the new space race has begun

The website spacefuture predicts that Space tourism will go through three phases:
1) a pioneering phase, where space travel will be expensive and available to a handful of people,
2) a mature phase as the cost goes down; and
3) a mass phase as space travel becomes available to the general public.
We have entered the pioneering phase.
Russia is making a killing on space tourism: tickets for trips into space are now sold out for the next two years. Tickets to visit a real Russian space station sell for about 21 million US dollars.

Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic has detailed its plans. Virgin, headed by the larger-than-life Richard Branson, will be the first private operater of space tourism. Spaceship one, a prototype, was completed and has made three flights. Another spaceship -"Spaceship two"- is being built in Mojave, California, to take people off the planet and back again for the sheer fun of it. Each flight will have two pilots and six passengers. Tickets will cost $200,000, but Virgin expects that price to drop over time.

Space tourism may ultimately lead to trips to Mars, Jupiter, and beyond, but trips into Earth's stratosphere are not the same as trips to Mars or other planets, and are certainly do not pose the same scientific or engineering hurdles. There is a discontinuity due to the vast distances between the Earth-Moon system and other planets in the solar system. This will require further advances in technology. However increasing demand will drive technological development. Furthermore, the science of space travel is proceeding apace independently of any pressure for tourism.

Australia and America recently agreed to a joint research operation into hypersonics (greater than five times the speed of sound) costing $50 million dollars. The research will be conducted at Woomera, in South Australia. Hypersonics are seen as a key to cheap space launches.
And research on humans living in space continues on the international space station.
Is this a worthwhile endeavor? Should we be putting our efforts towards something more noble, such as eradicating poverty?
These questions are moot: the technology exists, and from here, the movement into space is inexorable. Once technology comes into being, it is historically rare for the technology to then be lost. The typical course is widespread adoption, refinement, and use. That is the way it has been before, and in all likelihood is how space travel will unfold in the future. Man's future in space will mirror his history here on Earth.