In this week's Space Review, Jeff Foust discusses some possibilities for the private sector to get involved with NASA's new mission plan, at least in the early phases. He mentions the proposed 2008 launch of a lander/rover combination on the moon and the hi-res imaging of selected areas of the moon as obvious starting points for public-private partnerships.

While I agree with the gist of Foust's article, I can't help but think that the private sector is already one step ahead of NASA, and will be pulling away from the NASA peloton before 2008. The impending claim of the Xprize will be a key turning point, the spark that starts the fire. Then follows a chain of races, all purely commercial: the first to send a group of people into orbit affordably, then the first to build a space station worthy of the name, then ... my crystal ball, it fades...