A couple of recent developments in private spaceflight:

Virgin Galactic Partners With New Mexico On Spaceport

First, Sir Richard Branson inked a deal for the development of a private spaceport in New Mexico for his Virgin Galactic suborbital flights. (He alrady has 30,000 pre-registered to take the trip!)

The first purpose-built commercial spaceport for the personal spaceflight industry is to be constructed in New Mexico, a deal struck between the state and Virgin Galactic, the private spaceline firm created by British billionaire, Sir Richard Branson. Details of the partnership were unveiled today in a Santa Fe, New Mexico gathering of state officials led by Governor Bill Richardson, spaceport planning officials, and leaders of Virgin Galactic, including Branson.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051215_planetspace_silverdart.html

Now comes a Canadian outfit that had been a contender for the Ansari X-prize, that is aiming at orbital flight, both for space tourism as well as provision of shuttle services for the International Space Station.

The Silver Dart (Click picture to enlarge)

Canada’s London, Ontario-based firm PlanetSpace unveiled designs for its Silver Dart spacecraft, an eight-person vehicle derived from experimental aircraft studies in the 1970s, Thursday with hopes of carrying fare-paying passengers into orbit and resupplying the International Space Station (ISS). “The Silver Dart is the DC-3 of the space industry,” said Geoff Sheerin, PlanetSpace president and CEO, in a telephone interview. “It has so many things going for it in terms of performance.”

The more, the merrier – competition is a beutiful thing!