SpaceX's mission on May 30 in collaboration with NASA made history as the astronauts who boarded the spaceship became the first humans whose trip to outer space was sponsored by a private company.

It was the initial flight for commercial space travel in the world. The historic event proves that outer space tourism, or traveling to outer space for leisure, could be feasible in the following years. This also means a potential boom in the partnership between NASA and SpaceX.

NASA's Partnership with Private Companies for Space Travel

Elon Musk's SpaceX is not the only private firm that NASA is collaborating with for commercial travels to outer space. 

Two other companies will be in a friendly competition with SpaceX for NASA's Artemis Program which aims to send the next man to the moon and the first woman to land on the moon, based on an article. Dynetics and Amazon's Blue Origins are the two companies that will be tasked to make a ship for the Artemis Program. NASA plans to conduct the launch in 2024.

According to an article, Elon Musk supports healthy competition as it will inspire the players chosen to take part in the project to make use of their innovative skills. 

After the success of the Artemis Project, NASA plans to set the next mission for space travel to Mars where Elon Musk believes will be a future for the potential start of a civilization of another planet in the solar system. 

The Spaceship

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket had taken more or less 19 hours to take the two astronauts to the International Space Station, according to an article. Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, the two astronauts who manned the rocket had tested the manual controls of the rocket even if it can run on automatic mode. 

Hurley and Behnken will be in the International Space Station for a few months before going back to earth. 

Earlier, the original schedule of flight for the mission had been canceled due to uncontrollable conditions. SpaceX and NASA had decided that the weather condition was not fit for a rocket to safely launch.

Check these out:

NASA's New Opportunity Through Collaborations with Private Companies

It was reported in an article that NASA's Space Shuttle Program had been terminated in 2011. It means that many astronauts from across the globe had to travel to Russia to go to outer space. It was recorded that Russia has an operational space station. 

However, now that NASA found a way to get their astronauts back to outer space without needing to travel to Russia, their partnership with private firms had helped a lot at reviving space travel from American soil.