Editing Spaceflight (section)

== Applications ==
{{Further|Human presence in space}}
[[File:S74-15583skylabsunview.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|This shows an extreme ultraviolet view of the Sun (the Apollo Telescope Mount SO82A Experiment) taken during [[Skylab 3]], with the Earth added for scale. On the right an image of the Sun shows a helium emissions, and there is an image on the left showing emissions from iron. One application for spaceflight is to take observation hindered or made more difficult by being on Earth's surface. Skylab included a massive crewed solar observatory that revolutionized solar science in the early 1970s using the Apollo-based space station in conjunction with crewed spaceflights to it.]]
Current and proposed applications for spaceflight include:
* [[Earth observation satellite]]s such as [[spy satellite]]s, [[weather satellite]]s
* [[Space exploration]]
* [[Communication satellite]]s
* [[Satellite television]]
* [[Satellite navigation]]
* [[Space telescopes]]
* [[Space tourism]]
* Protecting Earth from [[potentially hazardous object]]s
* [[Space colonization]]

Most early spaceflight development was paid for by governments. However, today major launch markets such as communication satellites and satellite television are purely commercial, though many of the launchers were originally funded by governments.

[[Private spaceflight]] is a rapidly developing area: space flight that is not only paid for by corporations or even private individuals, but often provided by [[List of private spaceflight companies|private spaceflight companies]]. These companies often assert that much of the previous high cost of access to space was caused by governmental inefficiencies they can avoid. This assertion can be supported by much lower published launch costs for private space launch vehicles such as [[Falcon 9]] developed with private financing. Lower launch costs and excellent safety will be required for the applications such as space tourism and especially space colonization to become feasible for expansion.