Reply #1: We acheived our goal [View All]

[pokerfan]

which was beating the Soviets meaning that we went for the wrong reasons. Our crewed space progam is in the process of being grounded. The STS is being retired next year with nothing to replace it for seven years according to the latest schedule. The Ares I looks dead on arrival so expect the schedule to slip even further. NASA seemed to work best when it had direction and clear goals. Today it seems somewhat adrift.

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,
(JFK at Rice University, 1962)

http://www.marssociety.org/portal/ZubrinTestimonyAugustine/">Transcript Of Robert Zubrin's Testimony Before Augustine Commission

"It's not a miracle... we just decided to go."
(Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell in Apollo 13)