This past weekend, two NASA astronauts returned to Earth in a triumph - not only for America's space industry, but also the free market.
This test flight to the International Space Station is an achievement for SpaceX - the private company that has become the first to send people into space.
What's remarkable is that, after the launch of the last Space Shuttle, the Obama Administration predicted it would take 12 years to return to space, at a cost of $26 billion.
Elon Musk and SpaceX did it in 6 years, for less than $1 billion.
What was behind this innovation? The website TechStartups explains:
Aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin explains that it was because it was built by Elon Musk’s private company, Space X. He does things faster and cheaper because he spends his own money. “This is the potential of free enterprise!” explains Zubrin.
You may be wondering, but NASA did manage to send astronauts to the moon. Yes, that succeeded, says Zubrin, “because it was purpose-driven. (America) wanted to astonish the world what free people could do.” But in the 50 years since then, as transportation improved and computers got smaller and cheaper, NASA made little progress.
Here's more on the launch and splashdown, from NPR:
The last time any NASA astronauts came home by splashing down was in 1975 — and back then, they were in an Apollo space vehicle. This time, the astronauts were in a white, bell-shaped capsule owned by SpaceX.
The success of their test flight, to the International Space Station and back, is a milestone for SpaceX, the first private company to send people to the outpost.
The company has been taking cargo to and from the station for years. This flight with people on board was the final test for SpaceX's crew system to be certified by NASA as "operational" for future astronaut missions.
That means the U.S. once again has its own ability to put people in orbit and return them safely. Since retiring its space shuttles in 2011, NASA has had to buy seats for its astronauts on Russian spaceships, but NASA can now rely on an American space taxi that takes off from Florida.
