SPACE NEWS: NASA clears SpaceX for trial run to space station. “A private company will make a trial cargo run to the International Space Station in February, a key step in a new U.S. program to buy spaceflight services on a commercial basis, NASA said on Friday. California-based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on February 7.”

Obama’s space policy is one of his few initiatives that looks like it’s working.