Free Republic

Besides food and experiments, the Dragon cargo ship ordered up by NASA holds a new docking port, or parking place, for future commercial crew capsules. Liftoff is scheduled for 10:21 a.m. Sunday. Good flying weather is forecast for SpaceX's unmanned Falcon rocket. This shipment is especially critical because the space station has lost two deliveries since fall. A Russian supply ship spun out of control shortly after liftoff in April and burned up on re-entry with all its contents. In October, an Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo carrier was destroyed in a Virginia launch explosion. Once again, SpaceX is picking up...

Once again, SpaceX will try to recover a very expensive part of its rocket after launching it into space. If SpaceX succeeds in recovering the first stage of its rocket after its 10:21 a.m. ET launch on Sunday at Florida's Cape Canaveral, it will be a historical achievement. It will push space travel further toward a future in which people, satellites and other items can be inexpensively launched into orbit.

SpaceX just failed at its third attempt..

An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket traveling at 2,900 mph, about 27 miles above the earth disintegrated 2 minutes and 19 seconds into its flight from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station. It was a severe blow to NASA, still reeling from two previous failed Space Station resupply missions. The SpaceX failure is a reprieve for Russia’s Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft that will remain the prime Space Station servicer, despite recently renewed US sanctions against Russia. The SpaceX launch, its seventh robotic cargo mission to the International Space Station, was running at what NASA called “on course, on track” before...