UP Aerospace announced today that they will launch SpaceLoft 6 on April 5, 2012 from Spaceport America.

"Over the next few months we're integrating parts and pieces of the hybrid rocket motor into the SpaceShipTwo airframe, completing ground testing of the rocket motor, and then [will] try and start powered flight over the summer," Whitesides told SPACE.com. Those rocket-powered flights, he said, will continue for some period of time.

Whitesides said it looks possible "to get up to space altitude by the end of the year, if all goes well." The next major follow-on steps, he said, involve obtaining a commercial operating license from the Federal Aviation Administration and moving operations from California to Spaceport America in New Mexico.

"We hope to get to space this year and our hope is to be able to start commercial operations from Spaceport America in 2013," Whitesides said.

In 2011, I challenged a team of NASA engineers to answer a simple question: "Can we send humans back to the moon, and to the asteroids, with existing launch vehicles?" The answer was, "Yes, we can." We concluded that it would cost about $40 billion, and that this could be financed out of NASA's existing annual human-spaceflight budget (around $4 billion) over 10 years.

I would add that we should target the most important problem first—the cost of space launches. Use the first year's prize money of $1.8 billion to create a Reusable Spaceplane Prize. Set the first prize at $1 billion, and the second prize at $800 million—and then get out of the way.

Cold flow testing the new test trailer and 3500 lbf engine. Like a boss. pic.twitter.com/Q31XgS8U