This week, for the first time, a commercial spacecraft returned to Earth from orbit on Wednseday. The rocket was launched by private space travel company SpaceX designed and launched the Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, with a total flight time of 3 hours and 19 minutes. The launch was a demonstration to NASA for how the rockets could be used to shuttle cargo and possibly astronauts to the International Space Station. The inside of the cabin of the Dragon capsule (the very top of the rocket where cargo is stored) already has a pressurized cabin, required to maintain people at high altitudes. These sorts of experiments are only the beginning of the future of commercial space flight.
Sources
-NY Times
-SpaceX.com
-Wikipedia
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