Elon Musk’s SpaceX poised to make history with first private manned launch to orbit

Elon Musk’s SpaceX makes history on Wednesday — going where no private enterprise has gone before with the first nongovernment launch of humans into orbit.

The Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket, delivering two astronauts to the International Space Station, will be the first American manned launch to orbit in nearly a decade: NASA had stepped aside from that task as part of encouraging the private sector to jump in.

Other companies are in the mix: Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic took crew to more than 50 miles above the Earth (and so, technically, into orbit) in 2018 and again in 2019 in tests of its rocket-powered VSS Unity spaceplane in a launch from and to the Mojave Air and Space Port in Southern California.

But the Unity is a suborbital vehicle; SpaceX wins the prize for the first orbit-capable craft — and it’s actually delivering crew.

More challenges await — and Virgin, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and other private firms will compete madly to meet them.

Get set for a new American Space Age.