Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic took center stage this week at Wired Magazine’s NextFest in NYC.  The event had all the requisite PR-friendly show-and-tells – interior views of the new SpaceShipTwo tourist ship, some incredible animation video clips, and even word that a frequent flier on a traditional airline is cashing in some chips for his chance to go into space.

But refreshingly, Branson was not the only one with news to share about space tourism news this week (no odd coincidence for sure).  Trail blazing space pioneers like Rutan, Branson and Diamandis are great, but a little friendly competition for the space tourist buck might actually turn out to be more important than the innovations themselves.  Just this week we witnessed:

• Virgin Galactic’s Unveil of SpaceShipTwo interior
• Jim Benson’s move from SpaceDev to start his own Benson Space Company, where he intends to take orders of SpaceDev’s Dreamchaser craft and be “first to market”
• U.K.-based Starchaser’s unveiling of their first prototype rocket, SKYBOLT, which may lead to a manned trip by 2009.
• UP Aerospace’s rocket failure from New Mexico’s commercial spaceport (yes, even failure is good in this industry)
• The return of female space tourist Anousheh Ansari back to Earth after a week at the ISS Hotel

Surely, these trailblazing companies are at various stages of reality when it comes to being ready to actually accept paying customers, but one can’t help but get excited not only by the news of these developments, but the possibility of what a little competition might lead to.  Already one with a flair for the unusual with his Virgin Atlantic fleet, imagine the perks Branson might have to include in order to stay competitive a few years down the line.

Imagine being able to pick and choose your suborbital adventure based on:

• Price
• Coolness of the spacecraft
• Location
• Perks
• Your view from space

Two years ago this month, I was one of the first batch of customers on Zero G Corporation’s domestic zero-g flights – it’s refreshing to see the flurry of activity happening since that time – and realize that the ‘pathway to space’ is being paved with such a furious spirit of innovative thinking and competition.