This morning, a private spacecraft was launched out ofCape Canaveral. Its mission is to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. It is the first every private vessel that will be allowed to dock with the space station. A new era is beginning.

Besides giving things cool names (the capsule is called Dragon, the rocket that launches it Falcon-9), SpaceX did one more thing right this morning. In the rocket, set for one final mission to space, are the ashes of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper and our favorite engineer, James Doohan- “Scotty” from Star Trek. Rest in peace, gentlemen.