So this week is the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. Thanks Neil.

I think it apropos to take a look back and a look ahead … to ponder where we’ve been and to where we are going. (Anywhere?)

Just last week (almost hitting the anniversary) SpaceX – one of my favorite new space firms made history (again) by successfully launching a commercial satellite with a completely private launch vehicle. No government consortium required. It is noteworthy for many reasons, but not many people realize that SpaceX not only designed & built their own rocket from scratch, they also designed & manufactured their own rocket engines. The first new design in decades, and all privately funded – no NASA.

People want to go. Companies are spending their own cash (not just investors’) in order to make it happen.

Whether or not NASA still has the stuff they had in 1969 is not really the point. By taking the dream beyond government and into the private sector, we merely continue the necessary evolution that was both envisioned and expected two-score years ago. (2001 Pan Am Clipper, anyone?)

Although these things generally move at a slower pace than we early-adopters wish, I do think that humanity is about to witness another leap forward into space.

SpaceX is set to up their ante by the first launch of their nine-engine Falcon V later this year, the craft that will serve their contract to truck supplies to the International Space Station.

Within the next year or so, Virgin Galactic will finalize testing of Space Ship Two, and will begin commercial service providing private citizens the chance to be astronauts.

Armadillo Aerospace has a contract to begin providing suborbital launch services, Spaceport America has begun cinstruction in the New Mexico desert, and the Rocket Racing League will soon begin competition.

It’s a bright day for outer space, the still-dismal economy notwithstanding. Here’s to the folks who are making it happen!