At the same time, NASA is reaping the rewards of its gamble to partner with private industry.

On March 1 at 2:49 AM, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched, carrying a crew capsule with a life-sized test dummy named Ripley. The rocket carried Crew Dragon on its way to the space station, where it will spend five days docked to an orbiting outpost before making a splashdown back into the Atlantic ocean next Friday. The launch represents crucial training for the next space demo, which may take place this summer – only this time with two astronauts.

NASA called the launch "a big night for United States of America". At a NASA news conference, Elon Musk seemed pleased, yet exhausted. According to AP he said: "To be frank, I'm a little emotionally exhausted. We have to dock to the station. We have to come back, but so far it's worked ... we've passed the riskiest items."