"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message link.net...
It's not historically significant because the feat has been accomplished
before. That it was previously done by the government is irrelevant.

The actual flying/rocketing/technology part is nothing new. What is
historic is the people/process in which it was done. Similar to the
assembly line- everyone was making guns before Eli Whitney came along,
and plenty of people were cranking out cars before Henry Ford. They
changed the world, but the technical aspects of what they did could be
considered quite minimal.

-lance smith