First commercial space taxi a pit stop on Musk's Mars quest
Starting with the dream of growing a rose on Mars, Musks vision morphed into a shake-up of the old space industry, and a fleet of new private rockets. But for Musks company, SpaceX, its also the latest milestone in a wild ride that began with epic failures and the threat of bankruptcy. There are many space companies and like all of them, SpaceX is designed for profit. The idea of bigger roles for private companies has been around for more than 50 years, but the market and technology werent yet right. A 2005 pilot project helped private companies develop ships to bring cargo to the station.