A new space age beckons- if customers can be found

摘要

For decades, national space agencies like NASA held an iron grip on space travel. But in the last few years their budgets have been constrained while the private sector has made tremendous technical progress. The result is the dawn of a new space industry. Where once America and Russia raced to the moon, now the competition is between entrepreneurs vying for business. Much of that technical progress is driven by American entrepreneurs who made their fortunes outside aerospace. They funded startups that, to the surprise of many observers, started building actual rockets and spacecraft with budgets ranging from the tens to the hundreds of millions of dollars. Some, such as SpaceX and Bigelow Aero-space, have already begun testing hardware in orbit. Meanwhile, NASA has spent billions in failed attempts to replace the 30-year-old shuttle.