SpaceX made history today by becoming the first private company to launch a spacecraft toward the International Space Station. The unmanned rocket is carrying 1,000 pounds of much-needed cargo to the crews aboard ISS, and its mission is all the more important now that the U.S. has abandoned the manned Shuttle program. For the foreseeable future, SpaceX and other private companies will take over the responsibility of resupplying the ISS, in part because they can do it at a much lower cost, and in part because it gives NASA the flexibility to innovate in other fields. Sounds like a win-win situation for everyone involved.
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