Recommended Engines of Creation : The Coming Era of Nanotechnology by Eric Drexler

I propose to double the federal commitment to the most critical basic research programs in the physical sciences over the next 10 years. This funding will support the work of America's most creative minds as they explore promising areas such as nanotechnology, supercomputing, and alternative energy sources. [emphasis added]

After 3 Billion Miles, Craft Returns Sunday Bearing Cosmic Dust Older Than the Sun

In a blaze across the night sky, it should be a spectacular homecoming at the end of a very, very long journey.

After covering 2.88 billion miles over seven years, the Stardust spacecraft is nearing home with its minute but precious cargo: samples of what are believed to be the oldest materials in the solar system.

Tucked away in what looks like a giant fly swatter of a collector is dust swooped up from a close encounter with the comet Wild 2 and an accumulation of particles picked up in three circuits of the Sun.

“This has been a fantastic opportunity to collect the most primitive material in the solar system,” said Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington, the principal investigator for the mission. “We fully expect some of the comet particles to be older than the Sun.”

Comets, icy bodies that normally inhabit a region near Pluto's orbit, are made of material many scientists believe is virtually unchanged since the Sun and the planets formed about 4.6 billion years ago.

Studying comets not only provides clues to how the solar system was created but could also help explain how certain materials and conditions combined to form life, researchers said.

Space tourists must be screened to ensure they are not terrorists, according to proposed regulations from the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The draft report's suggestions aim to prevent a terrorist from destroying a spacecraft or using it as a weapon.

However, the report has no strict proposals on the health of any would-be space tourists.

The suggestions will affect Sir Richard Branson's enterprise [the very silly-monickered company “Virgin Galactic”] which aims to launch people into space this decade.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is attempting to regulate the commercial space industry in a bid to ensure minimum safety standards.

It was the twentieth century's highest achievement — literally. When Neil Armstrong stepped out from Eagle, the Space Race was officially over: while America and the world celebrated the achievements of Apollo, the Soviets brooded in secrecy over the smoking wreckage of its own N1 lunar rockets.

NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake

The space shuttle and International Space Station — nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades — were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday.

In a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board, Griffin said NASA lost its way in the 1970s, when the agency ended the Apollo moon missions in favor of developing the shuttle and space station, which can only orbit Earth.

[. . .]

The shuttle has cost the lives of 14 astronauts since the first flight in 1982. Roger Pielke Jr., a space policy expert at the University of Colorado, estimates that NASA has spent about $150 billion on the program since its inception in 1971.

Only now is the nation's space program getting back on track, Griffin said.