Space Race

There is a space race these days. It's not between governments, like the last one. It's a race between companies to see who can capture the (perceived) suborbital tourism and transport market. Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites seem to be pretty far along, given the flight of Spaceship One a couple of years ago. Other companies seem to be behind by at least a year or two, but it isn't always clear how far. One company that enjoys being mysterious, Blue Origin, appears to be reaching a milestone soon given the recent FAA approval they received to proceed with low-altitude testing. I wish them luck. The shoestring budget DC-X, a similar VTOL demonstrator in the 1990s, had several fantastically successful flights before the overworked ground crew failed to set up the landing gear correctly for an otherwise perfect flight, resulting in the loss of that vehicle.