The privatization of space exploration gave a crucial leap
forward Tuesday with the putting in orbit of Dragon, the first
commercial space capsule to travel to the International Space
Station. After two postponements and an aborted launch this
month, a Falcon 9 rocket of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
- SpaceX - blasted off at 3:44 a.m. from Florida's Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA, which last year put an end to
the era of shuttles that made the construction of the
International Space Station possible, has signed a $1.6 billion
contract with SpaceX for a dozen missions to provide supplies
for the station. The unmanned Dragon was launched at a time when
the ISS was orbiting over the North Atlantic, and some 10
minutes later the confirmation that the Dragon capsule had
itself entered orbit sparked an outburst of cheering among
SpaceX engineers at NASA Mission Control in Houston. "Today
marks the beginning of a new era in exploration," said NASA
administrator Charles Bolden after the rocket lifted