Just last week, at the 25th National Space Symposium, the theme was "The Next Space Age." This raises the question: What happened to the first Space Age? We know the first one started on October 4, 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite.

That single event not only birthed the Space Age, but also injected a shot of adrenaline into America's bloodstream. Within four years, in 1961, the nation's visionary leader threw down the gauntlet that would decide the winner.

With the backing of Congress and the public, President Kennedy challenged the Reds to the ultimate and decisive race, a race to put humans on the moon "by the end of the decade."

The nation was off to an exciting and action-filled competition that would lead to supremacy in the new frontier, space. The USSR had a head start, but the US had the drive, creativity and economic strength to support a winning team.

America did win and the race was over. But, what about the Space Age? Are we in the first or the second Space Age?

Future historians will better determine this, but all indications are that the first Space Age ended some time ago. Look back at the history of "Ages" such as the Iron Age and the Industrial Revolution.

It seems that such historic periods end as a result of two converging events: the "new" technology of the time reaches a mature, established, stable state; and new, societal-changing technologies become widely adapted. Consider the first Space Age.

Certainly, space technology evolved through the 1960s, during the Apollo Program and was refined in the 1970s with the development of the Space Shuttle. By the mid-1980s technological progress slowed and by the early 1990s the space industry and its technology were mature and stable.

Around the same time Internet usage began to spread, and by the end of the 90s, the Worldwide Web was making a major impact on daily living. Sometime between the mid-1990s and 2000, the industrial world fully embraced the "Information Age."

At the same time the space industry was showing its age. The public seemed to lose interest, government enthusiasm seemed to wane and the industry began consolidating. International players entered the market and the technological playing field leveled. Alas, the Space Age that we lived through in the 1960s and 70s is dead! Long live the Space Age!

Will there be another Space Age? No one yet knows. However, there are reasons to be optimistic. The world is currently in a financial crisis and a deep recession.

In fact, the next age may well be the "Financial Age," an age in which the world economy is being transformed into one that may re-invent monetary and economic systems. No one knows at this moment, but this will evolve over the coming months and years. In the meantime, space will likely take a back seat to the economy.

Now that you have the bad news, let's move on to the good news. The impact of the Information Age and the mature technology of the space industry should be thought of as an opportunity to synergize the new with the old. In fact, this opportunity has been already been recognized by a few innovators and advanced thinkers.

Computer technology is being integrated into space operations in many ways in order to deliver better services to more users. The old stovepipe culture of isolated space applications is starting to erode and more transparent systems are starting to replace them.

This is merely the beginning and we have a long way to go before the full impact is realized. Only after the new global economy has matured and stabilized will a new "Integrated Space Age" be realized.

This will be an "age" in which information and space technologies converge to create a truly transparent space infrastructure that will serve all users economically, efficiently and reliably.