Look! Up in the sky! Space, the final frontier, is tempting eager entrepreneurs to advance satellite technology

Having conquered cyberspace and other earthly markets, a new crop of entrepreneurs, including some high-tech veterans, has set its sights on the next commercial frontier — space.

So far, most of the attention has focused on Virgin Group’s Richard Branson and his futuristic plans to create a space tourism business using vehicles being designed by Southern California aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan.

But another wave of space-bound startups is flying below the radar. Many of these companies are aiming at the workaday business of space — building new, less-expensive rockets to lift payloads into orbit, or building high-performance, low-cost satellites for research or commercial purposes.

Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer

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