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[tara_li]

 I was reading the Bad Astronomy Blog's article about SpaceX's Dragon capsule drop test, which went off beautifully.  Then I started wandering around on their website - and found that they're SERIOUS about becoming COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf).  In clear, simple to understand language, they list *LAUNCH* prices, for Falcon Ie, Falcon 9, and

Comments

[jordan179]

The presence of three companies seriously interested in different and complementary aspects of space exploration -- Virgin, Bigelow and SpaceX -- plus many companies becoming involved on a smaller scale, gives me hope that the march back to space won't stop this time. It's no longer dependent upon both parties to a bilateral "space race" having to stay in the game: it's getting to the point where any well-heeled person or organization interested in launching payload to orbit can hire that capability from a private entity. And, as you mentioned, it's not vulnerable to any one country's regulation: not even America's (in fact, America is right now trying to attract launch providers to American soil, but given a technologically-reactionary Administration, the launch providers would simply operate from somewhere else).

We are on our way again, this time for good.