Freedom. Think of Brian "Rocket Guy" Walker next time you hear the word. He has wanted to go into space since he was a child. Being a kindhearted soul, and coincidentally not disposed toward wrapping his life around the standard path which tends to lead to space travel, he has committed to going into space alone, funded by him, in a rocket designed and built by him, with hydrogen peroxide fuel personally distilled by him to 90% purity.
It's slow going in the space business when you're not associated with a protection racket which funds whatever "vision" pops out of your rear end. Were NASA not on the receiving end of billions of stolen, private dollars, they'd either have to justify their visions to investors, or autofund to their heart's content. Not likely that either method would have hatched the eminent disaster which was, is, and shall be the space shuttle.
For help with his capitalist approach to space travel, Brian naturally turned to the former Soviet Union instead of NASA. Seems that along with NASA's thieving heart comes a penchant for arrogance, and a general can't do philosophy. NASA is a government agency.
Brian's dream is to go up 30 miles and then come back down safely — no orbiting. I've never been there, but I'm told that 30 miles high is not technically 'space'. It's almost where the stratosphere fades into the mesosphere, whatever those are. However, considering that most airliners fly at a max altitude of about 8 miles, 30 miles is impressive; it's better than NASA would do were it a private club of one.
He hasn't done it yet though. His original launch schedule was left in the dust as he was surprised by the media attention and the amount of research/design required, while also mired in a disappointing diversion with a Russian beauty and her young son. Answering personally most of the thousands of emails he's received hasn't helped either, but it's something he feels is important.
A marvelous attribute of this private venture is the honest approach of its creator, whose wealth has largely come from sales of his toy inventions. It's easy to spend hours wading through Rocket Guy's web site (www.rocketguy.com), and you quickly get the sense that he's willing to talk about almost anything. However, his recent marriage to the Russian Natasha is apparently too painful to deal with, except via removing any mention of it or her from his site. He doesn't hide his painful start in the invention business, his apparently debilitating work habits, or the taxing nature of this huge project he's bitten off.
Anybody chiding Rocket Guy for missing deadlines should check out his Updates page to see some of the numbing details involved in going it alone on his dream. His straightforward approach to skeptics and conformists is evident in this Slashdot interview.
Keep in mind that Rocket Guy doesn't threaten his neighbors, take their wealth, and then call up Lockheed Martin (newly freed from their traffic extortion business) to handle his infrastructure. He's the one painstakingly attaching sound absorbing material to each panel of his rocket assembly dome. He's the one building, operating, and training in a centrifuge. He's the one financing the project and walking on eggshells with the FAA. He will risk his hide for the cause of exploration and selfish joy.
Brian Walker, wonderfully naive and independent, on essential liberty:
"There's no law against building and launching a rocket. If somebody says you can't leave, they're basically saying you can't leave the planet."