Venture Capital's Space Shot - Forbes.com

"If you think venture capital's hype has gotten ahead of its performance lately, consider this: The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration is raising its own fund.
By next week, NASA hopes to have gathered a bunch of ideas from investing entrepreneurs on the particulars of its proposed Red Planet fund, and the aim is to get something launched before the end of this year. Lisa Lockyer, the acting deputy director for NASA's innovative partnerships program, says it's too early to talk about the fund in detail, but she says the agency is getting interest from a number of established venture capitalists.
Red Planet Capital isn't going to be pouring a huge amount of money into startup aerospace and rocketry projects. Its initial plans call for annual investments in the neighborhood of $20 million ($11 million for 2006), which is a pittance in the venture capital world. But it is symbolically important."