00:00It's hard to believe what can happen in 25 years.
00:04At the turn of the century, the only astronauts were through government programs.
00:08Space tourism was rare.
00:11And it wasn't until 2004 that President George W. Bush signed off on a law
00:16to put more focus on the commercial space program.
00:20The decade began with the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003,
00:30and it took a few years until the program was fully back on track.
00:35Expeditions also continued for uncrewed missions to explore other planets,
00:39including the first Mars exploration rover in 2004.
00:44The space shuttle era concluded in 2011,
00:47and the U.S. had to rely on Russia to provide rides for NASA astronauts
00:51to and from the International Space Station.
00:54Commercial space travel became front and center
00:57with NASA contracts awarded to build space taxis in 2014,
01:01with SpaceX at the forefront as the first private spaceflight company
01:05to send humans back into orbit in 2020 in its commercial crew spacecraft.
01:11Since then, new missions continue to arise,
01:14including both private and government-funded space travel
01:17for both astronauts and cargo to the ISS, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
01:28Dennis Tito kicked off the term space tourist
01:32as the first to head to the ISS in 2001 on his own dime.
01:37That was just the beginning of the crave to get into space.
01:42The desire to reach the stars made headlines in the last decade.
01:46Aerospace companies such as Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX
01:50sold seats on missions to spend time in zero gravity.
01:54And in addition to more suborbital and orbital trips,
01:58plans are underway for space hotels, a spacewalk, even balloon rides in style.
02:05The International Space Station is getting old,
02:12floating since 1998 and retiring at the end of 2030.
02:17NASA has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars
02:20to fund private companies for new models,
02:23and the quest is on to get the world's first private space station in orbit.
02:28Axiom Space plans to build its orbital outpost off of the ISS
02:32and dock its first module by 2026.
02:35Vast also has its hat in the ring to launch its first private space station in 2025.
02:41There are also private company teams working to build low-Earth orbit projects,
02:45Orbital Reef, and Starlab, with goals to be operational later this decade.
02:55Artificial intelligence is everywhere,
02:58and it's especially transforming space travel.
03:01Humans can only do so much while in orbit, and AI is helping fill in the gaps.
03:06It's been used to help with a variety of things,
03:08including navigation and operation systems, servicing, medical assistance,
03:13and identifying what's happening outside the spacecraft.
03:17On the ground, AI has also been used in developing and building designs
03:21for satellites, rockets, and spacecraft,
03:24and can play an important role in all the calculations.
03:32Speaking of other worlds, how about UFOs?
03:36They are still a hot topic both for the government and the public.
03:41In March, the Pentagon UFO Office found, quote,
03:44no empirical evidence, unquote, for alien technology,
03:48causing quite the conversation.
03:50This isn't the first study, and certainly won't be the last.
03:54There have been about 98,000 reports and growing over 20 years,
03:59cataloged by the National UFO Research Center.
04:07And the next 25 years?
04:09With the commercial space sector soaring
04:11and teaming up with other agencies from around the world,
04:14the progress will be substantial.
04:17Human expeditions will return to the Moon, and eventually Mars.
04:21Low Earth orbit will be packed with satellites,
04:24orbital outposts, space planes, and other spacecraft.
04:29There will even be more benefits to Earth
04:31from medical and scientific research.
04:34And, of course, the thought of vacations to space,
04:38or as a bucket list item,
04:40will be more of a reality than ever before.
04:43Space is no longer science fiction.
04:47This is just the beginning, and we are just getting started.
04:51For Space.com, I'm Meredith Garfalo.
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