Dragon Flies

Well, it looks like NASA was right. After delaying the first flight of the Falcon 9/Dragon configuration yesterday, SpaceX initially said the launch would not be attempted until Thursday at the earliest. NASA engineers said maybe Wednesday. In fact, Dragon is in low Earth orbit after a successful launch and a successful burn of the second stage rocket. This is the second consecutive successful launch of a Falcon 9-- itself a good achievement for a new company operating a new rocket system. If Dragon is recovered by SpaceX personnel after a splashdown in the Pacific as planned, that would be another first for a private company.