TIME

NASA has a new way to fly

How private companies are modernizing the space program
A test of the Dragon spacecraft’s landing engines, which could be used in lieu of parachutes

IF YOU’RE LIKE MOST PEOPLE, YOU PROBABLY don’t remember the last time the U.S. stopped flying people to space. But it was in July 1975 that the last Apollo flew, 1981 when the first shuttle took its place, and today America is on track to beat that flightless streak. No astronauts have taken off from Cape Canaveral or anywhere else on U.S.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from TIME

TIME3 min read
Milestones
When King Charles III bestowed new honors on his family members on April 23, St. George’s Day, the batch of titles sounded as grand as can be: his son William, the Prince of Wales, became Great Master of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath; Charles
TIME12 min read
Holding Court
At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., maybe the most prestigious nonmajor tournament on the global tennis tour, players conduct their warm-up routines on a patch of grass outside the stadium. Some toss medicine balls to their trainers, whi
TIME2 min read
A Man In Full, Adapted And Redacted
Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full is a massive book, in more ways than one. The 742-page social novel about a swaggering Atlanta real estate mogul, which took Wolfe over a decade to write, sold a jaw-dropping 1.4 million hardcover copies after its publicatio

Related Books & Audiobooks