This 'Space' For Sale

It's a meeting between Jabba the Hut and Pizza Hut, the introduction of the Starship Enterprise to free enterprise. If you thought sky-high profits in space were limited to Star Wars and Star Trek movies...it's time to wake up and smell the Crab Nebula coffee.

Just the other day at Vanderburg Air Force Base, they launched the first commercial rocket with a high-resolution spy satellite. It will capture photos for public sale; photos good enough -- or bad enough, if you will -- to see what's going on in your neighbor's backyard.

And you won't need to squint to see this: Pizza Hut announced plans to stick its logo --30 feet worth -- on the Russian rocket that will haul up the new international space station's living quarters. It's a scaled-down version of their original ad plan to shoot the moon...with their logo in laser lights. Turns out the plan would have required a laser image the size of Texas to be seen on Earth.

But when it comes to future space businesses, the profit potential could be astronomical. U.C. Berkeley scientists now say Uranus and Neptune may be planetary diamond factories, pumping out millions of them under the heat and pressure of billions of tons of hydrogen. But you don't have to check out the Hubble telescope to see the possibilities. Someday you may be able to check into a Hilton instead. They're just one company now looking to link space travel and tourism. Can you see the ad campaign? "Welcome to zero gravity. Eat all you want, don't gain a pound."