Clark Lindsey has an extensive, link-rich review of how 2008 advanced us in private spaceflight. It was a pretty good year, and as he notes, no catastrophes (as occurred in 2007 in Mojave).
[Afternoon update]
He also has links to other year-end space and technology reviews.
Wow, this is great material. I just skimmed over it, but I see a vast amount of detail.