Could Space Be the Next Frontier?

Could space be the next commercial frontier? When you look up at night at the stars, what do you see? Many now see the sky as the next commercial frontier. When John F. Kennedy gave his well known speech regarding space travel on September12, 1962, he stated “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”(The History Place, 2010). JFK had no idea that his speech would inspire a nation to be one of the leaders in space exploration. The path of space exploration was supported by thousands of people. This backing would lead the United States to send John Glenn into space. As stated in Astronomy “When John Glenn launched into orbit February 20, 1963, he wasn’t just making history – he was paving the way for all those who would follow.”(Andrews, 2012). By then NASA was only a three-year-old program, taking baby steps to prevent accidents, but to still put a man on the moon within the decade. NASA’s first program was the legendary Mercury program. Mercury Seven was a one-man space capsule that set many records and put John Glenn and three others in orbit. After Glenn made his three orbits of earth, this feat was followed only seven years later by a team of astronauts successfully landing on the moon. The next major step to make travel to the moon possible was the Gemini program. This was designed to test in-orbit space walks, docking techniques, and orbital maneuvers. These would be the key to sending a landing module to the surface of the moon. This allowed Edward White II to claim the title of the first American to ever walk in space on June 3, 1965. The Gemini project would make six more trips into space for a total of 12

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