A three person Russian Soyuz capsul with wing-like panels extended, joined to the Mir space station. Past U.S. human spacecraft included Skylab , Apollo , Gemini , and Mercury . The only currently operational space station is the Mir . In the future, the completion of the Space Station will help continue to unite countries around the world in this international effort. Advanced Space Exploration Initiative is defunct.
Human exploration seems to be the current buzzword.
But while government and industry have done lots of studies on returning to the moon and going to Mars, human exploration has not yet been funded. These days, however, NASA is working more and more with other government agencies, such as the Department of Energy for spacecraft programs, and national laboratories, including Los Alamos , Lawrence Livermore , and Sandina National Laboratories. Many major aerospace companies participate in NASA's human space programs that include Boeing , Lockheed Martin , McDonnell Douglas , Northrop Grumman , and Rockwell .