Leonard David has a useful report on Esther Dyson’s recent conference on personal spaceflight and personal jet flight.

I have to say that she certainly has jumped into this with both feet.

And this was an interesting comment from Virgin Galactic COO Alex Tai:

Tai said he’s looking for that “Netscape moment” when the public space travel business rockets to stardom – just like the internet browser did when it kicked-started the dotcom boom of the mid-1990s.

“We have taken in $25 million from an interest of 80,000 people…with our tiny sales force,” Tai told SPACE.com. “There’s a huge appetite for this offering once we get out there…once we prove that it’s something that’s going to be safe, really fun to do, and is repeatable. What will happen then is that, suddenly, everyone will see Virgin Galactic making an awful lot of money. And that is the next ‘go’ moment.”

Tai speculated that when Richard Branson decides to fund his next big venture, and he sells 10 percent of Virgin Galactic for $100 million, people will hunger to be part of the public space travel business.

“But at the moment, these guys don’t want to invest because there hasn’t been that Netscape moment,” Tai continued. “It is being held up because Virgin Galactic is the gorilla in the room. Who is going to take Virgin on? That’s a shame because I believe it’s a massive market. I would much rather there’s competition getting ready now,” Tai concluded.

Yes, a smart businessman recognizes that competition is necessary for a healthy industry, particularly when it’s first getting off the ground (in this case, literally).