'The Promise of Space' Paper by Thomas Gold, Director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Summarises the inspiration of manned flight from Sputnik 1 onwards, leading to the Soyuz-Apollo joint manned Earth orbit flight, and the subsequent disapointment in the general public. However, whereas before the science was in the background, now it can come into the foreground. Gold lists the possible applications; earth monitoring satellites, communication systems , space science and exploration. March 1977