AP Photo

SIX years ago, when NASA, America’s space agency, announced it wanted the private sector to take over responsibility for ferrying cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), many scoffed that it was a fantasy. But yesterday’s fantasy has become today’s reality, and private enterprise is busy putting together rocket-propelled delivery vans to do just that—and, eventually, to take astronauts as well. One of the leading firms in the field, SpaceX, has already notched up a string of successful flights (and a few failures, too) with its Falcon rockets, pictured above. This month it will attempt its most ambitious mission yet: a rendezvous with the space station.