Rather than examining only the civil or military side of the U.S. space program, as have many books in the past, Space, the Dormant Frontier takes a unique look at the space program as a whole. Part of the book's treatise is that the two communities must stop ignoring each other if the U.S. space program is to move forward beyond being a science project, jobs program, or political football. How the program got into its current, semi-desperate state is also examined. The authors include information and analysis on the military and civil space programs, challenge the perspective of the Washington Beltway analyst with vested interests in the status quo, and make policy recommendations based on realism, rather than hallucination.