SpaceX announces deal to shuttle tourists to private space stations

Since we are talking about SpaceX in here, I figured I would linked to a image Elon posted today of the Grasshopper landing gear. Grasshopper is a testing platform they are creating for an eventual reusable version of the Falcon 9 rocket.<p><a href="http://img.ly/i5JQ" rel="nofollow">http://img.ly/i5JQ</a>

It is so awesome the private sector is getting into this. Here's hoping I'll still be around by the time it become affordable (or that I've it pay dirt in the meantime :).

This is certainly the closest I've seen folks to being able to put 'real' people into space. I'm so hoping we can get there in the next 20 years.

Is it just me or does an inflatable space station sound terrifying. It seems like it would be very fragile if it collided with any fast-moving debris.

Maybe this will be the solution to broken US immigration laws, in 20 years.

The last line implies that SpaceX won't be ready to ferry astronauts to the ISS until 2017.<p>1) I thought they were closer than that<p>2) The ISS is slated for decomm in 2016, or is it 2020?

<i>intro to Cowboy Bebop</i>