Starting in the fifties the United States and the Soviet Union became involved in a great race to land the first man on the moon. The two great superpowers both committed vast sums of money on their programs, huge efforts, and the pride of their nation were similarly devoted to the race. When the United States won the race with Apollo eleven no one thought it would be the end. Surely a new race would begin to settle the moon. Or perhaps the next race would be one for the first manned mission to mars? No one thought that Apollo was the end of the race. Not when the government and science fiction authors had spent a decade or more telling how the solar system would soon be opened up to mankind.

      

Yet that is what happened. Following the end of Apollo NASA`s budget was cut and all realistic thought of further manned exploration ceased as the space race rapidly wound down. Having accomplished their aim of putting a man on the moon the USA did not want to put further money into the project. And the Soviet Union, humiliated by their inability to win the race to the moon were not at all keen at the idea of kicking of yet another costly race to put men temporarily onto another world. Not when the same funds could be put into the production of tanks, airplanes, submarines and ICBMs.

Since then space agencies have turned their efforts elsewhere. Now the only manned missions to space are near orbital missions to space stations such as the International Space Station. And the only way scientists explore the solar system is through the use of unmanned probes. While no doubt these missions have greatly expanded our knowledge of space they do lack the appeal of manned missions. 

But why in the forty or so years since the end of the space race has no further missions such as Apollo been launched? Well a simple answer is cost. It is incredibly expensive to send something as heavy as a manned spacecraft into orbit. Several thousand dollars per kilo. Thus for any further progress to be made in space we need to bring the cost down significantly. And that I believe is how the next space race will develop. 

In the following posts I intend to write a history of the future of space travel. Starting with the race to establish cheap earth to orbit vehicles.