(editor's note: Who says big things don't come in little packages? It seems the tiny town of Mojave, California welcomes visitors with their sign, "Gateway to Space!" In what is called the New Space movement, innovators, inventors, and entrepreneurs come together at this location to share their dreams of space exploration.

I'm so happy to report that news of activities happening outside and around our planet continue to intrigue more and more people!
Just a few years ago, "space geeks" were the only ones interested in all the wonderous events of our neighboring planets, stars, and galaxies. Now it seems everyone has their eyes to the skies!
The view from down here is a special vantage point, so I hope you enjoy this report and get a better understanding of how important YOU are to the beautiful Cosmos we all call home.  
~All my Love, Boo)

A Desert Town on the Way Up ... to Space

Adherents believe that the next phase of space exploration will be led by nimble, ambitious entrepreneurs — a new generation of people like Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who helped create the electronics industry in a garage — and that this is their moment to come together and make it happen.

This is where the first private, piloted spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, launched in 2004. Virgin Galactic is now conducting flight tests of a larger version, called SpaceShipTwo, that will take tourists on jaunts 62 miles up, giving them a brief bout of weightlessness. Small start-ups here are also developing new rocket fuels and trying to transform a discarded second stage of a rocket into a prototype moon lander.

The mélange of small aerospace companies at Mojave shows that the ambitions of the New Space movement go far beyond serving as a delivery service for NASA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/science/space/a-california-desert-town-on-the-way-up-to-space.html