Space, just mite be the final frontier.

For the past decade or so the space shuttle has been an example of mans ingenuity and curiosity. However more recently the space program has faded into the back of the minds of many Americans, these days space shuttle missions are ~mundane~; heck I bet most of you reading this couldn't name two current astronauts without googeling or wiki. The Space Shuttle itself, officially known as STS or Space Transportation System is about to reach the end of its operation lifetime. In 2010 the Shuttle will be decommissioned and join the likes of other cold war technological marvels which include the likes of the Grumman F14 and SR 71 Black bird just to name a few. Unlike these other technologies NASA actually has no designed replacement that is ready to take over STS services and unlike a defense contractor no one really wants to fight for it either; I.E there is no X prize to save space exploration, no F22 raptor. NASA expects to have a replacement by 2015 and has actually implemented a *pay to ride* with companies such as Virgin Atlantic to piggy back on their commercial space ventures. For someone like myself its quite disappointing to hear something like this, I grew up with the shuttle and it will be missed; it was indeed an icon for our time. NASA just publicly released mock ups of what they think the next space vehicles will look like and honestly it isn't very promising but in today's economic environment I can see why they'd be rolling back to cheaper technologies. On average a single space flight costs 500 Million dollars, that's half a Billion dollars. So hopefully by 2010 NAHA, the national aeronautics, hoping to get into space association wont have to make that name official. Currently the private sector is the one experiencing the most growth as far as the space race goes. With google announcing their Lander Prize and with names like Richard Branson on the tips of every ones tongue it won't be long before a new commercialized space agency is formed, the UPS to NASA's USPS.For more info on anything you read here, please see the links below.
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2007/09/lunar_xprize_re.html
http://www.google.com/sky/
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle
http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2008/07/09/space-shuttle-gets-its-final-assignments