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The year 2004, for all its turmoil involving the Middle East and the domestic presidential election campaign, also may go down in history as the beginning of the second Space Age.
In contrast with the first -- which formally began in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, by the former Soviet Union and touched off a desperate and largely secret race for space supremacy between Russia and the United States -- this new, potentially golden era of exploration has been signaled by two distinctly positive developments.
First, on Jan. 14, President George W. Bush ordered a fundamental redirection of U.S. space policy, requiring NASA to phase out the space shuttle program and the bulk of its involvement in the International Space Station. Instead, the agency will pursue a long-term plan to return humans to the moon -- to stay -- and to push out into the solar system.
Second, on March 23, the Opportunity rover, which as of that day had spent exactly two Earth months exploring the Martian surface, transmitted data back to mission controllers indicating the planet once held a large body of liquid water -- perhaps an ocean.
Opportunity's discovery represented a historic moment in space expeditions. Up until the time the rover actually observed the clear signs that water had flowed on Mars, the solar system contained only one proven home for lakes, rivers and oceans. Now, there is at least one more planet that can provide water for astronauts in the future -- and there is unconfirmed evidence of several more.
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