The Earth Turns.

"The earth turns, but we don't feel it more. And one night you look up. One spark and the whole sky is on fire."-Gangs of New York.

This post has nothing to do with the markets so if you're looking for a discussion of the latest investment numbers or you're looking for something about the future direction of the markets then go someplace else today.  Last night the earth turned.  Last night the rocket company SpaceX did this:

The first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is seen just before touching down on Landing Site 1 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Dec. 21, 2015.   Credit: SpaceX

That is the company's Falcon 9 rocket landing safely back on our planet after a successful launch and subsequent deployment of communications satellites yesterday.  Below is a time-lapse picture showing both the launch and landing back at the same facility.

This long exposure captures the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and its subsequent engine burns to return to Earth during a historic flight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Dec. 21, 2015.   Credit: SpaceX

The launch and subsequent landing of an orbital-class rocket along with a similar success of a sub-orbital rocket by the company Blue Origin marks a turn in the era of space exploration.  The ability to launch a rocket into orbit and retrieve one of it's main components means the cost of getting into space is going to continue to come down and that means the potential of whole new levels of economic development.  You can go here to read more about what all this means for the industry.  Besides rockets there are rudimentary plans today for example to go out into the solar systems and mine asteroids.  In the coming years NASA will begin testing a new generation of rockets capable of carrying the Orion spacecraft into deep space and perhaps ultimately on to Mars.  Mine Asteroids?  Explore Mars?  That's truly Buck Rogers  stuff! 

I said at the beginning that this wasn't about the markets but in a way it is.  It is this sort of innovation and expansion that drives the economies.  Space, or at least the space that is immediately beyond our outer atmosphere,  is becoming an easier destination to reach.  The industry and innovation needed to do that and then expand beyond that domain creates economic opportunity.  That ultimately drives stocks and at the end of the day creates wealth.  A new industry is being born.  Welcome to the 21st century.

Back Thursday with one last post for the year.

*Link:    Space.com:  "The Falcon has Landed."