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If commercial clients sign up in sufficient numbers, NASA plans to fly more than 400 shuttle missions in the next ten years. It has even considered subcontracting shuttle operations to an airline, and United Airlines has expressed interest. Farsighted planners are thinking about more ambitious roles for the shuttle, or its successor. In the future, such a spacecraft may carry work crews into orbit, where they will be left behind inside comfortable modules that could serve as building blocks for permanent space stations. As more components are shuttled up, these centers might begin to produce space goods, perhaps even utilize raw materials, as Gerard O'Neill suggests, from the moon or from asteroids. There would be no shortage of power for such enterprises; energy would come from the sun.
In the more distant future, such stations, like the great wheel in 2001: A Space Odyssey, could serve as a launch pad for journeys far beyond the earth, maybe to Mars. Interplanetary spacecraft assembled in earth orbit could be made of much lighter and less costly materials since they would not have to survive the stresses and friction of travel through the earth's atmosphere.
Even in the excited aftermath of Columbia's incredible journey, such schemes have the ring of expensive fantasy. Some people even find them disturbing retreats from the earth's own hard realities, including widespread poverty and hunger. But are they really only escapist dreams? At least one hard-nosed test pilot does not think so. Speaking after his return from space last week, John Young said: "I think we have a remarkable capability here. We're really not too far—the human race isn't far from going to the stars. Bob and I are mighty proud to have been a part of that evolution."
—By Frederic Golden.