At the beginning of this week on Sunday early in the morning, the dawn of the new commercial space age became official.
Space X managed to dock it's Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. Why is this a big deal? Because this was part of a test called Demo-1 (short for demonstration 1) in order to certify the capsule for human missions. This is a big deal because it would be the first time a privately owned non-governmental organization has carried humans on a mission. Further, it'll be the first time that humans have flown from U.S. soil since 2011 when the Space Shuttle program was famously retired. Astronauts up until now have been having to catch flights on Russian owned craft for a hefty sum.
It's a good time for space. China has landed a lunar lander on the far side of the moon (the first time anything has been put on the far side of the moon because it's back is always to Earth). Space IL has launched a lunar lander that is due to land in a couple of months, which would make it the first commercial entity to land a craft on the moon. Japan landed a very non-conventional craft on an asteroid and took plenty of pictures. For all intents and purposes, a new space race, one involving hundreds of commercial entities (or even thousands if you count the various manufacturers, etc., involved), is well on its way.
The Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission isn't done yet. The capsule is due to undock from the station and land via parachute in the ocean some time Thursday. If it's successful, there's a good chance we'll see humans go up on a commercial space ship before the end of the year.
