The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ready to blast off to the ISS, the issue that caused a aborted takeoff last time should be fixed now. One of the engines was not functioning properly and this necessitated an aborted takeoff in order to avoid a catastrophe. This spacecraft is the first private spacecraft to take off from Earth and rendezvous with the International Space Station and deliver goods to the space station. It is amazing that we have come this far in terms of private enterprise having the capability to take over space travel from NASA. Now that the Space Shuttle has been retired, this means that the private enterprise missions are the best way to ensure our future in space.
I hope that we will go to Mars sometime in the future, that is the goal we should be working towards, of course significant technology is required to travel to Mars, but this is 2012 and that sort of technology is within our grasp. But first we need to reach the Moon again and see about building a base there first. There was a plan by Dominos Pizza to construct a Moon base pizza shop, but who would be frequenting a shop on the Moon? I think it was just a publicity stunt by the pizza giant for more attention. Can you imagine a pizza store on the Moon? They would need to be shipping the raw materials up all the time, it would cost more than they would make.
Newt Gingritch has promised a Moon base by 2020 if he is elected, but I am not sure if that will eventuate. http://www.securitronlinux.com/uncategorized/newt-gingritch-promises-moon-base-by-2020/. This is most likely a publicity stunt like the Dominos pizza Moon store. I would love to see a Moon base, but with the current trillion dollar spending on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, it is not definite that anything worthwhile will happen that would actually benefit mankind.