When the century reached midpoint, those dreams began to be translated into fact. The idea of spaceflight gave birth to its reality, borne on the will to discover, riding the fire spawned by weapons of war.

Atop what were once intercontinental weapons, we rode the first primitive spaceships into orbit and then to the Moon and beyond. Our satellites were symbols then of a nations achievement -- along with other nations' claims to technological mastery, too.

All of the wonders the visionaries had claimed would rise from space technology began to shape our lives and shrink our world. Communications satellites linked the ends of the Earth and merged cultures. Computers and electronics put the collective knowledge of the human species at the reach of nearly every school in the civilized world -- and a little more than arm's length for those still struggling with the basics of light, warmth and well-being.

The images of the first generations of space adventurers made space travelers of us all. We followed the voyages of people named Gagarin, Shepard, Glenn, Armstrong and countless others who rode the fire into the heavens and into our collective memory. They built the stuff of history from the fertile ideas of Goddard, Oberth, Korolev and von Braun.

Those images will stay with future generations long after we ourselves have become history: the first exploding rockets showering debris off the Florida coast; astronauts squeezing into spaceships smaller than automobiles; robot explorers dropping down onto the terrain of the moon and Mars; humans learning to eat, live and work aboard cramped stations and spacewalkers flailing outside, on the silver hulls of Skylab and Mir.

Above all, the first images of our own blue Earth were sent back to us across the dark sea of space. Those luminous images humbled all humanity.

Now a new Space Age beckons America, with new technologies that even the great space pioneers never dreamt of. Constellations of navigation satellites promise to make it possible to never get lost again. Other spacecraft promise to create an overhead network in space that will link voice and data exchanges that will truly know no borders or limits. New generations will live under the protection of space satellites, which may one day be able to warn of asteroids headed our way.

For in the new century to come, space promises to merge with nearly every other facet of modern life to create a seamless, invisible link with every human. Space will no longer be a place, a program or an idea. It will be in essence, a necessity.

And the voyages of exploration will be even greater. For it is surely possible that before the new century fades away on Dec. 31, 2099, we will have seen the light cast off by other worlds, tasted the air and frozen waters from the ancient martian soils, peered directly into the vastness of black holes and alien solar systems. And, just possibly, come to truly understand for the first time, the most important space traveler of all: ourselves.

In that distant time, perhaps our descendants will remember the America of 1999, perched on the edge of an unknowable future. And cherish those stories and images of the first, beckoning space era we crafted long ago and which were now a part of historys shadow.

May our collective memory show that as the old century gave way to the new, we told the stories of the Space Age with wonder, with caring and, above all, with hope.

Those travelers' tales are our connecting tissue to the new era of space. For the privilege of telling the stories of space in and beyond our time, we say "thank you" to the pioneers who made it happen. And offer a welcome to all the pioneers yet to come.

L Envoy!