SpaceX, launching to space station, rockets to new age of entrepreneurial orbital flight

From USA Today’s Editorial Board:

NASA, which once saw private space companies as a threat to its bureaucracy, began looking at them as better than relying on Russia. It began contracting out robotic servicing missions, and ultimately human launches.

This, in turn, helped stimulate a new age in entrepreneurial space flight. Private companies not only jumped into the NASA contracting business, they also started reinventing much of the space business centered around satellites and rockets to launch those satellites. Some dabbled in space tourism, and SpaceX — arguably the most innovative of these companies — even says it can support an entirely private human space business independent of NASA.