Future Mission

Goals for the 2000s have included construction of the X-30, designed to take off from a conventional runway and boost itself into orbit using powerful ramjet engines. With setbacks such as the malfunction of the Hubble Space Telescope and leaks in the hydrogen fuel lines of the space shuttle, the US space programme seems less likely to attain all its aims. Although the space programme is making progress, more ambitious programmes, such as the establishment of a lunar base or the exploration of Mars by astronauts, are years from realization.