Rep. Rohrabacher Congratulates SpaceX on Successful Inaugural Test Mission

“A Victory for SpaceX, NASA and America…”

Washington, May 31 – Today, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) issued the following statement congratulating Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) on their successful inaugural test mission to bring cargo to the International Space Station, as part of NASA’s Commercial Cargo (COTS) demonstration program:

“For the first time ever, NASA will now be a customer purchasing cargo delivery services to space from an American company. When the SpaceX Dragon capsule departed from the International Space Station, splashed down off the California coast, and returned cargo and experiments to Earth from space, it successfully completed all of the milestones of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.

“This is a victory for SpaceX, NASA and America. Our national science enterprise will now be able to leverage the power of free markets, private enterprise, and commercial solutions.

“SpaceX’s success represents a bold step toward a future where the free market is unleashed to move humanity beyond the constraints of gravity away from government owned and operated vehicles. I look forward to these missions becoming more routine, and for our nation to move to the next step – leveraging the inherent innovation and competition of the commercial approach for crewed missions on the frontier of space.”

Rep. Rohrabacher is a senior member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.