SpaceX Deserves to Be Celebrated
A combination of public-spiritedness and private enterprise has put the U.S. space program back in business.
Toward a better future.
Source: SpaceX/Getty Images
Elon Musk was entitled to be elated when he welcomed two NASA astronauts back to earth on Sunday. His company, SpaceX, had blasted them into space and then brought them safely home 63 days later. The entire mission was a marvel of engineering and a milestone for American enterprise. In its current mood of exhaustion and discord, the country might need reminding that, for all its shortcomings, it’s still capable of stirring achievements.
SpaceX deserves plenty of credit for this one. Taking off in May from the same launchpad that served the Apollo missions, the company’s Falcon 9 rocket flawlessly conveyed a reusable Crew Dragon capsule into orbit, where it eventually docked with the International Space Station. The astronauts on board, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, traveled in style, with modish new flight suits, slick touch-screen controls and more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust propelling them through the atmosphere.