Arrival Of The Disruptors

A handful of billionaires are working hard to make space colonisation a reality. In the process they are reviving a sector that had stagnated for decades. Is this democratisation of space or a high-tech coup?

- Snigdha Das

ELON MUSK does it again. On March 2, the co-founder of electric car maker Tesla Inc sends an unmanned spacecraft Crew Dragon to the International Space Station (ISS), located 400 km above the Earth surface just at the edge of outer space. It autonomously docks with ISS, stays connected to it for five days orbiting the planet at 27,600 km per hour, delivers food and drink packages to the crew and returns home safely, with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) described the smooth plunge as a “major milestone” and Crew Dragon as the “first American spacecraft to autonomously dock” with the orbiting laboratory. The success has brought Musk's 16-year-old firm SpaceX a step closer to commercial human spaceflight. Crew Dragon will fly again in July with NASA astronauts on board.