April 2012 is promising to be a big month in the future of aviation. Like by blogger-in-arms Mike reported last week, the Space Shuttle Discovery is being transferred to the Smithsonian this month. It will replace Enterprise at Dulles Airport Annex. As one generation is being retired amist much-deserved celebration, the next generation is also taking flight for the second time. SpaceX is expected to make a second launch of their Dragon Capsule, to complete a NASA requirement of docking and re-supply of the International Space Station. This will be the first commercial re-supply mission to the orbiting outpost and is expected to pave the way for Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft later this year. Also, this is the first step towards man-rating these commercial rockets so they may one day fly astronauts to and from the Space Station, or to other commercial locations.
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