The Real Beginning of the Commercial Spaceflight Era

We've been waiting for commercial spaceflight ever since the Pan Am Orion III space plane lifted Dr. Floyd to Clavius Base in 2001: A Space Odyssey. (I'll admit to having cheated and looked up the name of the base.) By 1997, commercial companies were using the Eastern Test Range regularly to test rockets. In 2004, Virgin Galactic formed with the intention of using private money to put private individuals into space. But time marched on, no one bought a ticket to space, and commercial spaceflight looked like it was always on the horizon, never getting any closer.

Pan Am won't be flying us to the moon any time soon (especially since it was shuttered in 1991), but this week we crossed the threshold into an era where commercial spaceflight exists.

At 8:35 Eastern Time on Sunday, a rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral to bring supplies to the International Space Station. Like many missions before it, this flight, officially labeled CRS-1, will bring cargo and supplies to the space station. The difference is, this time the rocket and capsule are entirely built and operated by a commercial company.

The rocket was the SpaceX Falcon 9, and the capsule was the SpaceX Dragon. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell had the following to say about the launch: "It's just awesome."

Yes. Yes it is.