Buzz Aldrin was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, the first lunar landing. Aldrin became the second person to set foot on the Moon and was the second human ever to step on an extraterrestrial world (after Mission Commander Neil Armstrong).

Why he’s important: Aldrin could have retired years ago, but his unbridled passion for space continues to keep his schedule booked solid. He is developing a a contest where the winner would win a free trip to space.

Shubber Ali has been involved in the space industry (a term he doesn't like) and technology sectors for over a decade. He has co-founded numerous hi-tech companies, from satellite imaging (sold to a publicly traded company) to artificial intelligence software. He started his career at KPMG Space Consulting in Washington, DC., where he was Manager of the practice and worked on the strategic planning and financing of numerous commercial and defence satellite ventures, including the next generation of the Global Positioning System for the US Air Force, as well as ISS commercialization and tech transfer. He also co-founded SnowSports Interactive, a two year-old privately funded company operating in Canada, the US, and Australia that combines GPS, GSM, and RFID for consumer and resort applications in the multi-billion dollar winter sports industry.

He is past President of the American Society of Sydney, and is a past Director of a publicly traded telecommunications firm. Mr. Ali has also served on the Board of Directors of the California Space Authority, the Space Frontier Foundation, and the International Business Association of the Greater Los Angeles World Trade Centre Association. He earned an MBA in International Strategy from Georgetown University, where he also taught business strategy in high tech companies as an adjunct professor.

Why he's important: Known as the "Last Horseman of the Apocalypse" by the alt.space community (a name he was given at the Space Frontier Foundation conference after predicting the bankruptcy of Iridium during their launch month), Shubber brings the unforgiving metrics of business analysis and rigor to the various plans, hype and schemes of the space sector - and finds most wanting. He is also the founder of the Space Cynics blog (spacecynic.wordpress.com).

Anderson is the president and CEO of Space Adventures, the leading space tourism company and currently the only company in the world to have sent self-funded tourists into space. Anderson is a both a businessman, and aerospace engineer; and one of the leading entrepreneurs in the space tourism industry.

Why he’s important: Anderson’s innovation proved there is a market for space tourism.

One of twelve women to dive in a submersible to the Titanic; first to sign up with Rocketplane to go into space on a non-government owned vehicle; has led many four-wheel-drive trips to Mojave and Sonoran Deserts in California, and Gobi Desert in Mongolia, other national and international four wheeling in remote areas including Tasmania; fished for piranha in the Piranha River in Brazil in a ten foot boat; went to see first hand a tidal wave and Vietnam riot in San Francisco in the early 1960s; walked two miles to the circus by herself when she was eight years old. Reda Anderson was featured in the August 2006 issues of: Robb Report magazine and Popular Science magazine.

Why she's important: Anderson is paving the way for the second wave of space tourists who are looking forward to suborbital opportunities.