The Dragon spacecraft just took off successfully from Cape Canaveral using a Falcon 9 rocket and after about 10 minutes it reached orbit. It’s the first spacecraft built by a private company headed toward the International Space Station. The cargo it’s carrying includes supplies but also the ashes of astronaut Gordon Cooper, who died in 2004, and actor James Doohan – “Scotty” in Star Trek – who died in 2005.

Yesterday, the Space Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise arrived in New York atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, the specially Boeing 747 modified to transport the Space Shuttles. In a few weeks the Enterprise will be transported to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum to be exhibited.

Yesterday, the Space Shuttle Discovery, after arriving in Washington last Tuesday, was officially handed over to the Smithsonian Institute with a solemn ceremony. Soon it will be on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Institute’s National Air and Space Museum. During the ceremony, the Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery appeared next to the Space Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise, a prototype built for atmosphere tests that for some time was exhibited the Smithsonian Institute.

The Space Shuttle Discovery arrived in Washington D.C. to be brought to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum, where it will be exposed.

At 11.00 Central European Time this morning the new European Vega (Vettore Europeo di Generazione Avanzata, the Italian for European Advanced Generation Carrier Rocket) launcher lift off from the European launch base in French Guiana to successfully achieve what is called qualification flight, which is the first real flight in which it carries a payload of satellites that were placed in orbit.