In the news, private space company, SpaceX, successfully sent it's unmanned spaceship to the ISS, where in easily docked to begin unloading it's payload.

The flight was notable for several reasons.

  "...Dragon’s flight was not uneventful: one of the spacecraft’s nine rocket engines failed during the launch. However, the craft, which is designed to be able to launch with only seven operational engines, recalculated a new ascent profile, relieved pressure in the blocked rocket, and successfully inserted into orbit.

Building a space launch vehicle that can successfully complete missions even when things go wrong is impressive design, and SpaceX says that no other currently operational rockets have the same ability.

In addition, it’s worth noting that, while spaceflight may never be cheap, the cost for SpaceX to deliver supplies and groceries to low-earth orbit are approximately half NASA’s now-shuttered Space Shuttle. Lifting a kilogram of cargo to low earth orbit costs Spacex about $5000; the shuttle burned about $10,000 to accomplish the same feat.

The Dragon will stay at the ISS for an expected two and half weeks, and then return to earth with a cargo from the space station."

Go private industry!