SpaceX capsule docks at the ISS

Elon Musk's company SpaceX has successfully carried off its first manned flight to the International Space Station: carrying two astronauts, the space capsule "Crew Dragon" landed on the station without a hitch on May 31 after 19 hours of flight. This is the first time that a private company has been commissioned to fly astronauts into space.

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Tygodnik Powszechny (PL) /

The end of the state monopoly

Tygodnik Powszechny celebrates the launch as an epochal moment:

“The date 30 May 2020 marks the end of the state monopoly on space flights. Elon Musk has just founded the first space company in history and is taking reservations. There are already plans for nine scheduled flights, two of which will be one hundred percent private: in the second half of 2021, Space Adventures will send four customers on a five-day flight aboard the Dragon. Tom Cruise allegedly even wants to shoot what would be the first feature film filmed in Earth's orbit. After the launch of the Dragon, this plan is no longer a complete 'Mission: Impossible'.”

St. Galler Tagblatt (CH) /

Mainly a demonstration of power

St. Galler Tagblatt discusses whether manned space flights are really worth the money:

“Even if rocket launches have now become cheaper thanks to Elon Musk, it's not that the multi-billionaire is financing space travel. It's that vast sums of public money are flowing via Nasa into his company Space X. ... The ISS space station supposedly serves to enhance understanding among nations. ... But in fact it's about demonstrating power. ... Of the 575 space travellers listed in Wikipedia, 23 died during missions or preparations for them. Human space travel is an experiment with people, one in twenty-five of whom died. We're creating graveyards in space rather than a Noah's Ark.”

Deutschlandfunk (DE) /

Europe can do it too - if it wants to

Europe also needs to create its own access to space, Deutschlandfunk stresses:

“Why is it only the US, Russia, and more recently China that put people into space? Europe could do the same - in fact it must do the same if it wants to play in the aerospace champions league in the long term. The international cooperation on the ISS, flights to the moon and scientific exploration in space is all very well and good. But when it comes to accessing space, Europe needs to have more confidence in its own strength. Europe has long been able to do what SpaceX can do - it just needs the will to do it.”