For the first time since 2011, the United States will launch astronauts into space from its home soil. And for the first time ever, the rocket that will get them there was developed and manufactured by a private company—and it’s one that has a history with Big Law.   

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Tesla’s Elon Musk in 2002 with the ambition to send manned spacecraft to Mars, was set to launch its Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:33 p.m. Eastern Wednesday.