Humans should be there
Here it is 2011 already. The ISS is finished, cupola and all. The shuttle program has ended, and commercial operators are gearing up to build smaller transports to ferry astronauts back and forth. Our unmanned missions have accomplished an impressive array of feats. These include the New Horizons speeding past Saturn, the DAWN mission circling and photographing an asteroid. The Voyager probes are still returning data from the very boundaries of the Solar System. The Messenger mission to Mercury returned pictures and data about that hot place. And the MSL science rover is going to be launched to Mars shortly (nov 25th) to give us more detailed info about the Red Planet. A Soyuz has just delivered three people to the ISS to rotate crew. When I first started this space page, in 1996, there was no ISS, and no Americans riding on the Soyuz. Progress indeed!(that is also the name of the Russian resupply freighters of course).
I don't update this page very often. Want to share my enthusiasm of spaceflight more than provide up-to-the-minute news - other websites are far better suited for that purpose. The NASA site is one good place to go.
For a full range of statistics on the ISS, visit this site.
There are a variety of unmanned missions that are providing useful data about the Solar system. The aforementioned Voyager 1. Some other missions include the Rosetta mission by the ESA, a ten-year mission to rondevous with a comet. This will send a probe to actually land on the comet and analyze the materials contained therein. Rosetta was successfully launched in March, 2004. The Dawn mission to two major asteroids is now orbiting Vesta. New Horizons is speeding towards a meeting with Pluto, due to arrive in 2016 or so. The Cassini super-probe has arrived in the Saturnian system, and is returning some stunning photos. The Mars Oddysey craft is orbiting the red planet and taking many detailed photos and readings. The MER Rovers are crawling over the Martian surface, cutting rocks and taking pictures, soon to be joined by the Mars Science Lab rover. Already, curious spherical objects have been seen for the first time. More evidence of past presence of water has been found. The Ulysses craft keeps tabs on the Sun, and the Space Telescope keeps returning stunning pictures of the deep universe. The folks working on robotic space exploration are busy these days. Many more missions, both NASA and ESA, are in the queue. For frequent details on all of these other missions, visit spacedaily.com
Manned Space plans are heavily centered on the International Space Station. This has been completed, and is being utilized for various scientific studies. The next logical step after ISS completion seems to be a small geosyncronous or Lunar colony. With present funding uncertainty this is a roll of the dice. Hopefully one day, a colony will be constructed that will attain self-sufficiency in materials - but this is a very long time off. Right now, funding is very tight, although discussions of a human crew visiting an asteroid seem floated about. Private efforts at space exploration are critical right now (2011).
Another recent development of interest is the Chinese success with a Manned Spaceflight program. All of their hardware has been tested out, and they are training astronauts. Their launch of a manned crew of one took place a couple years ago. Now they have launched a mini-space station and are perfecting docking procedures. They recently started work on a fourth space-launch complex, in the southern part of China. Their future plans include a visit to the Moon and a permanent space colony. Perhaps one day their efforts can be combined with the rest of the international community for a truly extraordinary human colony somewhere. Humanity is destined to visit, and eventually, colonize the entire Solar System. We will look back on these first small steps with pride and nastalgia.
NEW - Pictures from All Over the Solar System
Commercial Spacecraft will one day take us there!
All about Space, all the time SpaceDaily
A fact sheet on the International Space StationYahoo! group dealing with Space Exploration and Science. Galactic Library
And last but not least, a very fine Startrek club website, Starbase 17 in Des Moines, Iowa.