There is a panel on investing in space startups consisting of Steve Fleming and Joe Pistritto (XCOR initial investors) and Tom Olson of The Colony Fund. Most of it is boilerplate, but one point made is that the hope was that business plans would become more realistic with the Rutan X-Prize breakthrough, but some even wackier plans have been crossing their desks recently (not actually surprising, considering what kinds of things were getting funded during the dot-com craze).

Consensus is that there will be serious investment by professional investors in the next twenty-four months, because people are now starting to take the market seriously based on Virgin Galactic's numbers and plans.

Not news, again, but something that technologists and engineers have trouble understanding--investors invest in teams, not in products.

Say hi to Joe for me, Rand. I knew him years ago in college.