Steve Verdon:

Compare that with this Lee Judge cartoon (whose opinion on anything (other than how bad the Royals suck) isn’t worth the cost of the ink to print it), titled: “SpaceShipOne — Spending over $20 million to win $10 million”. Talk about shortsighted. Did Columbus, Cabot, Balboa, etc., make a profit on their first journeys?

Now I’ll have to admit I’m not sure about which of these three made a profit but I do know that Magellan’s Expedition did. Despite losing one (or was it two ?) ships and most of the crew and, of course, the captain, they came back to Lisbon with a tonne of pepper. That was sufficient to put the whole voyage into profit. Which is of course the whole reason they were doing it.
There’s also this from the comments:

The first privately-financed voyage to the New World took place more than 100 years after Columbus.

I’d also argue a little with this comment. I’m pretty sure that Cabot’s voyage was privately funded by a group of Bristol businessmen. There were definately fishermen off the Grand Banks by the 1520’s, and rumours that the Basques had been going there since the 1450’s. Plus, of course, we know that the Vikings got to Vinlund and one would be hard pressed to state that those were Govt sponsored.