SCI/TECH: Private space industry looks for liftoff

NASA could be taking a cue from the X-Prize, the $10 million reward that partially inspired the launch of the world's first privately funded astronaut earlier this week. Space.com reports that the federal space agency could set goals such as a safe landing on the moon or sending a craft to an asteroid. One agency executive was quoted as saying the prize for putting a person into orbit could be as high as $200 million.


Private space industry looks for liftoff - Full Article

"I think we are at the dawn of a new era in commercial space exploration," says Elon Musk, who founded and heads Space Exploration Technologies, the company that developed Falcon 1 and is building a more powerful sibling.

Falcon 1, an unmanned rocket built in El Segundo, Calif., is set later this year to carry an experimental satellite to orbit for the Defense Department - a historic vote of confidence in a privately financed rocket that hasn't even flown yet.

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