The playing field for space exploration is changing. The old Cold War divide between the USA and Russia has long gone. There are now other players. China, India, Japan and Israel all have rocket programmes and can launch satellites, and Brazil is trying hard.

With America’s Space Shuttle fleet out of action, is it out of the race? Or has President George W Bush’s call to send humans to Mars put the US back in front?

Is space exploration primarily a political exercise, scientific exploration or something that’s useful and commercially important? Are we at the start of a new space age?

This four part series, presented by astronaut Jeff Hoffman, explores these issues.

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