Let the private sector soar

The term "free market" has taken a misinformed beating amid the furor over whether — and how — Washington should have "bailed out" the nation's reeling financial sector. But despite that "rescue," and Monday's continuing stock-price dive, the free market can still rise to inspiring heights, as demonstrated on Sept. 28 when a privately financed rocket made history by reaching Earth's orbit.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that the 70-foot "Falcon 1" from Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) reached orbit about 10 minutes after launch from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, approximately 8,000 miles southwest of Los Angeles.

The founder of SpaceX, Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk, already has shown he can turn a dollar using innovative technology. Mr. Musk made his fortune with the Internet sales mechanism PayPal.

Three previous SpaceX attempts to attain orbit had been unsuccessful. The demise of the rocket launched on Aug. 2 was particularly disappointing — it was carrying the ashes of more than 200 people, including astronaut Gordon Cooper and James "Scotty" Doohan of "Star Trek" fame.

But while those remains were lost, a major SpaceX victory was won less than two months later. Stanford University Economics Professor Bob Twiggs hailed the successful flight, powered by liquid oxygen, as a potential price-cutting breakthrough:

"That's what the Apple computer did. It brought down the cost to have the ability to get on there and play around with things, without having to run to somebody's mainframe computer. I'm excited about the freedom it gives everybody."

Freedom — and prosperity — can be facilitated by a free market.And not every high-aiming enterprise requires a government "rescue."