low cost commercial space access-movers and shakers

These are the companies I believe in:

Scaled Composites
SpaceX
Xcor

feel free to add your favourites here, but only if they've shown good progress towards their goals!

What about SpaceDev?

How about Rocketplane and a Armadillo? They both appear to have funding, does that count as progress towards their goals? (In particular Rocketplane who have I belive yet to publicly display any hardware).

I like Xcor, but they don't have enough funding for their complete rocket plane so they are limited to smaller projects for now.

Rocket plane is fully funded, but are just finalizing the design. They have yet to build anything as a company, but they do have people who have built real stuff before. I like the idea of powered flight after returning from space. Gliding back unpowered means you have to get the landing perfect on the first try for every flight!

Musk leads the pack, for his Falcon V should prove to be a Delta II killer--provided the Titan II class Dneprs (SS-18/R-36M Voevoda heavy ICBM) don't get even cheaper.

SpaceDev's orbital entrant looks very like a miniaturized all-hybrid Energiya-Buran stack with their X-34 derived Dream Chaser side-mounted to reduce pitch-loads and bending moments--as per the POP SCI article (page 50 IIRC). Their maturity makes them come in second.

Third is a company you may not have heard from:

http://www.spaceislandgroup.com

Gene Meyers (of TRW) has many contacts, and wishes to find a market for Shuttle Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles (SDV HLLV)'s. This actually fits in well with the new NASA Chief--and I think that the Space Business market must focus on payloads and not vehicles that will sap their funds before they have a useful payload.

During the Black Sky episodes of the Discovery Channel--Rutan's fame reached its Zenith. With SS1 going to the museum--and Branson's low-attention span--Rutan is best advised to make the Global Flyer into a super-cheap UAV competetor to Global Hawk.

Aviation milestones are what he is known best for. He should stick to aviation and leave space to the grown-ups.

In the past, space privitization initiatives focused on private launch vehicles and NASA "buying rides." As I've said before--this plays to the strength of neither party.

An HLLV built by NASA would be fitted with a space pharmaceutical factory--now that ISS will only become a Mars-Ship training ground. Such a payload would be a lot easier to build (all payload--no propulsion) than trying to win an orbital prize. A lot of space materials researchers--who have been promised a lot from ISS--have been left in the lurch--and they would be thankful for an all-materials platform.

So as I see it, you can all play with oversized hobby rockets that really aren't worth much--or...

...you can find payloads to help Griff-man sell his SDV HLLVs and tap into the pharma-industry to pay REAL money--as opposed to going to Allen and getting what amounts to peanuts.

We have enough row-boats.

Now its time for the containerships. Only then--with bulk--will space make money--with large scale projects--not with toys.

black sky is on tonight discovery wings at 9 then every 2 or 3 hours!