Top Ten Near-Term Developments to Improve Access to Space

Brian Wang over at Next Big Future recently had a post highlighting what he felt were the top ten near-term developments that could be made to vastly improve our capabilities for space travel. Check it out.

Some of his items are really interesting, but are these really the ten things that could have the most impact? Some, like SpaceX's lower-cost rocket launches (#3) and Bigelow's inflatable space stations (#4) I am one hundred percent in agreement with. But highlighting SpaceshipThree (which hasn't even been announced yet, and is purely speculative) was a bit premature. Personally, I don't think sub-orbital flight will ever be much of an inducement to provide advances to orbital flight, although it could lead to development of new technologies that may help out in the long run.

Also, lunar concrete would be a good thing, but I don't consider that "near-term." We're still, unfortunately, decades away from doing anything practical on the moon.

But that's just my take. What about you?