Nearby in the California desert, Popular Mechanics pays a visit to the site where the next leg of the space race is happening:
The sign at the entrance to the Mojave Air and Space Port says "imagination flies here." The motto fits this collection of World War II–era hangars and outbuildings with two control towers and four airstrips in the middle of the California Desert. In 2004, the airport became a spaceport when a three-seat rocket-powered airplane built by a company called Scaled Composites and designed by its founder and CEO Burt Rutan became the first civilian-built craft to leave Earth's atmosphere. But Rutan and his ilk put themselves on the aerospace map long before SpaceShipOne took flight, and now they're trying to make Mojave one of the most important points in the growing commercial space industry.