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The future of U.S. space flight

9:06 AM, April 30, 2012

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US space shuttle Discovery sitting atop NASA's 747 shuttle carrier aircraft flies over the National Mall in Washington,DC on April 17, 2012 as it arrives from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be displayed at the National Air and Space museum near the US capital. (MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images)

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  • Michael Belfiore: Author, journalist, and speaker. He has written for the New York Times, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian, Air & Space and Financial Times.

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NASA has just retired its space shuttle program. What does it mean for the future of American space travel and innovation?

Journalist Michael Belfiore argues that privately funded rockets are the future of space. With Elon Musk's private SpaceX capsule set to dock with the international space shuttle next month, he may be right.

"We're seeing the biggest change in the way we get to space since the Apollo days, and it's even more exciting then that because it will be sustainable," Belfiore said. "Commercial has business plans and customers and that's more significant."

Investors and undergraduate inventors are now scrambling to make their mark in space, with even Google offering a $20 million for the first non-government team to get a rover on the moon.

Belfiore will join The Daily Circuit Monday as we discuss the shifting landscape in space travel.

"We've gotten used to the idea that private companies can't go to space," he said. "What we're finding is the technology is mature enough; the same basic rocket design has been around for 50 years. NASA is really good at developing good technologies and research but not so good at running them. The role of government with space innovation should be to hand off technology to companies who are good at efficiency."

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