News > SpaceX rocket ship blasts off into orbit, a new era in human spaceflight

SpaceX rocket ship blasts off into orbit, a new era in human spaceflight

A rocket ship built by Elon Musk's SpaceX company thundered away from Earth with two Americans on Saturday, ushering in a new era in commercial space travel.With the on-time lift-off, SpaceX became the first private company to launch people into orbit, a feat achieved previously by only three governments: the US, Russia and China. This is the first time that a private spacecraft company used its own rocket to put humans into space.