Hopes of Start-Up Rocket Company Are Riding on First Launch - Los Angeles Times: "A fledgling El Segundo firm that hopes to cut the cost of sending satellites into orbit is scheduled to launch its first payload today from a remote western Pacific base in the Marshall Islands.
Initially slated for Friday, the launch of the Falcon 1 rocket was postponed to avoid conflicts with a missile defense system test at the request of the U.S. Army, which owns the launch pad on Omelek Island, said a spokeswoman for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the rocket's builder."
The more private companies we have throwing things up into space, the bettter. Competition brings improvements, improvements means longer space stays, permanent stations
not run by the government, a capitalism.
Capitalism isn't perfect by any means, but it does bring many human traits into play: a desire to makes ones personal situation better, and a sense of competition. The "new world" (a.k.a. north america) was started by formal edicts of the European government, but didn't really get going until those ties were broken and people started moving west on their own, hoping for a better life. Yes, the "wild west" had some very bad things happen, but what would an alternative be? Imagine expansion to the west under total control of a government.
As witnesses by the death of the 55mph speed limit, we are willing to accept a few more deaths for the (debatable) betterment of society. However, we also reject the concepts of genocide and other mass-death approaches. What would our country look like if we had our present-day educated view towards the American Indians back in the early 1800s? I have no idea, but it is an interesting question. Have two cultures that are so different ever, in all of human history, co-existed on a single area of land? Co-existed peacefully?
