America Is on the Verge of a Spaceflight Revolution

Five rocket launches over the next year will change the way we think about space

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

The history of American spaceflight traces a long arc. Undoubtedly the peak came in the Apollo years, when men walked on the Moon and NASA dreamed of visiting Venus and Mars. The decades that followed had their successes — the Shuttle, the International Space Station, Hubble — but nothing that could compare to the glory years.

Just ten years ago, as the Space Shuttle made its final flight, the descent of that arc seemed complete. For the first time in decades America had no ability to send astronauts into orbit. NASA was forced to turn to an old foe, Russia, to keep access to space. Mars seemed further away than ever.

Now things look different. The star of American spaceflight is rising again, triumphantly. New space telescopes will soon be in orbit, eclipsing the power of anything sent before. NASA plans to build another space station, this time around the Moon — and then to land astronauts there once again. And Mars, long so elusive, might finally be in the grasp of America’s entrepreneurs.

The handful of missions that launch over the next year or so will be revolutionary. They will not just change the path of American space exploration; they…