From tourist trips to the edge of the atmosphere to satellite companies propelling products into the ether, the galactic gold rush is on. And now private firms are making millions from Nasa, says Jerome Taylor
On 8 December at 10.42am local time, a sleek white rocket with the word “SpaceX” emblazoned on its side blasted off from a US Air Force base in Florida with a payload of French cheese, circled the Earth twice and splashed back into the Pacific Ocean three hours later.
The cheese, a wheel of Le Brouère, was a rather unusual cargo, but then this was no ordinary flight. It was the first time an entirely private company had launched a rocket into space and successfully landed it.
