Rocket men: meet the 21st-century pioneers who want to take you into space.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine

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LOTS OF KIDS go through an astronaut phase, usually sometime between fireman and president of the United States. For the last three generations of American children dreaming of slipping the surly bonds of Earth, the only game in the galaxy has been a federal agency: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). But since NASA's space shuttle program shuddered to a stop in July 2011 with the final flight of the Atlantis, those kids--and the adults they have become--have been forced to look outside of government for liftoff.

As luck would have it, there are quite a few men (and they are virtually all men) who would be more than happy to help. These 21st-century pioneers want to make spaceflight affordable, accessible, and commonplace, making a buck off your childhood fantasies in the process. They can't offer the moon, yet. But they can supply various modes of travel and ways to achieve the astronaut experience, with or without Tang and freeze-dried ice cream.

For decades space enthusiasts and libertarian dreamers have imagined a future where robust competition replaces top-down bureaucracy in the provision of extra-atmospheric travel, reason has sketched this post-NASA vision in feature stories ranging from "Getting Off the Ground" (November 1981) to "Martian Chronicle" (February 1999) to "Space Travel for Fun and Profit" (January 2007). But thanks to a convergence of technological development, regulatory breathing room, and budgetary austerity (see "A Twinkle of Hope" on page 20), that future is now.

Meet the folks who are working to get you and your inner child off terra firma and into the great beyond.

The Daredevil: Elon Musk

After SpaceX executed a nearly flawless launch and recovery of its Dragon capsule in December 2010, the company's CEO and founder, Elon Musk, had only one regret--that there wasn't anyone on board. "If there were people sitting in the Dragon capsule today," he said at a post-launch press conference, "they would have had a very nice ride."

The Dragon voyage was the first time a commercial space vehicle had made it into orbit and back--a major milestone for the industry. For now the splashy success locks in Musk as the leader of a surprisingly large pack of space entrepreneurs who are looking to fill the gap left by NASA's decommissioned shuttle.

Musk, a Stanford grad school dropout who was born in South Africa, made his fortune--estimated at $670 million--as one of the founders of the online payment site PayPal. Then he founded Tesla Motors, where he led development of an all-electric sports car.

After the space shuttles were retired, NASA was forced to start paying Russians to ferry Americans and their gear back and forth to the International Space Station, at about $63 million per seat. Musk says SpaceX can do it for one-third the price. The added risk of throwing humans--or as Musk refers to them, "biological cargo"--doesn't seem to worry him.

There are plenty of details to be worked out as NASA hands over some of its traditional responsibilities to private industry. Musk's famously prickly personality has been on display throughout the negotiations. In late October, he was one of several representatives from commercial space firms who appeared before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology to complain about the terms of a contract with NASA to provide taxi services between Earth and the International Space Station. NASA, it seems, is having trouble letting go. Displeased with how the hearing went, Musk says Space X "may not bid" for the crew-carrying contract after all. Although it has inked deals to move cargo for NASA, SpaceX is always careful to emphasize that it has a $1 billion roster of private clients in case the government deals don't pan out.

NASA doesn't have the agility or the drive of the modern space industry, so it needs SpaceX and its ilk more than the reverse...