I covered the first landing of the space shuttle in 1981. The first space ship. They did real work, hauling satellites to orbit, until the Challenger explosion in 1986. After that, it was busy-work and and increasingly boring. And the disintegration of Columbia over Texas in ’03 showed it was still dangerous.
I remember the shuttle-inspired first flush of private rocketry in the early 80s, the grandiose predictions that never came to pass. Now, with the inevitable retirement of the circa-1969 technology shuttles, the grandiose predictions are back:
“The future of space is in the hands of the guys behind Amazon, PayPal, and Virgin [and Google]. The force of competition will create endless possibilities and unimaginable technologies. No more talking about how the space program brought us Tang and Tempur-Pedic mattresses. We’re going to Mars, baby, in business class.”
Will this sort of thing now come true? Much as I wish it would, I can’t help doubting it. Time will tell.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
