I firmly believe that SpaceX is the best chance humanity currently has at achieving space travel for the general population. They are one of the few companies I can get honestly excited about these days.
Agreed. Them and Virgin Galactic seem like they're the next logical step. I'm especially excited because they have the opportunity to succeed where the supersonic jetliners failed: Imagine if any spot on the globe was within 2 hrs travel time...
I wonder, though, if the same problems will apply : high per-passenger-mile costs and restricted takeoff/landing sites. Eventually the Concorde overcame the per-passenger-mile costs but they could never evade the takeoff and landing restrictions. If they had flown the LA/NY route it would have been much more successful. I can see any type of space transportation coming across the same issues.
While flying twice as high as passanger aircraft, the sonic boom would still be a problem with the Concorde. The restriction would be greatly reduced with a suborbital plane, which cruises outside the atmosphere.
> I firmly believe that SpaceX is the best chance humanity currently has at achieving space travel for the general population.
No. Although they're technically impressive, they have spent defense contractor amounts of money to get where they are today. There's almost no chance that this will help the general population get into space, except perhaps by testing the regulatory system.
Check out XCor, Masten, Armadillo, Scaled Composites if you're interested in personal access to space.
> hey are one of the few companies I can get honestly excited about these days.