bangsa Indonesia pun dapat melakukan hal yang sama, meluncurkan wahana antariksa buatan putra-putri terbaik bangsa ini"

~Arip~

Keunggulam Roket RX520 ini memiliki spesifikasi yang lebih hebat ketimbang Roket RX420. Sehingga Roket RX520 adalah roket terbesar yang di buat oleh LAPAN, 100% adalah hasil karya anak bangsa, para ilmuwan dan insinyur Indonesia.

Keberhasilan peluncuran roket Indonesia ini ke depan akan membawa Indonesia mampu mendorong dan mengantarkan Satelit Indonesia bernama Nano Satellite sejauh 3.600 km ke angkasa. Satelit Indonesia ini nanti akan berada pada ketinggian 300 km dan kecepatan 7,8 km per detik.

Bila ini terlaksana Indonesia akan menjadi negara yang bisa menerbangkan satelit sendiri dengan produk buatan sendiri. satelit buatan Indonesia tersebut konon rencananya siap di luncurkan paling cepat 2013 dengan dana kurang lebih 20 Milyar Rupiah.

Melihat keberhasilan anak-anak bangsa ini, tentunya kita sangat bangga dan menjadi contoh yang baik untuk generasi muda Indonesia, bahwa ternyata masih ada anak-anak bangsa yang mampu berbuat yang terbaik bagi bangsanya daripada tingkah laku para koruptor-koruptor yang kerjanya justru menghabiskan uang rakyat tanpa ada prestasi yang di raihnya.

Jika kemampuan roket Indonesia ini terus dikembangkan dengan cepat dan dengan strategi yang tepat maka bukan mustahil bangsa ini dalam rentang waktu 15-25 tahun lagi dapat menerbangkan wahana antariksa yang mampu membawa putra-putri terbaik bangsa untuk mengarungi luasnya antariksa.

Setidaknya Bangsa ini memerlukan minimal 100.000 ahli dalam bidang kedirgantaraan dan keluarangkasaan, serta 1000 pengusaha swasta dalam bidang ini.

Bagaimana strateginya?

1. Membangun 40 Pusat Pendidikan IPTEK Dirgantara dan Antariksa di Universitas dan Perguruan Tinggi di Indonesia, serta pemasukan kurikulum iptek ini ke sekolah menengah. Langkah sederhananya adalah membuat kelompok keahlian khusus peneliti IPTEK Dirgantara dan Antariksa di setiap fakultas MIPA di seluruh Indonesia, setelah terjadi perkembangan yang signifikan maka Universitas dan Institusi Perguruan tinggi yang berhasil mengembangkan kelompok keahlian khusus ini diberikan kewenangan dan dana untuk membentuk jurusan atau fakultas yang berfokus pada Iptek Antariksa ini.

Mengirimkan minimal 300 orang pelajar terbaik ke Lembaga Antariksa negara lain seperti ke NASA, JAXA, ESA, CNSA, ISRO dll. untuk menimba IPTEK Antariksa di sana. Ketiga ratus orang ini nantinya memberikan pembinaan pelatihan, pendidikan berkelanjutan dan terus menerus kepada 30.000 orang pelajar di tanah air melalui media Internet.

2. Membangun minimal 20 Pusat Riset, Inovasi, dan Pengembangan IPTEK Kedirgantaraan dan Antariksa di Indonesia. Mengoptimalkan peran-peran laboratorium LAPAN di daerah-daerah dengan berbagai bentuk kerjasama, merancang kerjasama dengan komunitas-komunitas amatir Antariksa di daerah-daerah untuk ikut mensosialisasikan visi Antariksa Indonesia.

3. Memberikan kemudahan modal dan pembinaan kepada para pengusaha muda dalam bidang Dirgantara dan Antariksa sehingga minimal tercipta 25 perusahaan dalam bidang ini.

Kunjungi juga:

1. http://sekolahiptekkeluarangkasaan.blogspot.com/
Indonesian Space Sciences &  Technology School

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies
List of private spaceflight companies

3. http://detekgan.lapan.go.id/
Kedeputian Bidang Iptek Dirgantara LAPAN

4. http://asosiasiuniversitasrisetantariksa.blogspot.com/
Indonesian University Space Research Association

Mengenal James Edwin Webb

James Edwin Webb (October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992) was an American government official who served as the second administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961 to October 7, 1968.

Webb oversaw NASA from the beginning of the Kennedy administration through the end of the Johnson administration, thus overseeing all the critical first manned launches in the Mercury through Gemini programs, until just before the first manned Apollo flight. He also dealt with the Apollo 1 fire.

In 2002, a planned replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope Earth-orbiting astronomical observatory, originally called the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), was renamed the James Webb Space Telescope as a tribute to Webb.

James E. Webb
2nd Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
In office February 14, 1961 – October 7, 1968
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon Johnson
Deputy	Hugh Latimer Dryden Robert Seamans Thomas O. Paine
Preceded by	T. Keith Glennan
Succeeded by	Thomas O. Paine
16th Under Secretary of State
In office January 28, 1949 – February 29, 1952
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Robert A. Lovett
Succeeded by	David K. E. Bruce
7th Director of the Bureau of the Budget
In office July 13, 1946 – January 27, 1949
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Harold D. Smith
Succeeded by	Frank Pace
Personal details
Born	James Edwin Webb October 7, 1906 Tally Ho, North Carolina United States
Died	March 27, 1992(1992-03-27) (aged 85) Washington, District of Columbia United States
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Nationality	USA
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A. George Washington University Law School, J.D.
Occupation	Politician and bureaucrat
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps
Years of service	1930–1932, 1944 – 1945
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel

Biography

 

 

Early years

 

 

Webb was born in the hamlet of Tally Ho in Granville County, North Carolina. His father was superintendent of the Granville County public schools. He completed his college education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received an A.B. degree in education in 1928. He was a member of the Acacia Fraternity. Webb became a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, and he served as a Marine Corps pilot on active duty in 1930–32. Webb then studied law at the The George Washington University Law School where he received a J.D. degree in 1936. In the same year he was admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia.

Career

 

 

Webb enjoyed a long career in public service in Washington, D.C., first serving as a secretary to US Rep. Edward W. Pou of North Carolina in 1932–34. He next served as an assistant in the office of O. Max Gardner, an attorney and former governor of North Carolina, in 1934–36. In 1936, Webb became the personnel director, the secretary-treasurer, and later the vice president of the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn, New York, before he re-entered the Marine Corps in 1944 during World War II.

After World War II, Webb returned to Washington and served as executive assistant to O. Max Gardner, by then an undersecretary in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, before being named as the director of the Bureau of the Budget in the Office of the President of the United States, a position that he held until 1949. President Harry S. Truman next nominated Webb to serve as an undersecretary of state in the U.S. Department of State. 

 Serving as Undersecretary of State during the Era of McCarthy, Webb was instrumental in implementing stringent personnel requirements intended to prevent suspected anarchists, communists and homosexuals from employment with the Department of State. Webb singled out homosexuals in a later report, noting "It is generally believed that those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons."When the Truman administration ended in January 1953, Webb left Washington for a position in the Kerr-McGee Oil Corp. in Oklahoma City, but he was still active in government circles, for instance serving on the Draper Committee in 1958.

NASA

Webb presents NASA's Group Achievement Award to Kennedy Space Center Director Kurt H. Debus, while Werner von Braun (center) looks on.

 

Webb returned to Washington in 1961 when he accepted the position of the Administrator of NASA. Under his direction, the agency undertook to achieve the goal set by President John F. Kennedy of landing an American on the Moon before the end of the 1960s through the Apollo program.

Webb, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Kurt Debus, and President John F. Kennedy receive a briefing on Saturn I launch operations during a tour of Launch Complex 34, September 1962.

For seven years after Kennedy's May 25, 1961, announcement of the goal of a manned lunar landing, through October 1968, Webb lobbied for support for NASA in Congress. As a longtime Washington insider, and with the backing of President Lyndon B. Johnson, he was able to produce continued support for and resources for Apollo.

During his administration, NASA developed from a loose collection of research centers into a coordinated organization. Webb had a key role in creating the Manned Spacecraft Center, later, the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas. Despite the pressures to focus on the Apollo program, Webb ensured that NASA carried out a program of planetary exploration with the Mariner and Pioneer space programs.

After the Apollo 1 accident in 1967, Webb told the media, "We've always known that something like this was going to happen sooner or later. ... Who would have thought that the first tragedy would be on the ground?" Webb went to President Johnson and asked that NASA be allowed to handle the accident investigation, and to direct its recovery. He promised to be truthful in assessing blame, and he pledged to assign that to himself and NASA management, as appropriate. The agency set out to discover the details of the tragedy, to correct problems, and to continue progress toward the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

Webb reported his investigation's findings to various congressional committees, and he took a personal grilling at nearly every meeting. Whether by happenstance or by design, Webb managed to deflect some of the backlash over the accident away from both NASA as an agency and from the Johnson administration. As a result, NASA's image and popular support were largely undamaged.

However, Webb was a Democrat tied closely to Johnson, and, with Johnson choosing not to run for reelection, he decided to step down as administrator to allow the next president to choose his own administrator.

Webb was informed by CIA sources in 1968 that the Soviet Union was developing its own heavy N1 rocket for a manned lunar mission, and he directed NASA to prepare Apollo 8 for a possible lunar orbital mission that year. At the time Webb's assertions about the Soviet Union's abilities were doubted by some people, and the N-1 was dubbed "Webb's Giant". However later revelations about the Soviet Moonshot – after the collapse of the USSR – have given support to Webb's conclusion. Webb left NASA in October 1968, just before the first manned flight in the Apollo program.

In 1969, Webb was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Johnson. He is a 1976 recipient of the Langley Gold Medal from the Smithsonian Institution.

Sumber: Wikipedia