It's mainly an article on the commercialization of space; and believe me, that's something I am 100% behind. (200%. More.)
Looks like they're getting close to paying passenger service on suborbital flights; and once that gets going, you'll see a lot of interesting things crop up.
Like? How about the oft-repeated claim of "New York to Tokyo in 90 minutes"? It'll finally become a reality, albiet--at least initially--at a price that will make Concorde tickets look like Economy Class.
Suborbital operations are vital to the commercialization of space, and they'll make international travel a lot faster. But that's only part of the story.
The other part comes from continuing development of suborbital craft: the profit motive will mean increasing the efficiency of the things to make them more profitable. And if you make them efficient enough, suddenly you'll find that these are also ways to make suborbital vehicles which can also be orbital vehicles.
The companies which find ways to make money on boosting payloads to orbit will need to pay people just to shovel their money around.
This kind of stuff is exciting in a way that the latest-and-greatest from NASA is not.
