EurekAlert reports on the work of science journalist Michael Belfiore, author of the new book, Rocketeers: How A Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots Is Boldly Privatizing Space:

In the "second space age," human spaceflight may no longer be the domain of governments. Dream-chasing entrepreneurs and clever engineers are aggressively blazing new trails into the heavens and preparing the world for an era of space tourism, ultra fast point-to-point earth travel and even orbiting hotels....

Having gained inside access into the top private space programs, Belfiore... [recounts] the history-making flights, the failures and fatalities, as well as the enduring passion and dreams of the real estate tycoons, dot-com billionaires, a video game programmer and other business mavericks for whom the sky is no longer the limit. They are fueling the highest-flying private rockets ever built, testing ‘vertical dragsters’, and preparing to launch an inflatable space station – with the mock-up already in earth orbit.