Houston, we have liftoff. On March 2nd, the world watched as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched their rocket for a historical space mission. They launched Crew Dragon to the international space station and then returned to earth after a week, and it took around the time of an airplane flight.

After Crew Dragon was launched, the first stage of the rocket landed around 9 minutes off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida on their landing drone ship. Crew Dragon was able to reach the ISS, dock, and was sent off back to earth without a single flaw. The only passengers on the trip were Mr. Ripley and “Little Earth”, a test dummy and SpaceX new plush toy respectively. Suffice to say, Mr. Ripley was perfectly intact during the trip and will indeed get a promotion. “Little Earth” was liked so much he was taken by the crew of the ISS during the flight.

This is the foundation for possible commercial flight to space and maybe even planets, for it took 6 hours for the Falcon 9 to reach the ISS while a flight to Berlin, Germany takes around 12-27 hours depending on the airline company. If all goes well, NASA could send astronauts up and back as early summer of 2019. Not to mention that Crew Dragon was able to perfectly make the trip and back without any complications to the trip, something that many at SpaceX are relieved of. It went “just perfectly, …It was beautiful,” said Benji Reed of SpaceX. It was almost a miracle that nothing out of the ordinary happened during the flight. Jim Bridenstine stated that it was the “dawn of a new era” of “American human spaceflight.” Ever since they received funding in 2011, NASA spent around $70 million dollars to send our astronauts into space every trip and now we have a way to drastically reduce that cost.

This historical event marks SpaceX and NASA’s first attempt to commercialize space travel. Of course, this was possible due to previous funding from past presidents. The next launch will, however, simulate a complication or malfunction on Crew Dragon, since it went perfectly this time. This is, of course, to simulate what would happen if disaster struck and to help research on the matter of commercializing space flight to other planets or on Earth itself. Another test will also include two astronauts and an improvement on the shuttle itself.

The world is waiting for the next move at SpaceX and NASA. While new improvements are being made to the already revised cockpit and “Little Earth” being sold out worldwide after his regular updates in the ISS, it must be noted that their next move will be of speculation and hypothesis. All we do know is that Crew Dragon was a major success, with little to zero complications and kidnapping of a little stuffed “Earthy.” One can only speculate about what will happen in the near future. Only SpaceX knows, and SpaceX does not tell.