FYI, the summer's biggest box office disa$ter is a HIGH BUDGET film about space colonization that will be lucky if it makes $5 million, TOTAL, on the silver screen:

"On the moon in 2087, Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) is a nightclub owner who accidentally gets involved in a revolt against an evil corporation from Earth intent on taking over his lunar colony, and he soon becomes the leader of the lunar independence movement."

http://movies.go.com/movies/A/adventuresofplutonash_2001/index.html

I can't say that I saw it, and it won't be possible to now because even though it's a recent release, it's only in 300 theatres nationwide now (if that many) and none are near Washington D.C. Regardless, though, a space colonization film (and a high budget one at that) was the summer's worst box office disappointment. Should this fact be totally off of our radar as we try and understand why the likes of Lance Bass can't drum up the sponsorship that they need to help open the space frontier? Eddie Murphy HAS had some box office smashes including Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop and even Boomerang (all of which made over $100 million and inflation has been close to 30% since then, too). One would think this movie would have done far better IF his market niche cared at all about space.

Interestingly enough, some African American billionaires DO like the aerospace industry to varying degrees although they won't touch space, at least not under NASA's terms. For details:

http://www.spaceprojects.com/washtimes110500#Johnson

If NASA offered prizes though, the situation could improve (but not in time to save Pluto....Nash that is). Somehow I bet NASA bureaucrats will instead opt for political approaches to the lack of interest, rather than pro-entrepreneurial ones, in order to perpetuate people's dependence on them (thereby keeping the bureaucrats and their pet contractor sycophants happy and on the federal trough).

- - - -