Toward the Third Space Age

On the Verge of the Third Space Age

The next President will enter office in January, 2009 with a space program under his or her purview that is in transition. Since December, 1972, America's human space efforts have been confined to low Earth orbit, with exploration and scientific study beyond confined to robotic probes. However, in the wake of the Columbia space shuttle accident, President George W. Bush instituted the most sweeping change in space policy since President Richard Nixon approved the construction of the space shuttle fleet. In the coming years, by both Presidential directive and Congressional authorization, human explorers will voyage beyond low Earth orbit for the first time in a generation.

If the Apollo Program constituted the First Space Age and the space shuttle/space station era constituted the Second Space Age, the nation stands on the verge of the Third Space Age.

The development is taking place against another, perhaps far more important occurrence. In the summer and fall of 2004, a privately financed, built, and operated vehicle known as SpaceShipOne flew a series of suborbital flights to just over an altitude of 100 kilometers. SpaceShipOne, which was built by a company called Scaled Composites was flown as part of a private competition known as the Ansari X Prize. As a result of SpaceShipOne's winning the X Prize, a number of private companies have begun the development of space vehicles designed to take paying customers on suborbital jaunts. In the meantime, a company called Bigelow Aerospace has successfully orbited a prototype of an inflatable module of the type that will eventually become part of a private space station. Under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems program, two companies-Space Exploration Systems Inc. and Kistler/Rocket Plane are development space craft to take people and supplies to low Earth orbit. Even a large, mainline firm such as Lockheed Martin is contemplating turning its Atlas V rocket into a launcher of manned space craft.

The Space Shuttle and the International Space Station