Space The New U.S. Space Program

A move of the U.S. space, since the early 21st century, id related to the terms 'Space 4.0' coined to represents the evolution of the space sector into a era of interaction between governments, private sector, society and politics, and related too to 'Industry 4.0,' which is the unfolding '4th industrial revolution' of manufacturing and services. The recent evolution of the US space program is also due to a budgetary restriction of the funds available to NASA or to a development of the skills or interest in the exploration, of private companies with which the agency usually worked. The termination of the Space shuttle, which allowed access to the ISS, also has made the United States dependent on Russia, which is strategically tricky and has led the Americans to accelerate the search by private companies to return to a national access. Over a 30-year period, NASA, who was the order-giver, became a partner. However, NASA considers that it has always considered, since the beginning of its existence, that space activities could be open to a form of commercialization (weather satellites, TV, telecom, etc.). The entrance of the private sector in access to the ISS, by competition between private firms, has lowered costs. NASA keeps controlling technologies used by private partners. NASA eventually reserves itself the exploration part of the solar system. By the beginning of the 21st century, the USA, in terms of space, mostly lived upon the Space Shuttle program, a program initiated by the 1980's. There thus was a sense of a change and modernization needed in the field. The recent decisions took their origin in January 2004, when President George Bush set new goals for the U.S. space and wanted to give a new momentum to U.S. space programs. The Space Shuttle was to be retired, a new manned spaceship constructed, the ISS complete as American astronauts were to be back on the Moon as soon as by 2015, and eventually Mars. 'Mankind [was ]headed into the cosmos,' President George Bush said. The sole realisation however was the Ares 1-X test flight on October 28th, 2009, focusing on the first stage of the Ares I, one of both new U.S. launchers of the 'Constellation program.'

A generic view of the new U.S. space program as of early 2012 with NASA commercial partners focusing upon low Earth orbit, and NASA upon deep space exploration. picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based on documents NASA

Beginning by 2008 the Obama presidencies decided a new series of NASA launchers and capsule, the 'Space Launch System,' or SLS, with a first flight scheduled for 2017. Obama also introduced the concours of private space companies both for unmanned and manned flights, of which to the International Space Station. Also, instead of various nations racing against each other, international cooperation was the new motto, or the idea of a global space economy generating revenue. As soon as by 2016, NASA’s partnerships with commercial cargo and crew providers were involving more than a thousand companies across nearly the whole of the USA as privateers were aiming at the low earth orbit

Lastly came the Trump presidency since 2017. It keeps support and expand public (the SLS system)-private (low earth orbit, the ISS) partnerships, is scheduling to install a lunar gateway in a cis-lunar orbit in 2024 to bring astronauts back to the Moon -- or the 'Artemis' project -- and then Mars as the U.S.A are worrying to fall behind on the final frontier. The European ESA agency participating into the operational costs of the ISS, it will also provides for the new 'service module' to NASA's SLS proper Orion capsule. Three privates companies will lead the development of lunar landers, the Blue Origin, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and finally Alabama-based Dynetics. For the past few years before 2020, NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) has modified and upgraded Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft. The guiding principle behind the upgrades and modifications has been to make the area a clean pad, one with no launch support structures on top, which will allow a variety of rockets to launch from the pad. Basics that every rocket needs are in place, such as electrical power, a water system, flame trench and safe launch area. The other needs of individual rockets, including access for workers, can be met with the towers, such as a mobile launcher. Assembly Building (VAB) is undergoing modernizations to host the 36-story-tall SLS as accommodations are being made too to support a variety of spacecraft, with state-of-the-art command, communication, control and power systems needed to perform testing and verification prior launchers are rolled out to the pad (inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, installation of 10 levels of work platforms has been completed to support the SLS and the Orion crew spacecraft). NASA's two mobile launcher platforms (MLP) are being revamped to serve a variety of next-generation launch vehicles. The huge steel structures, which acted as launch bases for the Apollo/Saturn program and every space shuttle mission, will serve as the platforms that launch the next American-made vehicles to space. The Trump decisions somewhat, on the other hand, were marred by a militarization of space around Earth or a will to privatize much the use of extraterrestrial ressource

The lastest translation into reality of the new U.S. space program, a mix of private companies and NASA, unfolded by May-June 2020. NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, from the historic Launch Pad 39A on Saturday, May 30th, by 3:22 p.m. EDT using the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft to ferry two NASA astronauts to the ISS. The launcher's first stage came back to Earth by its own means, and landed on a marine platform. After the retiring of the Space Shuttle program by 2011, the USA had to rely upon Russian Soyuz craft to get to the ISS. The other contender to carrying NASA astronauts to the ISS is the Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, which unluckily failed its first uncrewed test flight by last December 2019. That Space X test flight from end-to-end (launch, in-orbit, docking and landing operations) is paving the way for the SpaceX launcher and capsule certification for regular crew flights to the ISS. For operational missions, Crew Dragon will be able to launch as many as four crew members and carry more than 220 pounds of cargo. keep updated here with the latest data about the SpaceX flight