Emphasis on the business. The private company SpaceX launched their Dragon capsule, which docked with the ISS, delivering needed supplies, left orbit, splashed down successfully and was recovered.
SpaceX did what the US Government can’t do currently and the Russians can’t do reliably. The Dragon also has multiple advantages over the Russian Soyuz, including being to bring down a full ISS crew of seven in a single flight.
The success of the SpaceX Falcon launcher and Dragon capsule should encourage other private companies to look into space exploration, for a profit of course.
A permanent moon base would be a good next start. As Dr. Pournelle has pointed out, getting to the moon and building a long term base is a simple feat of engineering. We have had the technology to do so since the 1970s.
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Urbin Technology 
I don’t know about “The Russians can’t do reliably” — Progress seems to work pretty well.
Not to take anything away from Dragon, which is a very promising system indeed, but I’d personally hold off on comparing it to Soyuz / Progress until it’s actually demonstrated these capabilities.
Point taken. The Russians do have a lot of practical experience in space. I still think they are a bit too reckless on the side of “plenty of other Cosmonauts where than one came from.”
I’m still betting on American Private Enterprise to out perform the Russians and NASA. Unless the US federal government changes its funding and task list for NASA, which I’m not seeing for at least another three years.