The space industry is in the midst of a rapid evolution whose growth is being driven by mainstream commercial forces, with some Wall Street analysts projecting the market to grow to more than $150 billion in the next ten years.

If these analysts are correct, the fuel that will propel the commercial space industry to such heights is the venture capital—the "lifeblood" of every emerging industry—that individuals and institutions are willing to invest in a variety of endeavors. The financing of space projects, once thought by many observers as too risky, has been substantial. More than $100 billion is expected to flow into the space industry between 1995 and 2010.

Until the mid-1990s, most investment organizations were relatively unsophisticated about space projects. In the early twenty-first century, most investment organizations are willing to review business plans on the basis of business prospects and...