SpaceX Dragon on it way to ISS

Following last night's successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, the Dragon spacecraft is in orbit and proceeding with it's CRS-1 mission.  If you missed the launch, here are photos and video.

Dragon is in pursuit of the ISS, as can be seen here (great visualization - highly recommended).  Dragon is conducting a series of burns today to close the distance between the craft and establish a circular orbit.  Tomorrow it is scheduled to slowly approach the station - getting approval to proceed at various distances - until it is within reach of the ISS's Canada arm, where it will be grabbed and moved into docking position.  The following day the hatch will be opened and the offloading of cargo will start.  I wonder if the ISS crew will go straight for the ice cream.

But not all went perfectly, as it appears that one of the engines may have "blown out".  The Falcon rocket is designed to be able to obtain orbit even with an engine failure - which it did by autonomously shutting down the engine and burning the other 8 longer in order to achieve the orbit needed for ISS rendezvous.  And while this successfully demonstrated Falcon's "engine-out" capability (it's ability to survive an engine failure), it may have jeopardized the orbit of the secondary payload that was deployed (an Orbcomm satellite that was supposed to be placed into a 300 × 750 km orbit, but which may have fallen short).  I will followup on this the details emerge.

Still, another good launch for the Falcon rocket.  And SpaceX is on the way to making history... again.  And the U.S. has established an American resupply capability.  We still need to rely on international partners for crew transport - for now - but this is a big step in the right direction.

Congratulations SpaceX!  Congratulations NASA!

[Update]  According to an Orbcomm press release, the satellite was indeed placed into a "lower than intended" orbit.  Orbcomm is working with the manufacturer's engineers to determine if the satellite's on-board propulsion can be used to obtain the required working orbit.  According to the press release, although the engine failure was compensated for, it caused the rocket to fail a "pre-planned International Space Station (ISS) safety gate", which disallowed a second burn that was needed to place the satellite into the desired orbit.