The Year in Science

An image from the European Southern Observatory
shows a three-galaxy merger known as the Cosmic
Bird or the "Tinker Bell Triplet".


When historians look back at 2007 - the 50th anniversary of the start of the first space race - they may well pick this date as the start of a second international space race.

The past year's developments may not have
brought one event as dramatic as Sputnik's launch back in 1957. But
when you start looking at the highlights, the big picture points to a
complex international effort aimed at pushing forward on the final
frontier.

The past year provided plenty of examples of
scientific cooperation as well as strategic competition in space. Which
trend will dominate in 2008? That's one of the big questions ahead.

2007 marks the 10th anniversary for our annual
Year in Space roundup, in which we ask msnbc.com's users to help us
pick the top developments of the past year and the top trends for the
year to come. Last year, I think the voters got it exactly right:
You said this year's big trend would be the proliferation of
international space missions, including the first lunar probes sent out
by China and Japan.

Those missions signaled a friendly space race
aimed at scientific exploration. But the past year brought more
worrisome developments as well, headed by China's shootdown of one of its own satellites in January. Beijing has insisted that its space aspirations are totally peaceful; nevertheless, the incident sparked fresh concerns about future anti-satellite battles.

Highlighting the strategic value of its satellites, the Pentagon conducted its own tests of a satellite rendezvous system this summer and moved forward with plans for a new generation of spy satellites. Russia's leaders, meanwhile, harbored suspicions about what the Pentagon was up to.
Speaking of Russia, that country's space program appears to be slowly rebuilding as well, fueled by oil money as well as renewed national pride, in part spurred by the Sputnik anniversary. Forward-looking highlights include last months announcement on the construction of a new Far East spaceport and the upcoming Russian-Chinese mission to a Martian moon.
When the subject turns from global competition in space to cooperation, the best symbol is shining in the sky most nights nowadays. The international space station grew brighter over the past year, thanks to newly installed solar panels - and the orbital outpost is due to become even more international next year with the arrival of Europe's Columbus orbital laboratory and the first pieces of Japan's Kibo lab.
The space station isn't the only place where
science is going international: Ground-based and space-based astronomy
is an increasingly international game as well, illustrated by the
picture of a "cosmic bird" gracing the top of this page. The picture,
showing a rare triple merger of galaxies
650 million light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius, was
taken by a telescope built in Chile and managed by Europeans. The
resulting image was fleshed out using additional data from South
Africa, Finland and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Every week brings astronomical revelations
from international collaborations - ranging from the two most famous
U.S.-European space probes, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Cassini
orbiter at Saturn, to what's essentially a scientific Olympic village
of telescopes on Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano.

So where does the United States stand in this
arena? For now, NASA is still setting the pace - but the agency's top
officials are looking over their shoulders. Administrator Mike
Griffin's recently observed that "China will be back on the moon before we are," and America's space effort is facing what could be a troubling spaceflight gap between the scheduled retirement of ths shuttle fleet in 2010 and the first flight of the Orion crew vehicle in 2013 or later.


Now for the top trends of 2008:

• Assault on Mars: The Phoenix Mars lander
  is due to touch down in May, beginning a search for water and life's
  other building blocks in the Red Planet's north polar region.
  Meanwhile, the never-say-die Spirit and Opportunity rovers seem likely to start their fifth Earth year of exploring the Martian surface.
  
• Fixing Hubble: NASA's final Hubble servicing mission, set for August or later, could be the most-watched shuttle flight ever.
  
• Space station spurt: If future shuttle flights follow
  NASA's timetable, the international space station will grow to
  include those European and Japanese laboratories by the end of the
  year, setting the stage for doubling the outpost's crew capacity in
  2009.
  
• New Space gets real? The dawning of the age of commercial passenger space travel has been two years away
  for at least a decade now. Will the next year bring the rollout of
  an actual passenger-worthy spaceship? Or will the new age still be two years away in 2009?
  
• Next step at Saturn: The
  Cassini orbiter's four-year primary mission at Saturn is due to end in
  July, and everyone expects the mission to be extended for a closer look at two Saturnian moons: Titan, which has mountains and hydrocarbon lakes; and Enceladus, which boasts geysers of water ice. Don't forget to vote for Saturn's greatest hits by Dec. 30.
  
• ... And more: A total solar eclipse will draw astronomers from around the world to the Arctic, Russia, Mongolia and China on Aug. 1. After this year's partly successful test flight,
  SpaceX is scheduled to launch its Falcon 1 rocket on what could be its first orbital flight in early 2008, and then give the larger Falcon 9
  its maiden launch later in the year.