On April 12, 1961, a young man from a small Russian village experienced something no one had ever experienced before: the thunder and shake of over 800,000 pounds of rocket thrust erupting beneath him. As Vostok 1 broke free of its launch restraints, Yuri Gagarin triumphantly yelled, “Let’s go!”

With Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in flight testing and XCOR and Blue Origin well along in developing their vehicles, suborbital space tourism is about to become a reality…but that reality will belong only to the wealthy for the next couple of decades.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully orbited and recovered its first Dragon space capsule today. This marks the first time a private company has successfully returned an orbiting spacecraft to earth.

The successful launching of a SpaceX Falcon 1 into orbit with a paying customer's payload (a RazakSAT satellite, specifically) shows that the fledgling New Space company is no fluke. It is here to stay.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) won a NASA contract to send cargo to and from the International Space Station ( ISS). The ISS Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) contract requires SpaceX to carry at least 20,000 kg of cargo to the orbiting complex, for a value of $US1.6 billion. NASA might elect to order more cargo missions worth up to US$3.1 billion.

The fourth SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket was launched today, achieving a significant milestone; it's the world's first privately funded TSTO liquid rocket to achieve orbit. Even though the first three launches of the Falcon 1 were not successful, NASA and the US Department of Defense kept faith in the fledgling space company. Today, after many trials and tribulations, that faith has been rewarded.

Flight International's Rob Coppinger reports that Starchaser is building a new manned rocket.

EADS Astrium, Europe's aerospace conglomerate, is once again toying with the possibility of building a European piloted spacecraft. Europe's rocket scientists have tried to interest their politicians in funding piloted space projects in the past, most notably the Hermes and Saenger spaceplanes. But as spending on these programs climbed, the politicians eventually balked at completing them.