ASTRONAUT TOM JONES ON what the success of SpaceX’s Dragon means.

For an astronaut, the import of Dragon’s test flight was twofold. First, it means that NASA can start to fill the 40-ton cargo shortfall it faces at ISS, supplying the six-person outpost with the research and habitation supplies needed for full productivity. Unlike the Russian, European, and Japanese robot cargo ships currently flying, SpaceX’s Dragon can make a round trip. On this first ISS run, it returned about 1400 pounds of cargo safely to Earth. Most was used or obsolete equipment, along with a few pounds of science samples. This return capability, lost with the shuttle’s retirement, is an important plus for Dragon and key to getting the most from space station research.

Second, it means chances are better that my colleagues might soon be riding to and from the station on a safe, economical spaceship. The SpaceX success brightens the prospects of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, hiring commercial firms to fly US astronauts to ISS. The reusable Dragon is aimed at meeting that need; NASA hopes to have a private astronaut transport ready by 2017. There are many design milestones and test flights still to come, but Dragon shows that NASA may be on the right path to end the necessity of paying $60 million per astronaut to fly to orbit on the Russian Soyuz.

ISS astronauts were impressed with Dragon as a potential transport ship, finding its roomy interior clean and inviting.

And with that “new-car smell.”