JAXA's 2 recent splendid achievements, Hayabusa and Ikaros, have given me hope for one of it's other projects, a next generation super sonic transport without the noise and other environmental problems of the Concord by 2015. Imagine Tokyo to L.A. in just a couple of hours, or spending a long weekend in both Hong Kong and San Francisco. Boogles the mind!
But JAXA, if you're listening, what I'm really waiting for are sub-orbital flights so that I could go to London in an hour.