Resupply

This will be the final flight of this class of resupply spacecraft, named “Kounotori” – the Japanese word for white stork.

You probably read about this elsewhere, but we’d be remiss if we were to omit mention of the two ISS resupply missions launched yesterday… one successful while the other crashed and burned, or perhaps more accurately, burned and crashed.

Before Musk, America’s space industry was moribund. In 2011, NASA mothballed the last space shuttle, after inking a deal with SpaceX to make uncrewed cargo resupply runs to the International Space Station (ISS).

A resupply gives you the chance to refill your fuel bottle as well as your food bag.