I think some of the importance here lies in pushing NASA a bit. NASA can see that this team went from having nothing to having a ship capable of rocketing into space for a fraction of the cost of one NASA mission, as well as the fact that this team went about things in a rather unconventional way - I think its always good for the private sector to get involved in such things, because anytime there is profit to be made, innovations tend to be prevalent. While we might not all benefit from space-travel anytime soon, I would bet that within a couple of decades, "space cruises" will be somewhat common (although probably still fairly pricey).
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