[hopespringseternal]

It's not California, but there is Kistler Aerospace.

I believe they are farther along than anyone else has gotten.

[ez]

A bunch of orgs are competing for the "X-Prize" here. . The winner gets 10 million dollars...that means they have to ferry passengers to space for less than that, or act philanthropically.

[mikegi]

Why have a reusable vehicle at all? Why not use simple capsules? I believe it was "physicist" who brought this up on a thread awhile ago. Makes sense to me. Reusable vehicles require stronger construction to survive multiple missions, etc. Plus, adding in the ability to fly adds more complexity (wings, control surfaces, flight control systems, etc.). All this adds weight, too, which limits payloads.

It would interesting to read an unbiased technical comparison of expendable vs. reusable space vehicles now that we have had plenty of experience with both. Reusability has turned out to be more expensive than originally thought.