@ddhboy: The private satellite industry is a $150 billion industry. Just think, you've got Satellite TV, Satellite Radio, Satellite Navigation, etc etc.

@dfp3050: The government is definitely funding space exploration. In a down year for most federal budgets, NASA's budget has gone up slightly.

@DangerousDac175: Basically how government budget funding works is that they'll keep working on Constellation until the new budget says "stop", but with no approved budget yet, they haven't stopped building and testing (it's just brought morale down a lot).

28k ft is not "upper atmosphere". That's commercial airline flight level. Learn a little science before posting crazy headlines.