Automating space launches

The final frontier is getting to be a busier place these days as more and more vehicles soar beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

Space launches are anything but routine, but they are becoming far more common.

Commercial operations such as New Mexico's spaceport are years away from creating a traffic jam. But the number of launches is rising steadily without them. Orbital launch attempts rose from 55 in 2005 to 66 in 2006, according to the Space Launch Report.