Industry stakeholders have been heralding the dawn of private spaceflight for nearly a decade, but the 2012 success of SpaceX and other companies suggests the era has finally arrived. In May SpaceX’s Dragon became the first nongovernmental vehicle to dock with the ISS.

Over the next few years NASA is hoping for similar commercial success in taxiing astronauts—and many of these companies will likely offer private citizens trips to space as well.

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