The United States space program is getting a facelift as more and more commercial companies are jumping into the space exploration bandwagon.

For years, federal funding for the United States space program has declined and commercial enterprises are out to fill the void the federal government had left.

Like Us on Facebook

Last week, a panel of private sector experts at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. convened to discuss the trend of private and commercial enterprises that are moving toward space exploration.

At the start of the panel discussion, Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at Brookings Institution, said that the U.S. space program is undergoing dramatic transformation.

"This is no longer your grandfather's space program," West said.

The panel discussed how commercial firms have been increasingly supplying the International Space Station (ISS) with cargo, launching satellites into space and developing possibilities for private space travel and tourism.

Panelists discussed various policy proposals on how it could strengthen the U.S. space program. They have also reviewed 'long-shot' missions they think NASA might consider in the coming years.

These developments were entirely different when the frontiers of space were a sole monopoly of governments. Before, U.S. manned and unmanned space flights and missions were exclusive to federal government funding.

Now, the 'market' of space is being filled in by entrepreneurs and commercial interests.

John Roth, vice president of business development for Sierra Nevada Corporation's space system, said that there is a paradigm shift from state to private interests on matters of space. He calls it 'old space versus new space."

Roth said there's a proliferation of private companies that are interested in space travel tourism that NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense find no interest in. He stressed there's a massive push for space economic activity among private companies.

Roth's company is NASA's current partner to fly Sierra Nevada's Dream Chase spacecraft into orbit. It is set to fly in November 2016 from Space Coast located in Florida.

Another private company, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, has a contract with NASA worth US$1.6 billion. The company is tasked to develop a rocket and capsule that would deliver supplies to the ISS.

This public-private partnership was reached courtesy of NASA's Commercial Resupply service program.

Tagsold space vs new space, privatization of space, space travel, space exploration, NASA, Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, commercial space flights