on america s space program. they were a new generation of private entrepreneurs who invested their own wealth into what seemed like a crack-pot idea, civilians going into space. but it took the unsorry xprise, a competition with $10 million in winnings, to spark a new space race, this time in the private sector. the quest reached its climax in 2004 when spaceship 1 became the first private spacecraft to go into suborbital space and return. 13 years on, the $10 million x prize purse translated into a billion dollars of nongovernmental investment into a new space race. private enterprise now stands poised to take over the transport of passengers and cargo toe earth s orbit and fre up the nasa s of the world to plan more ambitious projects to mars and beyond. spacex, blue virgin and galactic