If all goes well, Falcon 1, a 21.3-metre (70-feet) two-stage rocket with a liquid oxygen/kerosene propulsion system, could open up a new chapter in the history of space exploration.

Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, space has overwhelmingly been the preserve of the state, either directly through national agencies, or indirectly, through fat contracts handed to corporations to design and build launch vehicles, satellites and spacraft.

But in the last couple of years, undaunted by the risks and helped by lower entry costs, private entrepreneurs have pluckily started to shoulder their way in.

The latest step will take at 0030 GMT on Thursday, when Falcon 1, funded entirely by private capital, is scheduled to lift off from a US military base at Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands.

Falcon 1 will hoist aloft a small Pentagon satellite, FalconSat-2, designed to monitor the effects of ionospheric plasma on telecommunications.

The company behind the venture is Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), a startup based in El Segundo, California, whose declared goal is to boost the cost and reliability of access to space "ultimately by a factor of 10".

Falcon 1 is sketched as the first in a family of launchers that, at the top end of the range, would put 9.6 tonnes into geostationary orbit, rivalling the heavy rockets put forward by Boeing Corp. and Arianespace, which markets the European Space Agency's Ariane-5.

SpaceX is offering a Falcon 1 launch for just 6.7 million dollars, roughly a third of the established cost for placing a small satellite in low Earth orbit.

Company founder Elon Musk, a South African who made a fortune out of the Internet payment system, PayPal, which was bought by online auction company Ebay for 1.5 billion dollars in 2002, says he has pumped 100 million dollars into SpaceX so far.

"If necessary, I am prepared to invest significantly more, however after first launch I intend to bring other investors on board as well," he told AFP in response to emailed questions.

"I see SpaceX as a very long-term commitment for me personally, and intend to play an active role for decades into the future."

While Musk is focusing on launchers, other entrepreneurs are looking at space tourism and satellites.

Another Internet tycoon, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, is funding a US firm, Blue Origin, which is working secretly on a space plane.

And with typical showmanship, British multimillionaire Richard Branson is selling jaunts, at 200,000 dollars a trip, aboard a craft based on SpaceShipOne, a plane that made its maiden -- and so far only -- flight in October 2004.

The market for small satellites has seen two upstarts, Surrey Satellite Technology of Britain and OHB of Germany, which believe they can undercut behemoths such as EADS Astrium and Alcatel Alenia Space thanks to the dramatic plunge in the price of versatile electronic components.

Between 90 and 95 percent of the components used by Surrey Satellite Technology were not initially designed for use in space, said the company's founder, Martin Sweeting.

The enthusiasm of these explorers is widely admired in the space business, for competition is always the spur for invention.

But there are also doubts in many quarters that these venturers will want to stay the course if they hit technical problems or fail to turn a buck even if their innovations succeed.

Rachel Villain, vice president of Euroconsult, a firm which specialises in space consulting, says that over the past quarter century there has been a string of failures by the private sector in space, thwarted by technical setbacks or lack of capital or government contracts.

"Space gobbles up such large amounts of capital that it is hard to see the extent to which the private sector can get involved," she said.

That opinion was echoed by Jean-Jacques Favier, a former astronaut and trained scientist who heads strategic thinking at France's National Centre for Space Studies (Cnes).

He pointed out that, in a good year, Arianespace is just able to turn a small profit, even though the cost of developing the Ariane is shouldered by ESA and its member-states, not the company itself.

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