Duration: 57:58

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In Lost in Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a New Space Age, Greg Klerkx argues that ever since the triumphant Apollo missions, the Space Age has been stuck in the wrong orbit… and that NASA, the agency whose daring once fuelled the world’s space-faring vision, has been largely responsible for keeping it there. Down the years, NASA has ignored, belittled and actively quashed the one concept that could change the equation for the future of humans in space: human spaceflight as a free market activity. Despite this, a new Space Age is in the making led by dreamers, investors, inventors and even renegades from NASA itself. In his talk on September 9, Klerkx will explain why NASA is struggling to hold onto the space shuttle even in the face of two disasters, what it felt like to sit inside the history-making SpaceShipOne, and whether or not President Bush’s new mandate to go back to the moon is likely to succeed. He will also update us on the activities of the SETI Institute, an organization he was part of for more than five years, and the critical role that Microsoft has had in SETI’s post-NASA revival.