Five years after SpaceShipOne, created by Scaled Composites, won the X Prize—flying a private spaceship on two manned flights within two weeks—the private space industry may be poised for it’s next big step: paying passengers on private spaceships.
Conceding that private spaceflight has taken longer than expected, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis says “as many as [...]

Richard Branson’s new “mothership” which will carry SpaceShipTwo—and paying space tourists—into sub-orbital space—made an appearance at an Oshkosh, Wisconsin airshow. Branson is head of the private space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, which operates WhiteKnightTwo.

After making a couple of passes over the crowd, the aircraft made a smooth and quiet landing on runway 18. This [...]

Amazing private space companies
Looking at various private space companies, only a handful of the new-ish ones have delivered anything impressive. Some are already doing great things: SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, Scaled Composites.
Intriguing companies
Others are intriguing, but haven’t done much…yet. Think: Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Bigelow Aerospace.
Add to the intriguing list: Reaction Engines LTD.
This British company is [...]