1. What is your target market for your private sector enterprise? Space tourism (orbital or suborbital)? Launch services? Satellites? Deep space probes?

2. Approximately how much would it cost to enter the market? Be sure to include the cost of government regulations in your price. For things like space tourism, at least in the US and probably much of the rest of the world, regulatory compliance costs can be enormous. It costs millions of dollars to certify a new private plane design for production and millions more to certify the production facilities. The more complex the vehicle, the more it costs to certify.

3. How big is the market for these services? Be honest now, how many people would shell out $100,000 or more for a brief space trip?

4. What are the spin-off marketing opportunites and how much can you realistically expect to raise?

5. What are your legal liabilities?

6. Factoring in everything, what is the projected return on investment? Be honest now - the economics of wishful thinking and unrealistic expectations have killed countless dreams.

Ultimately, #5 and #6 will be the critical factor in raising the necessary capital. It's also the reason why so many projects have failed in the past. If you ever hope to get beyond a "PowerPoint Project", you'll need to provide hard numbers and demonstrate a good ROI. Like the line in "The Right Stuff", "No bucks, no Buck Rogers."