Science

ON MAY 25th 2012 a Californian firm called SpaceX made the first privately run supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was a vindication of NASA’s decision to outsource such missions to the private sector. Still, purists could argue that something was missing: a proper market has competition, but SpaceX was the only firm capable of doing it.

 

That may be about to change. On April 21st, at NASA’s Wallops flight centre in Virginia, another rocket built by another firm—Virginia-based Orbital Sciences—lifted off from the pad, after several delays.

 

Admittedly, the flight was only an initial test. The Antares went nowhere near the ISS itself. Nor was it carrying one of Orbital’s Cygnus space capsules, which, if all proceeds according to plan, will one day perform the actual docking with the ISS. But it is an important step: if everything continues to go well, then a Cygnus test flight may take place in a few months’ time, and Orbital’s first ISS resupply mission could happen before the end of the year.

 

Via Stratocumulus