Space travel’s new frontier: Private ownership

Space travel’s new frontier: Private ownership

Dec. 22, 2015, was a milestone in the history of space travel. On the night of Dec. 21 to 22, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral and successfully deployed 11 communications satellites into Earth orbit. It then achieved something previously considered nearly impossible: The rocket’s first stage was guided back to Earth and landed vertically and precisely on a platform just a few kilometers from the launch site. Never before had any na…