Other companies are building satellites—trying to make them cheaper, make them last longer and get them to take better photos. San Francisco-based Planet Labs announced plans last year to launch 28 mini-satellites in a ring around Earth to provide frequent snapshots of the planet. Users will be able to track changes in everything from traffic jams to deforestation, in almost real time. Current commercial satellites tend to photograph in high resolution, which can take a long time to download. Government satellites photograph in even higher resolution, with broader areas of detail. Planet Labs’ satellites will use moderate resolution and will be able to make out objects 3 meters to 5 meters wide. Another Silicon Valley company, Skybox Imaging, aims to launch at least 24 satellites that will be able to take high-definition video of any spot on Earth and capture details just 1 meter across.

“The common thing we see with all these companies, with the exception of Branson, is that a lot of the movers and shakers have come from the tech sector. They’ve made their money in the Internet to one degree or another,” says Bailey of Knight Frank.

These are not your typical return-on-equity plays. It’s a very passionate, emotional kind of sell that attracts a different kind of investor, says Marco Rubin, founder of Exoventure, a Falls Church, Va.-based venture capital firm.

“It’s a person who may have had a touch point in the aerospace field, or they’re very wealthy individuals who don’t mind losing it all,” he says.

Rubin, who worked as an engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Johnson Space Center in Houston certifying astronauts to operate complex equipment while in space, says there’s been a push into space over the last five years, in part because the cost of going into orbit has come down and in part because some professional investors have put money into the sector and spurred innovation.

“In the past, this area was the province of large institutions like GTE Spacenet or General Dynamics, strategic players in the military and industrial complex. Now you have this barbell situation, with investors curious about the opportunities in space on the one side and entrepreneurs who have good ideas looking for investors,” Rubin says.

Today, through groups such as the Space Angel Network, a reasonably wealthy individual can write a check for $50,000 and buy into a space venture—though you have to be an accredited high-net-worth individual.

“What’s changed, quite frankly, is awareness, social networking, access to capital and a greater appetite for specialized investments,” Rubin says. “And there’s a certain type of daredevil investor who wants to participate in a cool, passionate idea.”

Privatization Of Space
Most see these investments as the privatization of space. Until recently, the only people to launch a satellite into space, for instance, were governmental entities such as NASA. The private sector didn’t have the capability. But that’s changed now that companies like SpaceX are sending rockets into orbit and have found a way to cut the cost.

“We are about to have fully commercial transportation to fully commercial destinations in space,” says Rick Tumlinson, chairman of Deep Space Industries, noting that companies such as SpaceX, Orbital Sciences and Blue Origin are freeing us from any dependence we had on governments to get us to and from space, and that soon we’ll have fully commercial destinations that will give us freedom from having to go to government space stations.

Private money is pushing innovation, which is pushing launch costs down, and that’s largely because companies are finding ways to save the rocket. Today, when you launch something into space, the rocket usually burns up in the atmosphere. Companies such as SpaceX and XCOR are finding ways to make the rockets reusable, and it’s likely to bring down launch costs exponentially. As that happens, investor interest is only expected to accelerate.

“The cost equation for getting to orbit—the gateway to the universe, literally—is about to shift and cross a price threshold. When it does, the number and scale of activities in space will literally skyrocket,” Tumlinson says.