Science Times special on Space Age

The New York Times today has a giant section devoted to discussing the "Space Age", including how much of a space age this period (post-Sputnik to now) has really been. It's pretty interesting, discussing a lot of the motivations behind the work done in 1960s, as well as what the future of space exploration might be and what countries could potentially lead it. What do you think the next steps should be? What role should Astronomical concerns/desires have in setting space policy, US or otherwise? This second issue was not discussed much in the Times today, so I'd be curious what you thought of it.