This morning, Elon Musk’s SpaceX program shot its third rocket into space. The Falcon 9 carries with it a Dragon cargo capsule, and will deliver supplies to ISS astronauts not entirely unlike a 19th century freight train delivering mining equipment to California. The launch, as you can see in the video above, went off without a hitch.
If you have worried for even a second about the future of mankind in space, don’t. It’s clearly in good hands. And as majestic as ever.
Update: While the launch itself went flawlessly, there are now reports that the Dragon capsule has experienced difficulty after separation. Early speculation is that it may be related to the deployment of the solar array:
#SpaceX #Dragon trouble occurred about the same time as solar array deploy, a critical milestone in flight
— Space Team (@SpaceTeam) March 1, 2013
Update 2:: After some initial problems with the thrusters, the solar array has been deployed successfully. All is well!
Solar array deployment successful
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 1, 2013
