Five years ago I got up at 3am to drive from LA to Mojave to see the first private manned space flight by Scaled Composites. Yesterday, another company owned by an entrepeneur, SpaceX, launched its first satellite.
Maybe I’ll get to travel in space yet — I’m thinking a moon of Saturn would be well worth a visit.
SpaceX is the brainchild of South African born visionary and entrepreneur, Elon Musk, one of the founders of Paypal and, more recently, Tesla Motors.
SpaceX has won a NASA contract to replace the cargo supply function for, amongst other things, the International Space Station, after the US space shuttles are retired in 2010.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e117987e-74eb-11de-9ed5-00144feabdc0.html