Ed note--we have a perfectly capable vehicle in a museum, but because of the people we have in Congress, NASA,adm we have paralysis. In going around the Internet you can find all kinds of proposals, we should go to moon, mars, astroids, etc, but as Mr. Karma stated it is utter futility.
Bottom line---China will be preeminent in space exploration.
Robert Karma
5 hours ago
The problem with have had with HSF since the heyday of Apollo has been the lack of political and national will to pursue an aggressive manned space program with definite goals like returning to the moon, establishing a moonbase with scientific and economic missions, a manned mission to Mars, etc. Once we successfully reached the moon and returned our astronauts safely to the earth the American people started to tune out and the Nixon Administration and Congress had other priorities. We lost Apollo 18, 19 & 20 due to budget cuts. It was one hell of a fight to even secure the Shuttle program and it was subject to numerous changes and compromises to finally get it approved and budgeted. Both political parties during their time in the White House and control of Congress have failed to follow through on several post-Shuttle plans for our manned space program which has led us to our current dilemma. Until the American people speak up and inform their government representatives in Washington that we demand a vigorous and assertive manned space program we should not be surprised that we will continue to flounder in the backwash of space exploration. Given the extreme partisan bickering in Congress we cannot trust them to function in any positive degree for the benefit of our manned space program. It is up to the citizens of this country to demand that our representatives step up and support our leadership in space with adequate long-term funding that doesn't get cut on a whim from budget year to budget year. Until then all of the brilliant proposals for NASA to explore and exploit space is just an exercise in futility.
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