Regular readers here on the 'Bot will have noticed my strange (Almost Soviet) obsession with the planet Venus, rather than Mars. It's closer, easier to get to, has more shielding from radiation (Thanks to that atmosphere), and it's got very nearly earth-normal gravity.

Today the launch of the Falcon 9 was aborted at t minus 2 seconds. The count has been recycled to t minus 15 minutes. SpaceX has the ability to do a fast recycle and launch which happen with one of the Falcon One test flight's.

Update the Falcon 9 launched at 2:45pm EDT and the mock up Dragon capsule is in orbit.

The Shuttle Atlantis landed for possibly the last time yesterday at the Kennedy Space Center ending its 32 flight. Atlantis will now be readied as a rescue ship for Discovery’s flight in September. NASA is lobbing congress for one more flight of Atlantis is use the last external fuel tank and solid booster set.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts132/100526land/

The Air Force announced that the flight of the X-51 waverider was a success and that it broke all previous scramjet records.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1005/27waverider/

How much does it cost to put stuff in space?

Allowing for inflation, comparing late 1960s dollars to modern dollars, a Saturn V cost about a half billion dollars to build and fly, and a shuttle costs about a billion just to fly. (Construction costs are about 4 billion, but obviously you can amortize them over time, which you couldn't with a Saturn.)