The latest 'grand idea' from Richard Branson and his Virgin empire is to start up a commercial space flight company. Virgin Galactic is a technology licensing deal with Mojave Aerospace Ventures - the US company behind SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipOne is tabbed to be the most likely winner of the X Prize.

Branson has always been very good at self-promotion, grand ideas, and sometimes huge flops. On many levels I equate Branson with Mark Cuban. They both have enough money to do whatever they want, even if that want is to spend $100 million on an idea. The media/public seems to note their failures more often than their successes. But like many succesful businesmen, a failure is progress.

Branson has revolutionized the air travel market in Britain, and always favors a bit of style over substance. He has also made a number of enemies. His political and business adversaries most likely played a role in stopping Branson from taking over Concorde after British Airways and Air France ended supersonic passenger service.

The Concorde affair was unfortunate. I think Branson could have returned Concorde to its former glory and perhaps run it at a slight profit.

Will Branson be successful with the space program? Who knows. I expect to see them make it to the first few launches, if only to see Sir Richard make a flight. I see Branson’s legacy being compared to Tesla. At first many will write him off as a billionaire with too many toys, but later generations will value his creative ideas and willingness to take risks.

In the end the purpose of the X Prize was to stimulate investment and development of commerical space projects. A $100 million investment from Virgin is a good start.