Private sector enticing public into final frontier

Entrepreneurs turn sights to craft capable of travel into space

USA Today 06/17/05
author: Kevin Maney
(Copyright 2005)

All of a sudden, space seems less like the final frontier and more like the next town over.

In the six months since SpaceShipOne soared into suborbital space to take the $10 million X Prize, a burst of activity has been aimed at getting humans into space on a regular basis -- for fun, profit, exploration and, ultimately, the grandiose goal of saving our species. What makes this latest push into space unique is that it's being driven by private entrepreneurs from the technology industry.