Space exploration—an infinite frontier

BY MARY ALICE ROSE

THE US NATIONAL Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) marks its 50th anniversary this year. NASA was founded during the Cold War shortly after the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik, the first unmanned orbital spacecraft. That event catapulted the two countries, and eventually the world, into a "space race" that has continued in some measure ever since.

Over the last 50 years, advances in space exploration have included manned moon landings, the deployment of weather and communications satellites, projects in support of military objectives, development of reusable space shuttles, the launch of orbiting observatories and planetary probes, and the ongoing construction of the International Space Station.

The beginning of the space race also marked the launch of a debate in the public forum about the wisdom and benefit of investing monetary and intellectual resources into programs that some have considered of lower priority than addressing challenges we face on Earth. There has also been concern about threats from space-based military technology, along with worries about "space junk"—man-made debris in Earth orbit—that might collide with operational spacecraft, or fall into Earth's atmosphere and ultimately onto an inhabited part of the planet.

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