Space X is a private spacelaunch systems company founded by Elon Musk that has developed cheaper satellite launchers (Falcon 1) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) lifter (Falcon 9). They were awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Service (COTS) contract by NASA in 2006 to demonstrate a successful cargo resupply and crew transfer flights to the International Space Station (ISS). On Saturday, November 22, 2008, Space X successfully tested the first stage of the Falcon 9 launcher. Next year, they are slated to launch two of these demonstration flights and in 2010 do a full on flight test and docking with the ISS. If all goes well and ontime, NASA plans on awarding Space X a 278 million dollar contract to provide cargo and crew support to the ISS. This means that the U.S. could have a means to continue ISS operations after the space shuttle is retired in 2010 without having to rely overly much on Russia's Energia to provide support to NASA between 2010 and 2015.
Considering NASA awarded a contract to Lockheed for development of the ARES I and ARES 5, the launch vehicles for both ISS and the moon, to the tune of 3.9 billion dollars and now have awarded an additional 385 million to add in more tests that would delay program by two years, the deal with Space X is a steal. Successful manned launches by Space X could also lead to greater private commercial space development in 2010. Bigelow Aerospace is looking to work with Space X to launch its space habitat module into LEO to build new manned satellites at a cheaper cost than the ISS station. Bigelow has already successfully tested 2 space habitats, Genesis I and Genesis II. At $40 million per launch to LEO, Space X can potentiatally reduce the cost per person and cost per pound for space access. A passenger riding in the Dragon crew module should only have to pay 6 - 8 million dollars for a trip to orbit. This price is fairly high, but compare to $20 - $25 million that Energia now charges for a passenger on the Soyuz module, Space X's price is considerable improvement. For more on Space X you can visit their website by clicking on this link.