While you watch SpaceShipOne make its historic attempt to win the XPrize today, I'm sure what you're asking yourself if -- what comes next?

That's the question, after all, that eluded Apollo. What came next wasn't nearly as exciting as what had already come, thus interest in space waned.

While the publisher of Tubular Bells (you didn't know that was where Richard Branson's fortune started?) has licensed the craft for its designed use of space tourism, there's a new goal, and a new prize shaping up. (That's Branson, from the BBC story.)

America's Space Prize will pay out $50 million to the company that can get up to 7 Astronauts at a time safely into the orbit of inflatable space habitats being designed by Bigelow Aerospace, which is putting up half the money. (That's the habit, to the right, from Space.Com.)

The man behind this scheme, Robert Bigelow, got his start with the Budget Suites chain of hotels, and this is not crazy. NASA first developed the technology for inflatable modules, under the name TransHub. Bigelow is taking this a step further, first with a hub called Genesis Pathfinder that could fly as early as next year, then a larger hub called Nautilus which he needs a bigger lift vehicle to fill.

While NASA itself is thinking of offering prizes of up to $30 million to private companies that can develop specific scientific advances in space (like bringing back a piece of an asteroid) private companies are coming up with clear goals they can follow-up on, and bringing more money to the table.

The age of private space flight has truly begun.