Space Tourism
I do have the clear impression that the next major leaps forward will be made not by any country or government, but by an entrepreneur. Note that our space shuttles are horrendously outdated by any standards, and particularily on the logarithmic scale that charachterises modern technology. We haven't made a change to them in decades, while for the relatively tiny X-Prize, a completely new vehicle was built independantly and from scratch, and shown to operate safely. Space tourism, I suspect, may become quite popular among the rich; after all, not everyone can say they've been in orbit (or if things advance quickly, even on the moon).
Sanity is relative.