right now it is private, but i think the government should get involved, that helped concorde get off the ground. concorde started in the 1950s, didn't fly a test until 1969, and then it took until 1976 before it went commercial. this is a start—up company with a bit of money from united airlines, can they pull it off all by themselves? i just don't think so. i think government investment is very prudent in this regard. will it have any effect on space exploration? i think it's a good stepping stone to get people excited again about another destination very far, quickly. let's face it, blue orbit, virgin galactic, spacex, they are talking about sending tourists to space but the ultimate goal for many of them is to have suborbital aeroplane flights, essentially taking you from london to australia in two hours,