  Recent data advances offer the exciting prospect of a first look at whether
dark energy has a dynamical equation of state or not. While formally theories
exist with a constant equation of state, they are nongeneric -- Einstein's
cosmological constant is a notable exception. So limits on the time variation,
w', directly tell us crucial physics. Two recent improvements in supernova data
from the Hubble Space Telescope allow important steps forward in constraining
the dynamics of dark energy, possessing the ability to exclude models with
w'\ga 1, if the universe truly has a cosmological constant. These data bring us
much closer to the ``systematics'' era, where further improvements will come
predominantly from more accurate, not merely more, observations. We examine the
possible gains and point out the complementary roles of space and ground based
observations in the near future. To achieve the leap to precision understanding
of dark energy in the next generation will require specially designed space
based measurements; we estimate the confidence level of detection of dynamics
(e.g. distinguishing between $w'=0$ and $w'=1$) will be ~1.8\sigma after the
ongoing generation, improving to more than 6.5\sigma in the dedicated space
generation.
