US President George Bush called for the US to return to the moon, but any program to get there won't see any real money until at least 2010, the projected date for completing the space station and retiring the shuttle fleet.

China is developing a reasonably successful space program, and has plans to go to the moon and put taikonauts on Mars. India is also lunar bound, with the appropriately named Chandrayaan-1 the likely first step. Meanwhile, Russia appears to be shaking off its space budget blues, with Roskosmos set to receive more cash now and in the immediate future, thanks to the booming Russian economy, government budget increases and its commercial ventures. Given the Russian ability to do pretty amazing things with sometimes laughable resources, and their complex relationship with China, we'll probably see a great deal out of that country in the near future.

Private space enterprises like Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites and his joint venture with Richard Branson, as well as Elon Musk's SpaceX are making progress as well. Heck, even Singapore and the United Arab Emirates are getting into it, investing in spaceports with http://www.spaceadventures.com.

So, the question is: should Nasa be worried? Should America?