I’m liking this new possible commercial presence in space. It’s very… American. So, China sent a man into space, but this, this is even better. An American sent up, non-fully-government-funded. Maybe NASA won’t win the next space race, but someone else will.

However, the weaponization of space still possibly looms. Could a private company develop weapons in space, effectively holding the world hostage, challenging US supremacy? That would certainly be a scary scenario. It’s a long shot, but it could happen.

Also, earlier, I mentioned the space elevator. The space elevator would send up things into space for less of a price per payload than rockets. Whoever builds it first, will rule space. That could still be China. Even so, that doesn’t rule out a commercial presence in space: Once you get stuff up into space, you still need to transport it elsewhere.

It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. I’m predicting space tourism first.