Why investors are following Musk, Bezos in betting on the stars - The Washington Post

Out-of-this-world disruption; in other Elon Musk news, see the latest Bloomberg Businessweek cover story, Who Owns the Sun?

"“It didn’t happen for 10 years,” he said. “Because in each and every case, no matter how exciting exploring the unknown is, or the grandeur of space tourism, none of them penciled out, economically.”

None of them until he met with Musk, who had detailed plans on how he would upend the space industry as he had with online commerce at PayPal. Rocket technology had stayed relatively stagnant for decades, with very few new entrants into the market. Innovation, which had disrupted virtually every industry, from cable to taxis, was somehow lacking in space.

SpaceX and others have shown that “the commercial space industry is enormous and ripe for disruption,” Jurvetson said. “Making a 100-fold improvement is actually a piece of cake, and making a thousand-fold improvement is feasible.”"

Why investors are following Musk, Bezos in betting on the stars - The Washington Post