Is There a Space Renaissance?

In 19 58 we were exploding over a hundred megatons of fishing equivalent in the atmosphere year, just for military tests. So it was envisaged that this would take off from the surface of the earth, probably from nevada or from a barge out in the pacific using nuclear bombs for the ascent. I think we live in a sort of sad world where now, i mean, you can't get an airplane with a swiss army knife. That time the risks were seen much, much differently, for better or worse. The current supposed space renaissance is still just chemical rockets agains - not anything fundamentally new.