4.8 Space Exploration & Travel

SpaceX

Private enterprise such as SpaceX manufacture and launch reusable rockets and spacecraft. These 'space taxis' can ferry cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA is supportive of  the private business ventures of SpaceX and Orbital ATK and see both as positive developments. 

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition Flight Engineer Don Pettit and Joe Acaba of NASA and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers opened the hatch to SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft and entered the vehicle May 26, 2012, one day after the world's first commercial cargo spacecraft was berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module. Dragon remained berthed to Harmony for 5 days, enabling the crew to unload supplies for the station's residents before it is re-grappled and released to return to Earth for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California.