China’s success in shooting down one of its own satellites last January has given new energy to efforts in the United States to develop and launch more , and cheaper , satellites, the New York Times reports.

Significantly, the new approach to satellites is getting a boost not just from giant aerospace corporations but from small, entrepreneurial companies. Entrepreneurs have also been behind other recent efforts to move ahead in space, including the Ansari X Prize, the $10 million competition that put a pilot in space without government financing in 2004.

The efforts of the entrepreneurs are also seen as crucial to keeping the United States at the forefront of space technology as Russia, Europe and increasingly China become more technically adept.

“The world is moving to new uses of space, and our technology in the United States has not progressed because of the time and expense it takes us to do a mission,” said Robert Conger, vice president of Microcosm Inc., a small company that is working to perfect a low-cost launching vehicle at its factory in Hawthorne, Calif.

Making launchings cheaper and quicker would benefit both the military and National Aeronautics and Space Administration because critical satellites could easily be replaced if damaged. And, proponents say, such launchings could unleash a spate of educational, commercial and scientific uses of space that are not being pursued because of expense.

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