Added 4 new A* pages:Okay, I think I figured out who Mar looks like. A certain bloomin' penguin
perhaps?
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Space news! The private space transport company SpaceX successfully launched and landed their SpaceX Dragon capsule; it went up from Cape Canaveral on their "Falcon 9" rocket, took two spins around Earth, and made a soft splash landing in the Pacific, west of Mexico. So it's nice to see that private industry has caught up with where NASA was about 60 years ago. ;) The "Dragon" was unmanned for this test launch, but the plan is that it will ferry people/supplies up to the International Space Station once the US's Space Shuttle program ends in 2011: the next flight will be a fly-by of the ISS, then an actual mission carrying cargo and crew to the station; SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract "to provide 12 spacecraft with cargo capacity of at least 20 tonnes to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) through 2016."
Another company, Orbital Space Corporation, has a $1.9 billion contract for eight launches—from Virginia, rather than Florida—of its Taurus II rocket, also starting in 2011.
So, go private space industry, I guess! And where's my darn flying car?
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In other private space / science news, private lasers are getting more dangerous. Watch out, Falcon 9! :o
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