Okay real talk — space travel evolution right now is legitimately giving me whiplash.
Like three years ago I was still kinda joking that we’d never get past the “billionaires in space for 11 minutes” phase, and now I’m sitting here January 2026 watching clips of Starship actually catching the booster mid-air like it’s no big deal and I’m low-key freaking out in the best way.
I remember summer 2021, me and my roommate Raj were on the couch in our shitty Phoenix apartment (RIP to that AC unit), chain-smoking and refreshing YouTube every five minutes waiting for that first Inspiration4 launch. When those four civilians actually made it to orbit without a single government employee onboard I literally screamed into a pillow. Embarrassing but true.
That moment felt like the real start of space travel evolution shifting hard from NASA-only to this weird messy private-public hybrid we’ve got now.
How NASA quietly started handing over the keys
Look, I used to be that annoying “NASA or bust” guy. Like if it wasn’t a government rocket with the meatball logo I didn’t trust it.
Then Crew Dragon happened.
I watched that May 2020 launch—Demo-2—on my phone while hiding in the bathroom at work because my boss was being extra. Bob and Doug floating into the ISS, waving like “sup NASA, we got this from here.”
And NASA let them.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched Starship for the 6th time last night …
That was the psychological turning point for me. The agency that put boots on the moon was basically saying “cool, y’all can taxi our astronauts now.”
Today in 2026:
- SpaceX has flown something like 14 crewed missions for NASA
- Boeing’s Starliner finally stopped embarrassing itself (mostly)
- Northrop Grumman, Sierra Space, Vast, Axiom… the list of companies getting NASA money or contracts keeps growing
It’s not even controversial anymore. It’s just… normal.
Private space companies aren’t playing anymore
Here’s where it gets spicy.
Elon’s people landed 363 Falcon boosters by end of 2025 (I checked).
They’re churning out Starlink satellites so fast I lost count.
And Starship? Bro. The thing exploded like six times in 2023–2024 and everyone (including me) was like “yep classic Elon.”
But then 2025 happened.
Catch #5 in October literally made me drop my phone. The booster just… flew back and got grabbed by the chopstick arms like it was a goddamn carnival game. I yelled so loud my neighbor banged on the wall.
That wasn’t a stunt. That was space travel evolution screaming “we’re serious about Mars now.”
Blue Origin is finally moving too—New Glenn flew successfully last month after like a decade of “any day now” memes.
Even Rocket Lab is out here landing Electron boosters on a helipad in the ocean.
Meanwhile NASA’s Artemis program keeps slipping (shocker), but they’re leaning harder on private landers (SpaceX HLS, Blue Moon, etc.) to actually get boots back on the Moon.
Who’s flying in the SpaceX Crew Dragon? Meet astronauts Bob …
My messy conflicted feelings about all this
Real shit: I’m cautiously optimistic but also low-key terrified.
On one hand — holy crap we might actually become multi-planetary in my lifetime. That’s insane. I get goosebumps thinking about it.
On the other hand… it’s a handful of billionaires and their pet companies holding most of the cards now.
What happens when the next administration decides to cancel half the contracts? What happens if Starship kills someone during a Mars push and public opinion flips overnight? What happens when the cool space graffiti art on the side of the rocket is replaced with giant Coca-Cola logos?
I don’t have clean answers. I’m just a dude in Bharatpur heat (wait no—actually I’m pretending I’m still in Arizona because Rajasthan summer is trying to murder me) eating Maggi at 3 a.m. while doom-scrolling space Twitter.
But I can’t look away.
SpaceX to Bring Crew to Short-Staffed Space Station for Longer …
Quick list of things that blew my mind recently
- Starship’s 100+ meter stack doing flip maneuvers like it’s a gymnast
- NASA paying SpaceX $4B+ for Artemis lunar lander (and people still mad about it??)
- That one Axiom mission where the private crew did a full spacewalk without NASA babysitting
- China watching all this and quietly accelerating their own station + lunar plans
We’re in the chaotic middle chapter right now.
Anyway.
If you’re still reading this rambling mess… what part of space travel evolution gets you hyped or scared? Drop it below. Or don’t. I’ll probably just keep obsessively refreshing NASASpaceflight anyway.
Catch y’all when Starship actually flies to Mars. Or explodes trying. Either way I’m here for it.
(Oh and huge shoutout to these for keeping me somewhat informed instead of just doom-scrolling vibes:
- https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space/
- https://www.spacex.com/updates/
- https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ — best live coverage hands down)
