WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY: Show time for commercial spaceflight at hand.

The first privately owned passenger spaceship is on track for a test flight beyond the atmosphere this year, and nearly 500 people have signed up for rides.

Another company just closed on $5 million equity financing, enough to finish building a two-seater rocketplane called Lynx.

Both firms — and a half-dozen more — are looking at flying not just people, but experiments and payloads owned by research laboratories, businesses and educational institutes.

Faster, please.