History was made last week when the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship docked with the International Space Station. The unmanned ship was the first commercial spaceship to reach the space station; the success of the mission — which is not complete until the Dragon returns home — could launch a new era in space travel.
The cargo capsule was built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies, usually referred to as SpaceX. The company was founded a decade ago by Mr. Elon Musk, a South African who made his fortune as one of the creators of PayPal, the online payments system. SpaceX has spent about $1 billion on the project over the last 10 years.
SpaceX got its first rocket into orbit in 2008 (after three failures), making it the first privately financed rocket to do so.