In fact, of the 89 commercial launches conducted by the U.S. industry in the nine years since the industry's birth, 62 rumbled off the pads just up the coast at the world's most significant and historic launch site.

It is appropriate that the first U.S. commercial launch of this still-young year was history making. As the maiden flight of the Athena II rocket blazed into the sky from Spaceport Florida's Launch Complex 46, flawlessly placing the Lunar Prospector on its path to orbit the Moon, it graphically demonstrated several key industry trends.

It was the first launch of the Athena II, a new niche-filling vehicle developed by industry with its own funds, and it was the first launch from a state-sponsored, FAA-licensed commercial spaceport. It was also a NASA payload being flown on a commercially licensed vehicle and the first such licensed flight to carry a government scientific payload to another celestial body. This is a trend we also expect to continue.

Two major trends that will have some impact on operations here at the Eastern Range are industry growth and diversification. Revenues from commercial space operations outpaced those generated by government space activities in this country in 1996. In 1997, a record 17 licensed commercial launches took place and this year we could see 31.

Our projections of these launches show Cape Canaveral having not only a greater number of launches this year, but a significantly greater market share. Nineteen of 31 launches in our 1998 projection are slated to originate here.

We also are in pre-application consultations with Spaceport Florida Authority over their plans to incorporate Launch Complex 20 for the development of Florida's "launch on demand," or quick launch concept. It is our understanding that they will use that pad to support Castor 120 and smaller class vehicles. I expect we will amend their current Launch Site Operator License to embrace this pad, as well as LC 46.

The number and diversity of launches is also up this year at the Western Range and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. Growth in demand for launches is the common factor.

This growth continues to be driven by the market for communications satellites, but with a new variation. The established and still growing market for geostationary (GEO) satellites has now been joined by an exploding market for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations of satellites.

Cape Canaveral and the Eastern Range staked out its claim on a share of this business just a little over a week ago with the successful launch of the first four satellites for the Globalstar Big LEO communications constellation.

Earlier launches of the first Big LEO satellites, those of the Iridium project, have contributed to the increased commercial activity at Vandenberg and in the international market.

Just two weeks ago today, we opened our first FAA commercial space forecast conference, with the theme "Commercial Space Transportation in the 21st Century: Technology and Environment, 2001-2025." This gathering, attended by almost 300 people representing diverse interests but all focused on the future of commercial space, produced a great deal of information on what to expect in the U.S. and international commercial space launch business in coming years. Our Keynote Speaker was Lt. General Lance Lord, Vice Commander of the Air Force Space Command. He discussed the changing relationship between military and commercial space activity and the Air Force's evolving role as a facilitator of the growing commercial activity.

His very insightful remarks were followed by a panel addressing one of the hottest topics in space commerce, the pioneering efforts to create new, private sector, reusable launch vehicles. Senior officials of Pioneer Rocketplane, Rotary Rocket Company, Kelly Space and Technology and Kistler Aerospace detailed plans for the development and operation of a new generation of economical and reliable space-bound transportation systems.

While their technological approaches differed markedly, their goals were the same - to revolutionize the way in which small to medium payloads are flown into space.

My office is in pre-licensing consultations - a process we encourage companies to engage in with us -- with these and other entrepreneurial firms. The first of these vehicles could be in flight testing before the end of this year. I know Spaceport Florida is seeking to be the launch site of choice for one or more of these new launch suppliers, as well as the X-33 vehicle being developed by a partnership of NASA and Lockheed Martin.

The forward-looking joint project between Spaceport Florida and NASA to design and build an RLV hangar at the shuttle landing strip also adds a new dimension to local possibilities.

Our second conference panel took us even further into the technology of the future as two cutting edge government scientists presented information on technological advances and breakthroughs, including the possibility of using solar energy as a principal component in advanced propulsion systems.

Other highlights as we looked to the future included an update by Dr. Daniel Mulville, NASA's Chief Engineer, on NASA's ongoing planning of the agency's space transportation architecture of the future, including possible changing roles and payloads on the space shuttle and the utilization of newer reusable launch vehicles.

Other discussions included presentations about future space markets and efforts by organizations such as the X Prize Foundation to place people into space, prospects of generating electrical power in space for transmission to the Earth, and space tourism.

An International Market panel insight into how that market is changing, and changing it is.

Competitors are becoming partners. U.S. and Russian launch vehicles are jointly marketed. A major U.S. aerospace company joins with Ukrainian, Russian and Norwegian interests to offer a unique, mobile launch capability from international waters in the Pacific. Providers of advanced global communications and other satellite services are seeking to launch hundreds of satellites in coming years.

These and other thought-provoking presentations gave us much to ponder as we look at the role of AST as we move into the next century. Whether or not the specific projections and predictions made by these conference speakers are on the mark, it is clear that the world of commercial space transportation includes many changes as we look to the future.

New Technologies, new operational philosophies, new industries, are on the horizon. Whatever the demands, we are determined that we will remain flexible in our regulatory approaches in order not to over-burden or stifle innovations. To the extent that safety is our #1 mission, we will work with industry to improve and to clarify where we have safety concerns.

We also encourage regular dialogue with our current and potential licensees. This ongoing interaction helps us to stay abreast of industry plans so that we can know how to best meet their needs with finite AST resources.

As noted, communications has been the big driver of space commerce, with first GEO and now LEO satellites offering a seamless global transmission of voice, data and video signals, but what comes next? Space manufacturing, power generation, tourism, even mining of the moon, planets or asteroids? I am certain that there is another whole array of uses of space that, as we sit here today, we cannot even imagine.

However, I am certain that the next generation of aeronautic and aerospace engineers, rocketeers, and visionaries in America's classrooms are already dreaming about them.

At our conference, I asked attendees to imagine a world where access to space is as common, safe and affordable as air travel is today. Where people can travel to the mountains of the Moon with as little fanfare as we visit the Rockies at the end of the 20th century. Contemplate a world where these new types of vehicles create a revolutionary transportation system over which goods, services and ultimately people will travel to, through and from space. Where new products and perhaps new medical treatments result from commercial space activities.

As we explore these dreams and possibilities, as we make more and more uses of space, as the cost of space access lessens, I am certain that Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Station, Spaceport Florida Authority and the Eastern Range will have major roles to play in making our dreams and visions for space realities.