SPACE: Congratulations, Bigelow Aerospace!

A big, Las Vegas sized CONGRATULATIONS to Bigelow Aerospace, the Las Vegas based aerospace company that has just flown the first scale model of its planned inflatable modules that will, in turn, be assembled into the first private space station - and space hotel. Once you're that far out of the gravity well, more exotic destinations are within much easier reach. This is an historic moment.

The essence of this event's importance is its uniquesness. In recognizing its uniqueness - who else has flown a private spacecraft without an immediate commercial mission, but as part of an ambitious long-term program? - one has to ask why this event is unique. Plenty of people - dozens - have the wherewithal to do this. Some, like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, could fund an ambitious, historic program like BA's without even noticing its financial impact. Yes, there are quite a few players in the suborbital arena, but the raw, pulse-pounding drama is to reach orbit, not pause, poised at the top of gravity's rainbow, before falling back to Earth like Icarus.

Soon we'll have ways to reach space affordably, and thanks to BA, somewhere to stay, focus, and regroup before leaving on the next stage of the journey.

Way to go, Bigelow!