However, on the down side, NASA's highly visible launches and mission operations makes the agency a target for future terrorism. Concern about attacks have forced the civilian agency to adopt military-like security measures that restricts the flow of information to the public.

Once advertised months in advance, shuttle launch dates and times are being withheld from the public until absolutely necessary, while armed military fighter jets patrol the skies over Cape Canaveral before every mission begins.

So far, science operations aboard the space station and other NASA programs don't seem immediately threatened, but scientists in general are being asked to help battle terrorism.

Speaking in June at the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Policy Education, National Science Foundation director Rita Colwell said this "new era marked by the watershed events of 9/11 presents new directions for science and technology."

Increased research in all areas, space and otherwise, is needed.

"Every discussion about airline safety, contamination by disease, failure of communication links, poisoning of food and drinking water, assessment of damaged infrastructure and countless other concerns depends on our scientific and technical knowledge," she said.

In the meantime, 9/11's economic impact on aerospace has taken its toll. Industry giants such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin felt the effect of the attacks, with Boeing reporting a $700 million hit to its bottom line as a direct result.

When you consider the entire aerospace industry -- which includes aviation and space -- the overall economic loss in 2001 is estimated at $2 billion, John Douglass, president of the Aerospace Industries Association, reported to Congress in March.

An additional loss of $6 billion in 2002 and $7 billion in 2003 is forecast, Douglass said, noting those numbers do not include the financial loss to the airlines.

Future changes in the aerospace industry will depend on how much additional spending the government approves for things like a missile defense system, the potential deployment of weapons in space and any new space transportation schemes intended to assure the U.S. can launch the satellites needed to fight the war on terror at home and abroad.

What is definite is that space will continue to be critical to the nation's security.

"Whatever this nation does, wherever they do it, they're not going to leave home without us," Air Force Gen. Ed Eberhart, commander of U.S. Space Command. "The capabilities we provide in terms of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and global communication are very important."