SpaceX is scheduled to launch its Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday morning, May 19 at 4:55 A.M. EDT. If all goes well, SpaceX's Dragon capsule will be one step closer to ferrying astronauts up to orbit and opening the door for manned private spaceflight missions in the future. Update inside.

U.S. aerospace company Alliant Techsystems supported NASA's shuttle program by manufacturing the space agency's Solid Rocket Boosters (or SRBs), the pair of which provided most of the initial thrust to carry the spacecraft aloft. Now, the firm is looking to put that know-how toward building a manned launcher of its own.

At the 2012 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference few weeks ago, we heard updates from all of the companies involved in commercial suborbital spaceflight. This includes big names such as Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, and we'll tell you what each one is promising and when they'll be able to deliver. In this post, we'll take a look at five of the most promising up-and-comers that are looking toward suborbit for manned space travel and more.

Monday morning, Professor Neil Armstrong (yes, that Neil Armstrong) gave a talk out here in California about his experiences in the X-15 suborbital flight program. The X-15 was America's first dedicated high speed, high altitude, rocket-powered suborbital space plane, and back in the early 1960s it was busy paving the way for the commercial spaceflight development that's one of the most exciting things happening in space today.