A remarkable example of what private funding can achieve: This group is entirely funded by donations and run by amateurs. Trying to achieve what the NASA achieved for truly astronomic costs. Just throwing out a few links and giving more information later on.
http://copenhagensuborbitals.com/ Site of the group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury Wikipedia page of NASA’s Project Mercury, similar in attempt to launch a human being on space in suborbital trajectory, for about 2.9bi$ (2010).