The Case for Space

After years of stagnation, suddenly space travel is the next big thing. Space entrepreneur Jeff Bezos has announced plans to colonize the moon; Virgin Galactic is already selling tickets for trips into suborbital space. Blue Origin is building a reusable rocket, and this spring SpaceX's founder Elon Musk will launch his Falcon Heavy rocket—which, at 1. 3 million pounds of thrust, will be more powerful than any existing vehicle besides NASA's Saturn V moon rocket. Fueled by an entrepreneurial revolution in private spaceflight, humans may once again be able to leave their home planet.