Space Dragon

Today is a monumental moment for Earth. Today, the first commercial spacecraft successfully reached the International Space Station and landed back on early safely.

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This is the dawning of a new era of spaceflight. The spacecraft named Dragon was launched by SpaceX with the permission and payment of NASA in order to deliver supplies to the space station. Someday the detailsof the first commercial spaceflight to the International Space Station will be learned in classrooms.

Part of Dragon's launching vehicle also carried the remains of a man who has lived in space via our imaginations for years. James Doohan, who played the iconic character Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in Star Trek: The Original Series. Star Trek has entertained and mystified audiences for generations. Star Trek showed us possibilities that seemed unreal, but also somehow attainable.

There is no doubt that it will take at least hundreds of years to achieve the spaceflight imagined in Star Trek.  But, today, I have real hope and excitement that I will see great innovations in spaceflight within my lifetime.

I love to consider space because it changes my perception of the world around me.  In the scheme of things, the Earth is a tiny dot in the cosmos.