Unitech Composites, an AGC Aerospace & Defense company, manufactures structural and non-structural laminate products for application in the military, industrial, and commercial sectors. Among its contributions to aeronautics and astronautics, Unitech Composites formerly provided materials to NASA.

2.  Unitech Composites, an AGC Aerospace
& Defense company, manufactures
structural and non-structural laminate
products for application in the military,
industrial, and commercial sectors.
Among its contributions to aeronautics
and astronautics, Unitech Composites
formerly provided materials to NASA.

3.  Since the summer of 2011 and the final flight of
the space shuttle, the future of the U.S. space
exploration program and its manned
spaceflight program has remained uncertain.
Most see the demise of government-sponsored
space exploration as a direct result of
budgeting difficulties associated with the
economic meltdown of the late 2000s. A major
motivation for the Apollo program was the
United States' compulsion to outperform the
U.S.S.R. in space exploration. However, no such
political urgency exists to spur crewed
spaceflight today.

4.  The 2013 government shutdown and the
furlough of most NASA employees make it
seem more certain that the space program will
have to rely on private funding and
engineering, a final hope that has not
satisfactorily materialized. However, if sufficient
political motivation and funding occur in the
future, space exploration stands at the brink of
even greater achievements. The advances of
the International Space Station in low Earth
orbit and NASA’s development of a heavy
booster space launch system capable of
carrying astronauts farther than ever before
would bode well for the future.