The Space Shuttle Co1umbia’s brilliant performance in its first spaceflight has opened imaginative vistas for application of the technology in a “new era of space conquest.” Never before had astronauts flown a space ship from orbit to an airport landing. The feat has accelerated talk of expanded space use for defense, telecommunications industry purposes. and furthering mankind’s knowledge of the solar system. I resident Reagan said the Columbia adventure ”puts new worlds within closer reach and more knowledge within our His economy-minded administration is expected to focus more on practical applications – notably defense purposes e than on long-range goals such as breakthroughs leading to future interplanetary travel. Under Reagan’s budgetcutting program. $168 million is to be sliced from the fiscal 1982 space transportation budget of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as proposed by former President Carter. But that still leaves $3.1 billion A and this does not include Pentagon spending in space. said to rival the NASA program now. The Columbia. biggest craft ever put into orbit and the first with wings. has been described as a cross between a spaceship and an airplane designed as a space-going freighter that will make 100 or more round-trips beyond the earth. Another shuttle. the Challenger. is under construction in Califomia and work should begin on two more shuttles in the next year or so. looking to the w0rld’s first fleet of spaceships. Militarilyo CoIumbia’s first obvious use would be to provide a comparatively cheap. efficient means of hauling equipment into space – such as spy. navigation and picturetaking satellites. One published timetable has the Air Force launching its own spacc planes from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Calif. by October. 1984. Four or five shuttles could be making flights by 1985. Communications businesses are excited about the space shuttle. News accounts say U.S. and foreign concerns already have signed up for space on shuttle flights programmed in the next five years. The triumph of Columbia and astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen as well as the entire space program has given America a new lift. as have previous space spectaculars. The nation must continue to stay in the van of space technology e and the emphasis on practical applications being stressed by the Reagan Administration seems a wise course in the years immediately ahead.