What if... the space community, industry, and organizations, said:

"today, we are parking the space shuttle, we are stopping construction of the space station, and even the use of rockets will no longer be recommended..."

"today, we are stopping the old programs. We know how rockets work. We won't use them anymore. We know how to build a space station. We won't do that anymore. We had a good run with the space shuttle, we will keep the fleet in a museum for posterity. We will remember all the work we've done, but we won't do it any more..."

"today, we are starting something NEW. Totally new. We are going to select among the most promising concepts, some of which may be only science fiction.... we will select one project, one which in concept seeks to move beyond what we could ever hope to achieve with rockets and shuttles and microgravity labs..."

"today, we will select a new idea, and we will throw in its direction the total resources that we have dedicated to the space program in the past.... instead of a few researchers publishing a paper now and then, we will have thousands of people from every industry dedicating millions of manhours toward its progress.... "

"today, we have decided to advance the idea of a Skyhook. At present it seems like a crazy idea, but we think it holds the key to unlocking the vastness of space for us all. This idea is radically new. It is unfamiliar. It is multifaceted on an equal scale to the original shuttle program, and perhaps more.... but it is not the same thing!

"It is not the same thing. It is more grande. And it will increase space access by ten thousand fold over present methods. Or at least we will find out if it can!"

"While our competitors develop old rockets that compete with ours, we will explore this new idea, develop it, and like the Apollo program, we will see how it performs for real!"

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Opinions on doing the unfamiliar?