The Dragon spacecraft just took off successfully from Cape Canaveral using a Falcon 9 rocket and after about 10 minutes it reached orbit. It’s the first spacecraft built by a private company headed toward the International Space Station. The cargo it’s carrying includes supplies but also the ashes of astronaut Gordon Cooper, who died in 2004, and actor James Doohan – “Scotty” in Star Trek – who died in 2005.

SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, is a Californian space transportation company created in 2002. Its founder and CEO Elon Musk is an successful entrepreneur who in the past has contributed to the foundation of the PayPal electronic payments company and electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors.

In 2006, SpaceX was awarded a COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) contract with NASA to provide commercial orbital transportation services. After the end of the Space Shuttle program, NASA must rely on other nations’ space agencies to transport personnel and cargo to the International Space Station. To limit this need, which will continue for more years, NASA already decided years ago to fund some private companies and right now SpaceX is the one having having the most success.

On September 28, 2008 there was the first successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket. On June 4, 2010 there was the first launch of the Space X Falcon 9 rocket. The December 8, 2010 there was the first launch of the SpaceX Dragon reusable spacecraft using a Falcon 9 rocket in the test referred to as COTS Demo Flight 1. The rocket carried into orbit some nanosatellites while the Dragon spacecraft splashed down into the Pacific Ocean after completing two orbits completing the mission as planned.

Now the Dragon spacecraft started the flight referred to as Dragon C2+ which aims to launch the Dragon spacecraft again using a Falcon 9 rocket with the important difference that the Dragon will dock to the International Space Station.

If all goes well, in a couple of days the Dragon spacecraft will approach the International Space Station and if the operation checks show that the Dragon is really able to move with precision next Friday it will proceed with the docking. The European and Russian ships dock directly through an automated system but the Dragon will approach up to about 10 meters (32 feet) from the International Space Station and there it will be captured by a robotic arm maneuvered by the station crew.

Elon Musk is already planning for the next years the first manned space missions but his ideas also include missions to Mars, even going so far to establish a colony on Mars. For now, the launch of a spacecraft by a private company to the International Space Station is already a milestone in space travel.