Today’s launch of a Dragon cargo capsule full of supplies for the International Space Station did not go well.  The Falcon 9 rocket exploded shortly before second stage ignition.  Video clip here.

This was the first Falcon 9 failure after 18 successful launches, but there have been recent Russian launch failures as well. All together, two [correction: three] cargo shipments to the ISS have been lost in the last few months, and experts are starting to get concerned.  Already a planned increase in crew size has been delayed.

Let’s hope the engineering teams can quickly figure out what went wrong and get their programs back on track.

[update] Another ISS cargo shipment is scheduled for launch Friday from Russia; keep your fingers crossed.