Babystyle goes galaxy, indirectly

History was made today when the first privately built manned spacecraft left the Earth's atmosphere. SpaceShipOne, built by US aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, is mainly financed by by Microsoft Co-Founder and billionaire Paul Allen who also is one of the main investors of Babystyle.com (a.k.a. EStyle.com), the leading maternity/baby lifestyle brand (where my sweetheart Leslie works).
Allen has pumped more than $20 million into development of the rocket and the mother aircraft that carried it aloft. The amount is a far cry from the billions that the U.S. has spent on space vehicles. But he is not a new arrival when it comes to innovation, technology, space exploration – and spending his cash. Allen served as Microsoft's executive vice president of research and new product development, the company's senior technology post, until 1983. Today, he owns and invests in a suite of companies - a total of $28 billion in assets - with a portfolio focus on digital communications, new media, biotechnology, and entertainment. The investments include - besides Babystyle.com - the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers, Charter Communications, CNET, Drugstore.com, Fatbrain.com, Liquid Audio, Oxygen Media, Stamps.com, TechTV, TiVo and Ziff Davis.