Er det her ikke det perfekte eksempel på hvorfor privat intiativ ganske enkelt er overlegent i forhold til offentlig? Mens NASA's gigantiske budget må lukke ned for deres rum-udfordringer, er det lykkedes for SpaceX (ejet af Paypal stifteren), at sende en raket i kredsløb og tilbage for en brøkdel af NASAs normale budget for en opsendelse. Det er ganske enkelt en fejl at tro det offentlige er bedre til store projekter og med denne historiske dag er det så glimrende bevist.
(CNN) -- The first commercial spacecraft to return from a low-Earth orbit splashed into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday about 500 miles off the coast of Southern California.
The Dragon, a craft developed by the company SpaceX, was concluding a brief but possibly historic flight for the infant commercial space travel industry.
The vehicle hit the water shortly after 2 p.m. ET, a little more than three hours after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
Before splashing down, the Dragon orbited earth at more than 17,000 mph.
Only six nations or government agencies have recovered a spacecraft from a low orbit: the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India and the European Space Agency.
Wednesday's landing was also the first flight under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The program aims to develop commercial supply services to the international space station.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden praised the mission.
"These new explorers are to spaceflight what Lindbergh was to commercial aviation," he said Wednesday. "While rocket launches from the Cape are considered a common occurrence, the historic significance of today's achievement by SpaceX should not be lost."
Bolden said the mission reflected a new generation of commercial launch systems that would support the international space station and that could eventually carry astronauts into orbit.
