I've moved to LA to work for SpaceX. (www.spacex.com) I started on July 7th, 2008.
In a word, SpaceX is crazy. Everyone here is crazy, what we're doing is crazy, and the CEO is crazy. As you may already know, I am crazy too. SpaceX is trying to get to space and to do so commercially, without the backing of a government or a multi-billion-dollar budget.
For comparison, other aerospace companies told me about 8-9 year product cycles, and 30% chances of projects being cut before launch. When I got to SpaceX, they said, "take the time to get up to speed but don't drag your feet. This project we are putting you on needs to be done by the end of the month." "Why?" "In September, it's in space." A week later, they made me the engineer responsible for the project. Crazy.
We are focused on orbital launch, and eventual inter-planetary travel. Other private space companies have done sub-orbital tourist spaceflight; orbit takes 7 times more energy. So far, only Orbital Sciences has been able to do it, but still for big bucks.
Our smaller launch vehicle, Falcon 1 is for small satellites.
NASA is looking to us and our heavy-lift Falcon 9 and our Dragon crew/cargo capsule to replace the Space Shuttle for ISS missions when the Shuttle gets retired in 2010.
The Space Race. It's back.
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