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SpaceX have finished putting together their Falcon 9 heavy lifter rocket. Pics of the biggest new-year rocket here. Falcon 9 and the booster-wrapped Falcon 9 Heavy are the rockets that are contracted to resupply the ISS (under NASA's COTS programme), so here's hoping the demo launch in a few months goes OK.
SpaceX have done it on the third try - their Falcon 1 rocket went up and came back down again without any earth-shattering kaboom. What they're flying is basically a regular rocket, so it's not the reuseable suborbital vehicle that Virgin have put up, but it goes way higher, and is actually useful in itself. What next? The first private manned misison? SS2, hurry up! It's like the 1960s only with better hair.
