Next week, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule will carry two NASA astronauts into orbit. By Adam MannOn 27 May, NASA will launch people into space from U.S.
soil for the first time since 2011, when the space shuttle Atlantis roared aloft on its final voyage. This time, astronauts will be riding to the International Space Station (ISS) not on a NASA rocket, but aboard vehicles bought from the private space company SpaceX: the Dragon 2 capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket.The occasion marks yet another milestone for the private California company, which over the past decade has gone from underdog to dominator.
SpaceX now handles about two-thirds of NASA’s launches, including many research payloads, with flights as cheap as $62 million, roughly half the price