Now that we see more privatization of the space industry, what time table would you give before space travel?

becomes economic. Right now the price per lb to send anything up is very expensive but I have seen 3 new companies such as Virgin Galactic etc who have used thier own money to finance space travel projects and have been working way faster and more effectively than nassa because basicly their only mission is to make money off sending people on space rides.

Anyone have a good guess on how long it will be at this rate before I can get a ride in space for the cost of the average expensive cruise? I am only 21 and I hope it is before the end of my life, anyone who works in the industry or knows anything have any clue?
"The Chinese will be the next to go to the moon. Strangely enough, I don't believe that their program is a private enterprise. "

- Don't be a smart ass, I am talking about private industry, china does not count and I dont mean to the moon just into orbit.

a few more light years should get us there

The Chinese will be the next to go to the moon. Strangely enough, I don't believe that their program is a private enterprise.

as soon as they get the carbon fiber tether developed it will be

I would say, but I don't know that if the industry continues as it is growing now, we should see something like you are talking about in no more than 30 to 40 years. Look at how far the industry has come since the early 60's and the manned Mercury flights. They were only sending one person up then and it has only been 40 to 45 years and now we are building a space station and I read a couple of months ago that NASA is planning a manned moon base by 2021. The payloads are getting bigger, the ships are more maneuverable, and faster. The next step before space exploration is to come up with a faster means of propulsion. What we have right now just won't do. I mean we are obviously not going to reach Star Trek speeds in our lifetimes, but the speeds we are moving now are a snails pace compaired to what we need to travel through space in one lifetime, and not a multi-generation ship. I read somewhere a few years back that the US government already had a "Ion" propulsion system built, but had not tested it. They couldn't test it in the atmosphere because it dumps too much hard core radiation in the atmosphere. In other words, it would poison the planet, but it's supposed to be really fast. They didn't say just how fast, but of course they haven't tested it yet, so how would they know how fast it will go. Maybe Star Trek isn't as far off as we think..

True space travel could be thousands of years away. By that I mean travel to other stars.

The type of travel you seem to be talking about, will probably be achieved in the next 20 years. One of the reasons private firms seem more effective, is that their budgets are dictated by the private citizens funding them, instead of a bunch of elected officials that know little about space.

Mr.Rutan once said that he was effective quickly, because his designs basically do what is needed, and nothing more. His designs are elegant in this regard. NASA on the other hand has to over design, and cover all problems unknown in triple redundancy, or they would not get government funding.

If you are interested in following the latest on this subject, go to www.space.com.