Future of manned space flight?

Yeah, I know what you mean. I consider the Space Shuttle to be the best achievement of humanity thus far and it really hurts to see them scrapped like that. I mean, it could carry humans to space with a payload of several thousand pounds and return to Earth and land like an airplane to be repaired and refurbished for its next use.

I'm not too sure about any private companies with the capabilities to provide manned space flight though. I hear that President Obama might lift the heavy restrictions that only allow the government to work on space flight. If commercialization is successful, we could have many private companies working on their own versions of effective space transport.

The WhiteKnight/SpaceShipOne combo was a significant achievement for private companies although a far cry from orbital velocity. With the current trend and information they're releasing to the public, we might be safe in assuming that the WhiteKnightThree/SpaceShipThree combo will be capable of reaching orbital velocities. I think that's the closest we'll get to private space flight.

Lockheed Martin had a project for the U.S. called the X-33 that had its funding cut. They're continuing it privately though under the name VentureStar. This seems to be the most promising replacement for the Space Shuttle System and the solution for an SSTO although we're far away from the technology required to perfect it.

Personally, I think the future of manned space flight is bright...as long as we can open up the business to private companies. I don't think we'll be doing this for a few years though, or else NASA might have to share the government funding. I think private companies should make the parts that NASA will purchase, but they should all group together for the really important missions; like mining the moon for He-3 as well as establishing a base there or the manned mission to mars.

I hope that answered your question!

The first answer pretty much hit it on the nose. Being English I've got my fingers crossed for Branson will keep working until he can make space travel an every day reality and that means following through and Whight Knight/Space Ship.

Also in the news recently was Obama's decision to close some of the current NASA plans and throw open the doors to the commercial sector so that NASA can concentrate on more interesting things than taking supplies and people to and from the space station.

Here are a coupld of articles/web sites

http://www.commercialspaceflight.org/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8321353.stm

Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic has just revealed 'Spaceship 2' with Virgin Galactic. He seems to be the forerunner in the race to space. He has a heck of a lot of money and a heck of a lot of contacts. If anyone can make it happen, it's him.

Don't give up on our program just yet - just wait until you see the new Constellation series rockets.

Stef.

shall we ask bill Gates and Warren Buffet for loans to keep issues going. they could stick with the course of Paul Allen (he's determining to purchase quite some radio telescopes to do SETI). they could help us get again to Moon, perhaps even to Mars. I heard a sturdy communicate on radio on the prompt about firing many gasoline cylinders from a hydrogen cannon right here in the international, putting "gasoline stations" into low orbit to be utilized by utilising spacecraft that ought to vacation a lot farther, with a lot less value.

The only one of which I have in mind right now is Space X.