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SpaceX successfully launches cargo Dragon to ISS

Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully launched a cargo Dragon freighter to ISS.

This is the third flight for this Dragon capsule. It was also the last flight of the company’s first generation Dragon capsules. The company also successfully landed the first stage, which was on its second flight. This was the fiftieth time they have successfully done this. I have embedded the launch video below the fold.

The leaders in the 2020 launch race:

4 China
4 SpaceX
2 Arianespace (Europe)
2 Russia

The U.S. now leads China 7 to 4 in the national rankings.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • sippin_bourbon

    Watching these things land never get old.

    It may in time.. But not yet.

  • Lee S

    It makes the hairs on my arms stand up … And puts a grin on my face every time…. It’s crazy but wonderful that my kids think this is the way to do space…. They think it’s stupid when rockets don’t come back and land…. Which is really how it should be… Go SpaceX!

  • Edward_2

    I don’t understand how “the U.S. now leads China 7 to 4 in the national rankings” when the Launch Table states that SpaceX has 4 launches to its credit. Where do an additional 3 come from?

    > The leaders in the 2020 launch race:

    > 4 China
    > 4 SpaceX
    > 2 Arianespace (Europe)
    > 2 Russia

    ?

  • Edward_2: I am only listing the leaders in the race. Earlier reports were more complete, but as the year progresses I don’t show them all. Gets too long.

    Do a search on Behind the Black for “launch race” and you will find the earlier reports that included the other U.S. companies that have completed launches.

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