Prospects

With setbacks such as the malfunction of the Hubble Space Telescope and leaks in the hydrogen fuel lines of the space shuttle, the U.S. space program seemed less likely to attain its goals in the 1990s. In addition to the manned space station, goals for this decade had included construction of the X-30, designed to take off from a conventional runway and boost itself into orbit using powerful ramjet engines and the beginning of the construction of an international space station with Russia. On June 29, 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis docked with Mir, the first joining of American and Russian spacecraft since an Apollo capsule and a Soyuz capsule linked in 1975. The docking was an initial step in preparation for the joint effort to build a space station 110 m (361 ft) wide and 88.4 m (290 ft) long between 1997 and 2002. Supporters of the project say the collaboration will ultimately bring closer together the two nations which had competed with one another in the past.

The space station would allow American, Russian, Canadian, European, and Japanese scientists to conduct experiments in space. Other space-capable nations are still working on the shuttle concept. In November 1988, the USSR succeeded in launching and retrieving its first space shuttle in an unmanned test. However, more ambitious programs, such as the establishment of a lunar base or the on-site exploration of Mars by astronauts, were years from realization.

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