Who got there first and does it matter?

Credit: ATMOS Space Cargo

Since the USSR launched the first artificial satellite in 1957, space has been about firsts. Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space, Alexei Leonov was the first to perform a spacewalk, and, of course, Neil Armstrong was the first to set foot on the surface of the Moon. These names have echoed through the ages. It’s a legacy that the industry has become obsessed with chasing. The problem is that there are very few firsts left. This has forced companies to add increasingly absurd qualifiers to their 'firsts.' It's not the first Moon lander; it's the first privately developed Moon lander with seven legs. And this trend has only become more ridiculous over time. That brings us to the ATMOS Space Cargo announcement.

On 5 February, Germany's ATMOS announced that it had received FAA approval to perform an initial demonstration of its PHOENIX re-entry capsule. With the announcement, the company claimed it would be the "first private company in European history to atte…