NASAs new Space Launch Initiative (SLI) is resetting the pinball machine on how best to lower sky-high prices to reach Earth orbit. Once again, the space agency is trying to muster the technology, budgets and backing to move beyond the space shuttle to a second-generation reusable launch vehicle.

At the 3rd annual NASA Aerospace Technology Enterprises "Turning Goals into Reality" conference held here May 15-17, looking for an on-ramp to the highway to space is not easy, say space policy experts, engineers, a former astronaut and a budgetary bean counter.

One concerted effort by NASA and industry was started in 1996 -- a partnership that blossomed under the now defunct X-33 program. That $1.4 billion project was scrapped earlier this year, riddled by cost overruns and technical shortfalls.

Were doing something wrong. Were not selling our space program very well... We have got to sell the space program and demonstrate the need for a highway to space. Weve done a very poor job of explaining the importance and the need for reliable, routine access to space."
-- Michael Coats, VP for reusable space transportation systems, Lockheed Martin

NASA is now banking on the SLI as a research and development effort to create a versatile space booster, serving both government and commercial clients. Competition between companies should lead to at least two competing architectures, with a winner picked by mid decade.

The nations aging first-generation reusable system, the space shuttle, is expected to remain in service until 2012 -- or until a second-generation system is ready for liftoff. Meanwhile, new monies are being put into the shuttle program to upgrade its systems and operational safety.

The hope is to produce a vehicle 10 times cheaper and 100 times safer than todays rockets. Such a revolution in launchers can open up the space frontier in the 21st century, claim NASA rocketeers.