The surest sign that an industry is poised to take off (literally, in this case) is the formation of an industry association. The key rivals for the annual X Prize have formed a space industry association, with a primary goal of working with the Federal government to formulate reasonable rules of the road of the privatization of space.

This is an important step, since certain elements of the Federal government are a bit touchy about having private spaceships zipping around their private playground (e.g. NASA, the FAA, the Air Force). But Congress is likely to do the right thing in this case and make sure that Federal agencies don't get in the way.

Why? Because congressional reps from the states with active space programs recognize that space, over the next forty to fifty years, is likely to be one of the biggest economic development booms in the history of the country. They are going to let some government bureaucrats mess that up.