Who needs NASA?

AT A remote airport in California’s Mojave Desert last month, a tiny aerospace firm unveiled a spacecraft and launch vehicle it has been developing in secret for more than two years. The craft turned out to be among the most advanced of those competing to win the much vaunted $10 million X Prize for the first civilian crew to get into space. But if hype were rocket exhaust, the prize would have been won by now. While civilian space flight fans are supremely confident that someone will win the X Prize within months, the truth may not be quite as rosy.…